Fantasy Baseball Tonight 5/26; Wieters, Fernando Martinez, and more

Matt Wieters will finally be joining the Baltimore Orioles on Friday according to GM Andy McPhail. Not much more to say here. Wieters is an elite prospect that you definitely want on your team, even if you already have a good catcher. He seems like he will be the kind of guy who will succeed right away, and even if you already have a good catcher, you either will have a great player in your UTIL spot, or some great trade bait.

The New York Mets have finally placed Jose Reyes on the Disabled List. But with that bad news comes some exciting news. They have called up their super prospect Fernando Martinez. Just listened to an interview here on 1050 ESPN Radio with SNY's (Mets channel) Ron Darling, and Darling said that Martinez would play everyday in right field. Ryan Church has been placed on the 15-day DL which opens up that spot for Martinez. He is a guy that we have been hearing about for a long time here, even though he is only 20. Martinez is an elite prospect, and you could have room for himi on your team. You can always email me back if you want me to evaluate your situation and let me know who you would drop. In 41 games at AAA this season, Martinez is hitting .294 with seven homers and 26 RBI. He doesn't bring you much speed though.

Zack Greinke is just out of his mind. He threw another complete game, and allowed only one run. Greinke is now 8-1 and his ERA is still a ridiculous 0.84. He struck out eight, and for the fourth time this season, he didn't walk a batter. What more is there to say about Greinke at this point? He is awesome, amazing, Cy Young favorite, and if my wife was going to cheat, perhaps it would be OK if it was with him. Maybe that last one was a bit much, but the rest is right on the mark.

Nolan Reimold connected on his third home run of his major league career in his 12th game of the season. Reimold is now hitting .261 with six RBI over that time. I continue to have a lot of hope for Reimold on the short term and the long term, and if he is available, I would evaluate what you have and if he can help you.

Kris Medlen was not very good again, although he was better than his first time out. OK, so he faced Tim Lincecum and that is no easy matchup, but Medlen was unable to get a win. He pitched 5.1 innings, allowed four runs, walked two, and struck out three. He needs to continue to improve if he wants to stay in the major leagues, but my guess is that he would get another shot the next time his turn comes up.

For the second consecutive outing, Max Scherzer struck out ten hitters. After not getting off to a good start, Scherzer has been much better of late. On Tuesday, he pitched seven innings, allowed two runs, didn't walk anyone and struck out ten. Scherzer has always had incredible potential, and now it seems that he is starting to live up to it. Check to see if he is available, and if you can afford to find him a spot on your team.

Carl Pavano has shockingly been not too bad this season. It is going to take some time to get his ERA under control since he gave up nine runs in just one inning of the season, but he has been fairly effective in the month of May. He had possibly his best start of the season on Tuesday. He allowed just one run over seven innings, and struck out six. He allowed three runs or less in five of his six starts, and struck out 30 hitters over that time. I'm not convinced that he will continue this, but as a spot starter against bad teams or injury replacement he might not be a bad play. He is now 5-4 on the season, and that ERA is down to 5.50.

Is it possible that the Mets' second best starter is Livan Hernandez? He is now 4-1 after a complete game in which he allowed just one run. Hernandez also struck out a season high six guys. He has only allowed more than three runs on three different occasions during the season,and has been incredibly consistent for the Mets. I'm not 100% sure that I would be picking him up in my leagues, but I have picked him up for one start here or there a few times during the season. Only in injury replacements or for one time starts would I be adding Livan.

Brad Lidge finally was able to nail down a save without allowing a run or a hit. Lidge came in to get the final two outs against the Marlins to record save number nine of the season. Regardless of his struggles, the Phillies have to much time and money invested in him to just cast him aside. They will probably try to put him in better situations over the next few days to try to get him back on track, but he is still Philadelphia's closer.

Jon Lester was cruising along and looking good, and then fell apart allowing five runs in the fifth inning. Lester was able to pitch six innings, and struck out four, but he continues to disappoint his owners. His ERA is still over 6.00, but I continue to wait for the good stretch to start. Don't give up on Lester, I see an extended hot streak in his near future.

New Feature

For those of you who are regular readers, or even new to the site, I would like to offer a new service. I am starting a mailing list. Sometimes I see news during the day, but I wait until this nightly article to pass it along to you guys. Prospects coming up, injury news, closer movement, etc. Just send me an email to fightingchancefantasy@gmail.com with “Mailing List” in the subject line and I will add you to the list. Then, whenever I find news that I feel is breaking and important, I will send it to you as soon as I find out about it. Hopefully this is something that you all will find valuable to make a possible move before your competition.

Also, you can now follow me on Twitter for more updates. Go to www.twitter.com/fightingchance.

Attention League Commissioners! If you are looking to spice up your league some, go and visit Fantasy Sports Trophies. Tom Harkins has put together a great site with all kinds of different trophies to give the winner of your league something besides just bragging rights. There are trophies for fantasy baseball, football (check out the Beer League Fantasy Football Trophy), basketball, hockey, and auto racing. I invite you to take a look at the site and try them out.

I’m also going to start mentioning the Fantasy Windup with Steve Gardner over at the USA Today again. His blog is updated many times each day, and is always covering the stories you are talking about when it comes to fantasy baseball. Yesterday he had a great post about the five most frustrating players to own in fantasy baseball. Go vent your frustrations on the message board.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome at fightingchancefantasy@gmail.com. I guarantee a response within 18 hours. Also, don’t miss the “Fantasy Baseball Tonight” podcast four nights a week from Monday-Thursday. The Big Show on Wednesday is co-hosted by Todd Farino of fantasybaseballsearch.com, RC Rizza of junkyardjake.com and myself, Ryan Hallam at fightingchancefantasy.com. To hear the show go to www.blogtalkradio.com/the_true_guru. You can also hear me weekly on the Tuesday Night show. Join me with Jeff Mans every Tuesday night at 10pm EST for all the news, free agent pickups, minor leaguers, and injuries. A can’t miss if you plan on winning your league.