Fantasy Baseball Tonight 5/29; Hot Streaks, Cold Streaks

Alexei Ramirez had three more hits tonight, and has now raised his batting average 36 points over the last ten days. He also drove in two more runs, bringing his season total to 22. I would say if his owner was impatient (and chances are he was), and he is available in your league, I would pick him up. He might not reach last year's numbers, but it looks like that awful slump is over.

Matt Wieters made his long awaited major league debut tonight, and let's just say they haven't started his bust for Cooperstown just yet. He has been the most hyped prospect of the year, and through one game he is 0-4 with a strikeout. But don't freak out over one game, Wieters should be a stud, just be patient. I know all of you who recently traded away are secretly (or not so secretly) laughing up your sleeves.

Luke Scott hit another two home runs on Friday, and now has ten on the season. I've already gotten an email wondering if Scott should be picked up. Allow me to say this. If you are dropping someone who is severly slacking or have an injury, I would definitely pick up Scott. He should easily top 20 home runs. However, this particular email was referring to Nolan Reimold. I would not do that. I would not drop someone like Brad Hawpe. Like I said, Scott has ten homers on the year. Well, five of them have come in the last three days. That means he hit five in the other 28 games he has played. He is a good player, just don't fall in love with a hot streak.

Dontrelle Willis got knocked around some on Friday, tarnishing some of the great story that is his comeback. Unfortunately, I think there will be many more days like this upcoming for Mr. Willis. Like we talked about on the Tuesday podcast of Fantasy Baseball Tonight with Jeff Mans and myself, we agreed that we needed to see much more success from Dontrelle before we declared him back, or even picked him up on our rosters. Unless you are in a deep league, or in dire need of pitching, I would not want to pick up Willis.

While he hasn't been bad by any stretch, Ted Lilly had his first real strong outing in a while. I do like Lilly to be a part of your rotation, as long as he isn't one of the top couple pitchers on your staff. Lilly allowed just one run and struck out five over seven innings, running his record to 6-4 on the year. He is one of the more underrated pitchers in baseball. He always gives you good innings, rarely is hurt, has a good strikeout rate, and usually has a better than average ERA.

Edwin Maysonet has been filling in for the injured Kaz Matsui at second for the Astros, and has been doing quite well. In fact, tonight he went 4-4 with a homer and two doubles. He was mostly an average player in the minors who showed good speed in the lower levels. Matsui should be back within a few days, so this isn't someone you should be following.

Someone who has NOT picked it up is the Rangers' Chris Davis. He was 0-7 in the doubleheader today, and struck out six times. He now has 32 hits and an unbelievable 77 strikeouts to go along with a .194 batting average. He has three hits in his last eleven games. What am I trying to say? I think it might be time to look for a replacement for Davis. Things have gotten really bad.

Brad Lidge picked up a save tonight, and that is now two in a row without incident. Lidge didn't even send his owners looking for sharp objects tonight, as he retired the Nationals in order with two strikeouts. For the sake of those of you who have him, hopefully that "rough patch" is behind him.

Clayton Richard was solid again for the White Sox and is looking more and more like a viable fantasy option. He isn't a dominant strikeout pitcher, but is pretty efficient. He was 12-6 with a 2.46 ERA in 20 starts in the minors last season, so this good pitching isn't a fluke. He is already 25, so not a young prospect, but you can't argue with his results. I would consider adding him in the right situation.

Josh Outman continues his great season under the radar, as he allowed three runs over 6.2 innings and whiffed nine. He continues to improve. He has been going deeper into games, he has been striking out more guys, his ERA for the year is just 3.06, while his WHIP is 1.19. He had a pretty decent minor league career too. I am also starting to suggest him as a bottom of the rotation kind of pitcher, and definitely an injury replacement. The only problem is the A's aren't that good, and he won't get a ton of run support.

Injury News

Joey Votto left the game early again tonight, and this ear infection or whatever is wrong with him is causing havoc on his breakout year. It is so hard to suggest what to do with him at this point. You want to play him, but you can't afford to have him to continue to do this. The safe play is to hold him out of your lineups until you see him play back to back games.

Brett Myers will need surgery on that torn labrum in his hip, and could miss the entire season. No date has been set for the surgery, but he is looking at anywhere between 13-18 weeks for a full recovery. Therefore, it is time to let go of Myers.

Ryan Ludwick returned to the Cardinals lineup on Friday and didn't record a hit in his first two at bats. Get him back into your lineups immediately. He was having a great start to the season, and his return will hopefully also kickstart Albert Pujols back into the ultimate fantasy player. He has also suffered from the loss of Ludwick.

Hideki Kuroda will return to the Dodgers' rotation on Monday against the Diamondbacks. I'm not the biggest fan of Kuroda, but he is a useful fantasy pitcher as the last man in your rotation. If you are waiting for him to come off the Disabled List to carry your pitching staff, you will be sorely disappointed.

Jorge Posada returned to the Yankees' lineup tonight and was 2-3 with a double off of Cliff Lee. If he was dropped during his time out, I would definitely pick him up unless you have an elite catcher. Posada was doing great before his latest injury, and his first game back was encouraging that he could jump right back on the horse.

Mailing List

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.

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.