Fantasy Baseball Tonight 5/7; Slow Starters Picking Up, Fast Starters Slowing Down

I am getting a lot of emails of people who are considering letting go of, or trying to trade Matt Holliday cheaply. I have to say I'm not sure why. I know he got off to a horrible start, but lately the guy has started to hit much better. Today, Holliday was 1-2 with his fourth homer, three RBI, and two walks. In the last ten games, Holliday now has four homers and has driven in ten runs. The guy is a perennial All-Star, why are you trying to get rid of him? Hold tight on Holliday, or if you feel the need to trade him, don't sell him cheap. His perceived value should be back to his preseason levels.

Another guy who is back on track is Prince Fielder. Big Prince got off to a real tough start, but he is hot now. Tonight against the Reds, Fielder was 3-3 with a double and three RBI. Since May 1st, Fielder has raised his batting average nearly sixty points, hit two home runs, and driven in eight runs. He was likely your second round pick, or perhaps early third, and it appears he is on the way to bringing you that value.

Add Jay Bruce to the hot list. Bruce homered today for the third time in five games, and now has eight on the season. You would like to see him get his average higher than the .269 he is now, but he has raised it nearly 20 points in the last five days. This young stud has an incredibly high ceiling, and I would like to have him on all of my teams.

Johnny Damon is certainly making the most of the jet stream that flows through right field at the new Yankee Stadium. He connected on his seventh homer of the season tonight. Not only have six of his seven homers come at home, but five of them have been to right field where the ball seems to fly out of. Damon's career high in home runs is 24, so even though they seem to have this launching pad, I don't think Damon can stay this hot for too long. In my opinion, he is a great sell high option.

Unfortunately for his teammate Mariano Rivera, his night was not as good. Rivera came in the ninth inning to try to hold a game tied but gave up back to back jacks to Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria. Not only has Rivera now given up as many homers this year as he did ALL of last year, but this was the first time in his entire career that he gave up back to back home runs. Not a banner night for the Yankee closer.

Last bit of Yankee news. It has been confirmed that Alex Rodriguez will be rejoining the team tomorrow night when they travel to Baltimore. Get him back into your lineups immediately. A-Rod was able to return one week ahead of the original timetable. Now let's see if he can produce, because boy do the Yankees need him.

Royals' DH Billy Butler has also started to his since that two homer game on April 29th. With his two hits on Thursday, his average has jumped over 40 points, and he has driven in nine of his twelve runs this season. If you have him, he might be worth putting into your starting lineup at this point. If you don't, I wouldn't pick him up yet, but it is getting close.

Bengie Molina continues to be one of the more underrated players in fantasy. Not only does he have pretty good stats, but he plays catcher where there are very few good options. But he still fell to very late in most drafts. Molina had three more hits today, including two more home runs. He is now hitting .310 with seven home runs, and has driven in 27 runs. That is incredible production at any position, never mind catcher, and he is still available in a couple leagues I am in.

Tim Wakefield continues to get it done, but I'm not buying. On Thursday, Wakefield allowed two runs over six innings, he did only strikeout three and walked four batters. But his ERA now sits at 2.92 after six starts. But he hasn't had an ERA under 4.00 since 2002, so do you really think that this is the year he "breaks out"? At age 43? Either try to trade Wake, or just be ready when this dream ride ends.

Same thing with Matt Cain, although he is younger. Cain is a 3.50 ERA and up guy throughout his career, and walks way too many hitters. He has continued to offer the free passes, but it hasn't effected him much yet. Cain moved to 3-1 with an ERA of just 2.61, with his six shutout innings on Thursday. He has been a sub-.500 pitcher for two seasons, and while that might turn around, Cain is due for some rough outings in the future. Now might be the time to move him.

Cole Hamels is due to start tomorrow for the Phillies. Hold you breath Hamels' owners. Hopefully he can get through the outing without any crazy injuries.

Armando Galarraga had his second consecutive rough outing, and you have to wonder if this is more of what he is going to be. I don't think he is going to give up five runs every time out like he did tonight, but that ERA under 2.00 just couldn't last. Expect Galarraga to produce very similar numbers to what he did last season.

A's rookie Trevor Cahill finally collected his first win of the season, even though he had allowed two runs or less in five of his six starts. On Thursday, Cahill allowed only one run over seven innings, and struck out four. He has great potential, and was a pretty good strikeout pitcher in the minors. However, so far he hasn't struck out many, and walked a whole host of hitters. He will have his good and bad days.

Jered Weaver threw a complete game tonight, and is looking pretty decent this season. He has had a couple of rough outings, and hasn't struck out a ton of hitters, but he should be solid all year. He isn't someone that I would go targeting in a trade however, I don't see that rookie year coming back.

So, my second softball game was tonight, and it was much better than the first. Our opponents' starting pitcher couldn't throw strikes to start the game. We batted around in the first inning, and I walked twice during the frame. Ten pitches, I never even took the bat off my shoulder. I don't like to walk, but if you are going to hand it to me, I'll take it. I also popped up, hit a solid single, and stole two bases. So, with the 1-2, I now sit at 3-5 on the young season. It was also my debut at third base. I've played the outfield the entire five years I have been on the team, but with our 3B moving away, and a glut of good outfielders, I said I would give it a try. The first ball that came to me was traveling at about 400 miles per hour. Needless to say, it went through my legs. Second chance was a line drive that was either going to go through me, or I was going to catch it. Luckily for me I caught it. Third one was a ball that I should have gotten to, but it veered off of my glove. But we have a shortstop with good range and he got the deflection and made the play. So, not horrible, but far from great either. But since it was the first time I had ever played the position, I'll give myself somewhat of a pass. The final score was a laugher, 15-5. Stay tuned next Thursday for the next game.

Finally, even though she would never see this, Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife Kristin. I won't say how old she is today, but both numbers are the same, and she isn't 11, 22, 44 or 55. Anyone who suggests she is older than that is just gross.

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 Gurus Show” every Wednesday night at 10pm EST on Blog Talk Radio. The show 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. The Fantasy Baseball Scouting Report is also back! 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. I also just met the people over at Baseball Trade Rumors and I invite you to visit their site. They have a page for rumors for every major league team, constant updates on the latest rumors, interactive polls, and overall some great content.