Fantasy Baseball Tonight 6/23

Jhonny Peralta homered for the second time in three games, and now looks like he might be rounding into shape. He homered for the second time in three games, and now has eight hits in his last five games. He still has a ways to go to get anywhere near the stats he had last season, but ne no longer looks like someone you should drop. In fact, if you need shortstop or third base help, Peralta should be a solid option going forward.

David Huff had his best start as a pro on Wednesday, as he threw eight shutout innnings against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had been showing some improvement, allowing just three runs in each of his last three previous starts. He was ranked as the eighth best prospect in the Indians organization coming into the year, but struggled at AAA in '09. He wasn't an elite strikeout pitcher in the minors, but his stats were fairly impressive. In pieces of four seasons he was 20-9 with a 2.95 ERA, with 229 strikeouts in 253 innings. Huff is worth a flier if you are in need of starting pitching, or could be a good spot starter against favorable matchups. At worst, at least keep your eye on him.

There are a handful of Toronto Blue Jays that I don't believe in, no matter what kind of season they are having. Marco Scutaro hit his sixth homer of the season, but it was his first since April 30th. His career high in homers is nine, and while I expect him to eclipse that, he won't do it by much. He has rarely been a full time player in his career, He is certainly not peaking at age33. Rod Barajas has had a few good seasons in his career, but he is another guy who has generally been a part of a platoon during his major league career. He hit his seventh home run of the season, but if he is able to get past 15 I will be very surprised. Scott Rolen has a longer track record of success, and his his fifth home run of the year. It isn't that I don't have faith in Rolen's abilities, but he hasn't played more than 115 games in the past two seasons. As he gets older I don't gain more confidence that he will be on the field all year long.

David Price did not pitch well again, and I'm not sure exactly what is his issue. Price allowed five earned runs (ten total) over 4.1 innings, walked two, and struck out two. He is now 1-2 on the year, with an ERA just under 4.50. He is not going deep into games, he is walking too many and not striking out enough. Seasonal leagues I might try to capitalize on his name and see if you can still get a great trade for him. You likely will have at least one person who is drooling over his potential. Not saying he won't live up to the hype, but if it isn't a keeper league, the risk is limited. I still wouldn't consider dealing him in a keeper league. The ceiling is just too high.

Tommy Hanson threw 5.1 shutout innings against the Yankees on Tuesday, but he continues to struggle with his control. He did strikeout four, which is good, but walked five.......not so good. However, Hanson is now 3-0 with an ERA just over 3.00 in his first four starts. Do I need to tell you to keep starting him no matter of the matchup? I didn't think so.

Chien-Ming Wang was likely good enough to remain in the rotation again, but he fell to 0-6 on the season after allowing three runs over five innings and struck out four. Wang was not horrible, but not great by any stretch, and it is hard to say what New York should do with him going forward. This is a guy who has won 19 games twice in his career, so you have to believe that there are better days ahead of him, but from a fantasy perspective you can't keep him on your team right now. The guy fantasy players all want in the rotation, Phil Hughes, threw two hitless innings in relief of Wang, and continues to pitch well no matter what his role is.

Matt Wieters connected on his second home run, and is now hitting .262 on the year. He has driven in six runs in his last five games, and is starting to look like he might be worth all the hype that he was given before the season started. In my opinion, he is someone that you can even count on now, even in seasonal leagues and I would feel good with him as my only catcher. I believe that he will soon be the star he was projected to be.

Hideki Kuroda has never been a guy that I have had much confidence in, but he nearly threw a complete game on Tuesday. He was one out away from finishing the game, but when he allowed a run he was removed from the game. Kuroda is now 2-3 on the year, with an ERA just under 4.00. He is getting far more strikeouts in 2009 than he did last year, but he isn't someone that I would keep on my roster. He could be an OK start against the Pirates, Nationals, or Padres, but not a guy I hold on my roster.

Troy Tulowitzki hit two homers tonight, one day after I endorsed him as a solid shortstop on an everyday basis. Hopefully you jumped on him if it was possible yesterday, but if not, today's action should give you enough confidence to make the move. He is now up to twelve homers on the season.

Again, there will be no post on Wednesday, as I am traveling to Citi Field to see my Cardinals take on David Wright and a bunch of guys I've never heard of. OK, maybe that's not true, but have you seen the lineup the Mets are forced to play with all of their injuries? I almost feel bad for them, but not really. We are all fighting for playoff spots, and if the Mets lose a few extra games, perhaps that's enough for the Cards to get the wild card if they can't win their division.

I also will be missing the Wednesday edition ("The Big Show") of the Fantasy Baseball Tonight podcast, but this is certainly not one that you should miss as the great Cory Schwartz will be a guest on the show. For those of you new to the site, Cory is from mlb.com and always doles out great information. Definitely a must-listen, and I'm disappointed he will be on the week I am out. So, check it out, go to www.blogtalkradio.com/the_true_guru to listen at 10pm EST Wednesday.

Mailing List

I'm not going to stop bringing up the mailing list until I get a day where I don't get a request to join it. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, when I find news earlier in the day I will send an email to you about whatever it might be. If you were on the mailing list you would have found out about the callups of Matt Wieters, Fernando Martinez, Nolan Reimold and others. The trade of Nate McLouth, and injuries to Jose Reyes, etc. This mailing list is your way to get a step up on your competition. Anyone who is on the list, please leave a comment below on whether you think that you have benefitted from the list. Send an email to either fantasybaseballtonight@gmail.com or fightingchancefantasy@gmail.com and put Mailing List in the subject line.

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 the info and craziness we can pack into one hour. A can’t miss if you plan on winning your league.