Carlos Marmol Entering the ninth inning in a save situation, Marmol converted, but not before allowing Scott Podsednik’s first homer of the year and sixth since 2004. It was Marmol’s third save of the season to go with his major...

Joakim Soria: Quietly Soria is developing into one of the top closers in the major leagues, a perfect 12 for 11 in saves with a stingy 0.84 ERA. His skill set; 10.6 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, and a 49% GB%, completely...

First Pitch: Splitsville Part II As promised earlier in the week, we’re back with the second edition of “Splitsville”. After taking a look at Team Batting Splits, which should aid in making pitching decisions for your fantasy team, we’ll take...

Alexi Casilla- MIN- Hot- Casilla has been on fire since being inserted in the lineup to fill injury holes. He is hitting .340 with 12 RBI and 7 runs in 12 games. A major factor in Casilla’s success has been...

Ted Lilly - Walking to the Cubs game yesterday, I knew it was going to be "one of those days." The stiff wind straight over my head in the bleachers spelled trouble for my boy Ted Lilly who is a...

Jorge Campillo – Entering play yesterday, Campillo had a .86 ERA and .830 WHIP, and he was downright awesome again in his third start of the season yesterday. He allowed just one run (the only run he has allowed in...

Santiago Casilla: Casilla, who has been out with a strained elbow ligament, is on schedule for a return in the middle of June. If healthy, Casilla has shown the kind of skills; 10.2 K/9, 1.8 BB/9, and a 47% GB%,...

Jamey Carroll- CLE- Hot- Carroll went 2-for-3 yesterday to extend his current hitting streak to 6 games. In that span he has gone 8-for-20 and raised his batting average from .172 to .231. Carroll’s Batting EYE has declined during the...

Oliver Perez - Another disappointing outing for Perez. He's now just 2-for-5 in QS this month with a 5.58 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, and an atrocious BB/9 of 5.87. While walks and wildness has been his weakness, the long-ball was his...

American League 40 Jose Tabata NYY OF B Finally hit first HR on May 21. .275 AVG in May is much better than .200 April mark. 41 Beau Mills CLE 1B B 15 doubles hints at his power potential and...

Jason Giambi - Giambi now has an OPS of 1.146 for the month of May after a double and a homer last night, and that obviously doesn't count another ball that he hit to the warning track in left-center, which...

Value Picks - May 28, 2008 Good morning and welcome to Value Picks.  As we've been writing about all season, value picks aims to help you identify players who are either floating on your free agent wires or have been...

Mark Reynolds: According to Manager Bob Melvin, Reynolds will remain the starting third baseman despite the return of Chad Tracy. Reynolds has legitimate major league power, 25 home runs and 26 doubles in 158 career games, and surprising speed, a...

Jon Garland - Garland rattled off his fifth straight quality start last night, holding the Tigers scoreless over 7 1/3 innings while allowing four hits and three walks against five strikeouts. More walks and fewer K's, Garland's lot in 2008...

Michael Bourn- HOU- Hot- Despite going 0-for-4 on Sunday, Bourn has to be considered on a roll. Even without benefit of a base hit, he scored, collected an RBI and stole a base. Over his last 5 games Bourn has...

Hopefully everyone is well rested after the long and well deserved holiday weekend! Before we get into our usual Sabermetric Tuesday column, let’s take a moment out to recognize and appreciate all those who have made it possible for all...

Daniel Cabrera - Don't sit there and act surprised by this. We have all seen it way too many times before with Daniel Cabrera. After a few dominant outings of quality starts, low walk, and high strikeout totals, Cabrera always...

Aaron Cook: This is a public service announcement to those Aaron Cook owners out there, please proceed to your league site and post a note that Cook is available at the right price. In other words: SELL HIGH. I warned...

Jesse Litsch: I highlighted Litsch earlier in the week with the Value Picks column as a nice two-start pitching option next week and then the Jays conveniently re-shuffled their rotation so Litsch wouldn’t pitch twice next week, making me look...

Clayton Kershaw The Dodgers made it official Saturday, purchasing Kershaw’s contract from Double-A Jacksonville and designating the awful Esteban Loaiza for assignment. Loaiza incidentally ends his Dodgers career with these numbers: $8.5 million in pay and a 6.94 ERA in...

Gavin Floyd – It seems that we are always hating on Gavin Floyd, and he keeps proving us wrong. Last night Floyd threw a complete game, allowing 3 runs. Once again, though, we witnessed a mediocre at best skill set...

Carlos Zambrano tossed his 9th quality start of the season Friday night as he struck out 6 while giving up 2 ER on 6 H in 6 IP and collected his 7th win of the year. Zambrano is certainly putting...

Randy Wolf: The Randy Wolf roller-coaster continues! After posting a 6.85 ERA through his first four May starts, Wolf was terrific last night against the Reds. He surrendered a 2 run first inning HR to Ken Griffey Jr and then...

A Closer Look - May 23, 2008 Good morning.  In today's closer report, we'll take a look at the closer situation for every team in the league.  Obviously, many of them are stable situations with little reason for worry.  But,...

Brandon Wood: Brandon Wood was recalled from the minors. Considered a top prospect, Wood will not find consistent success until he improves his approach at the plate, 68% Ct% and a 4.8% BB% in Triple-A. Mark Ellis: Ellis, who has...

Jack Cust- OAK- Hot- The pendulum has swung wildly in Cust’s favor. His .212 BHIPx at the end of April was probably not going to last, but it has soared to .286 over the last 3 weeks, meaning that it...

Jonathan Sanchez - Have you ever seen that web site that tracks the movement of dollar bills through the country? I think its called http://www.wheresgeorge.com/. Well, I want to stamp Jonathan Sanchez in fantasy leagues and track how many times...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Ivan Rodriguez Detroit (11 for 27, .407 CS%): 3 against LAA (Chone Figgins, Macier Izturis), 3 against Seattle (Ichiro Suzuki, Willie Bloomquist) Kurt Suzuki Oakland (12 for 32, .375 CS%): 3 against Toronto (Alex Rios), 3...

I’m going to skip the lead in this morning to our beloved Wednesday Value Picks column because quite frankly I’m in a state of euphoria right now and any small semblance of creativity my mind has is currently drifting towards...

John Lackey – John Lackey looked good in his second straight start after returning from the disabled list. He picked up the win against Toronto, going 7 innings and allowing just one run off of 7 hits. He also walked...

Jake Peavy: Peavy went on the DL with a strained muscle in his right elbow. Reports have him missing anywhere from two to six weeks. The Padres and fantasy owners are hoping for the former because his skills, 2006/2007/2008 K/9’s...

Bronson Arroyo- CIN- Cold- After two solid starts, Arroyo regressed in a big way, allowing 9 hits and 3 walks in 5 IP that led to 5 runs (3 earned). It could be a matter of fatigue as he had...

Josh Hamilton - Hamilton continued his hot hitting with his 11th homer last night, and with his strikeouts down 8% while basically everything else has remained the same, you've got to be more and more excited about his long-term potential....

Sabermetric Tuesday - Variability in Weekly Head-to-Head Match-Ups Welcome to Fantasy Week 8's edition of Sabermetric Tuesday.  Every week, we aim to introduce some unique ways at looking at statistics to help you make educated decisions about your fantasy...

Johnny Damon - A falling star? It certainly could be. Since joining the Yankees in 2006, Damon's FPI has gone from 0.71 to 0.64 last year and 0.61 so far this season. His OBP has also equally fallen from .358...

Randy Johnson: The Big Unit turned back the clock a bit on Sunday tossing 7 shutout innings against the potent Tigers lineup. Unit wasn’t as dominant as his younger days, striking out just 5, but he worked efficiently needing just...

Doug Mathis: Mathis will get a start on Tuesday in Minnesota. He was pitching decently in Triple-A; 3.55 ERA, 5.9 K/9, and a 2.0 BB/9. Without the high K’s, he will need to exhibit good control for success, but even...

Jose Bautista Bautista was sitting on the bench yet again on Saturday. With the Pirates 12th in the NL in team OPS, you’d think they could use a guy with a .915 OPS in the month of May. Sure, Bautista...

Jesus Flores - Flores has jumped right into the Nationals' void at catcher with a modest five-game hitting streak, including a couple more singles last night against the O's. Rule V picks are tricky to project, because they always lose...

Josh Hamilton- TEX- Hot- Hamilton led the way for a Texas offensive onslaught last night, going 5-for-5 with 2 homers, a triple, a walk, 5 RBI, and 4 runs scored. The 13 total bases was one short of a franchise...

Masa Kobayashi secured his second save yesterday afternoon as he replaced Rafael Betancourt in the ninth inning after Betancourt loaded the bases with just one out. Kobayashi threw a wild pitch to Mike Sweeney, which allowed Jack Cust to score,...

Jay Bergmann – Bergmann threw 7 innings of shutout ball yesterday picking up the win. He impressively struck out 9 along the way, while walking just 2. This start might come as a surprise because entering the game Bergmann had...

American League 3 Matt Wieters BAL C A Turns 22 next week and with an OPS greater than 1.000, he belongs in AA. 13 Jeff Clement SEA C A- He's not hitting, but the M's will be patient with him....

Daniel Cabrera- BAL- Hot- Is Cabrera finally for real? He pitched his 7th straight quality start, raising his record to 4-1, allowing 3 runs on 10 hit in 7 IP while striking out 3 and walking NONE. Of his 103...

Pedro Martinez - So you're hanging on to Pedro, hoping to salvage a little fantasy life from the aging star at some point this season. The good news is Pedro's hamstring strain is recovering nicely and its looking like he's...

First Pitch - May 14, 2008 - Value Picks Welcome to the Week 7 edition of "Value Picks."  Can you believe its already mid-May?  With most fantasy leagues playing on a 22-week schedule before beginning fantasy playoffs, Week 7 means...

Masa Kobayashi showed that Cleveland might have at least one guy who can get 3 outs in the ninth inning as he secured his first save last night against the Athletics. Kobayashi has been pretty solid this year coming out...

Big variances between a pitcher’s ERA and XERA can help identify buy low and sell high targets. A low XERA and a high ERA usually means good skills but some bad luck in the form of low strand rate and/or...

Scott Olsen: Thanks to an 81% strand rate and a .171 BHIP%, it looks like Scott Olsen has turned a corner, 4-1 with a 2.63 ERA in 8 starts. However his underlying numbers tell the real story, 4.0 K/9, 3.5...

Nelson Figueroa- NYN- Cold- Figueroa was pounded by the Nationals yesterday, allowing 6 runs (4 earned) on 5 this and 5 walks in 5 IP while striking out 4. The walks continue a pattern of control problems for Figueroa, who...

Cliff Lee is incredible. I mean, I am seriously astounded by how knockout awesome this guy has been in his first 7 starts. I wish like hell I drafted him now. But enough of my wishes, let’s get to the...

Nick Swisher - We're all waiting for Swisher to turn the corner, but he has yet to really break-out of his early season slump. Whenever he posts a multi-hit game and looks like he's about to put his season back...

Hunter Pence: Pence extended his hitting streak to 9 games on Sunday while effectively carrying the Astros offense against the Dodgers. Pence drove in 2 and scored another 2 accounting for 4 of the Astros 8 runs with a 3-4...

Milton Bradley: You know who Milton Bradley is? He’s the hot chick with the crazy eyes, I’m convinced. I mean think about it, let’s draw some parallels between scoping out the waiver wire and scoping out the bar. So you’re...

Shawn Estes Estes will take over the fifth starter role for the Padres this week, making his first start on Tuesday in Chicago. Make sure you activate any and all Cubs hitters for this one. Should Estes somehow survive this...

Derrek Lee blasted his 9th HR of the season yesterday afternoon as he continues his bid to hit 40+ bombs in 2008. Lee’s totals now read 9/25/.322 and his indicators right now are pretty similar to those in his 46-homer...

Jose Contreras – Contreras has somewhat bounced back from last season’s disaster. He picked up his third win last night, pitching 7 innings of one run ball to lower his ERA under 4. Contreras has been better this year, mainly...

Jeff Francoeur Frenchy’s mired in a 5-31 slump that’s dropped his average to .263. Despite the slow start there are some legitimate reasons for optimism surrounding Francoeur. He’s improved his EYE up to .50, largely thanks to a significant drop...

Gavin Floyd: Despite flirting with two no-hitters this year, there is not much to get excited about when looking at Floyd’s skill set, 4.3 K/9 and a 4.1 BB/9. His high FB% of 53% is going to lead to big...

Nick Markakis- BAL- Hot- Since his last multi-hit game on May 2nd, Markakis had been in a 1-for-15 slump that had shaved 28 points from his batting average, dropping it from .284 to .256. He got half of that back...

Joey Votto - Votto was locked-in against the Cubs on Wednesday, turning the power hat-trick of 3-HR (and a SB), and improving his seasons numbers considerably in just one day. The talented Reds first baseman saw his FPI rise from...

American League 30 Austin Jackson NYY OF B+ 23:17 K:BB and 82% CT% are fine, but where's the pop? 0 HR in 125 at-bats. 43 Jose Tabata NYY OF B Discipline issues and batting just .232. Is 8-for-15 in last...

Unfavorable Matchups, American League Joe Mauer Minnesota (6 for 15, .400 CS%): 4 against Texas (Ian Kinsler, David Murphy), 3 against Detroit (Carlos Guillen, Curtis Granderson) Kurt Suzuki Oakland (7 for 20, .350 CS%): 3 against Tampa (Carl Crawford, BJ...

Grady Sizemore – Sizemore had a monster 2006 season in which he had an amazing 92 extra base hits, an average of .57 extra base hits per game. Sizemore was solid last season, but even in that year and so...

Doug Davis: Less than a month removed from surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid, Davis threw a simulated game on Monday and is expected to make the first of two rehab starts on Saturday. The two rehab starts will give...

We’re back with another edition of Wednesday’s Value Picks! As we’ve mentioned before, every Wednesday we’ll go digging for diamonds in the rough that is the Free Agent Pool. While many of the selections in the past have been geared...

Delmon Young - One of the biggest Delmon Young supporters I know asked me yesterday about including him in a deal, so the time may very well have come to put the full-court press on his owners in your respective...

Scott Podsednik- COL- Hot- Sure, he went 0-for-4 last night and lost 35 points off his batting average to go from .343 to .308, but Podsednik is showing signs of bouncing back from an essentially lost 2007 season. His average...

First Pitch - "Sabermetric Tuesday - The Setup Man" Good morning and welcome to the Fantasy Week 6 edition of "Sabermetric Tuesdays."  I've had a thought in my head for quite some time, but haven't had a chance to accumulate...

In our continuing series on player recommendations, today we take a look at the pitchers who are deviating from their projected production. Please refer to the Batters article for an explanation of the terms used such as FPI (FPI^ =...

Robinson Cano - Cano bottomed out and turned it around this weekend. As of Saturday, Cano's average had dropped to .150, OBP .213, 2 HR, and 7 RBI. On Sunday, his swing looked good and seemed to be right on...

Dan Uggla: I’ve noted in the past that I’m not a big Uggla supporter because of the negative impact he can have on your batting average, but I also noted Uggla’s a traditionally slow starter who heats up in May...

Brad Hawpe Hawpe was 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBI Saturday against the Dodgers. Hawpe has always had his issues versus southpaws, having lost 204 points of OPS against them since 2004, and again this year batting just...

Joe Saunders: Fantasy owners of Saunders are enjoying some good numbers, 5-0 record and a 2.55 ERA. Just be aware, that his skills are just average; 4.6 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, and a 50% GB%, and he is enjoying some good...

“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it!” How many of you in the crowd have heard this one before? I know, we all have and most of the time it’s said in a loud angry tone with...

Roy Oswalt – Oswalt had another shaky outing last night, even though he received the victory. Oswalt gave up four runs (three earned) in six innings. Three of those runs scored on two Milwaukee homers, and it seems as if...

Erik Bedard was outstanding for the Mariners despite their 3-1 loss to the Yankees. Bedard pitched 7 very strong innings, allowing just 1 ER on 4 H and 1 BB. He also struck out 6 batters and could have very...

Kevin Kouzmanoff - Tony pointed out that Kouzmanoff is a batting average killer, but what is disappointing me so far is the lack of power. Kouzmanoff went yard two nights ago, but it was just his second homerun of the...

Macier Izturis: Izturis was placed on the DL with back spasms. Even if he didn’t go on the DL, with Howie Kendrick coming back very soon, he would have been heading for the bench. Izturis’ poor start, 0/10/.197, is due...

Under/Over Performing Batters Another April is in the books and as typical there are quite a few players who are in our doghouse and a quite a few players who have the keys to the penthouse...but who deserves to be where?...

Alex Rios- TOR- Cold- Rios, after an 0-for-3 game yesterday, still has some solid leadoff hitter numbers (.306 average, .386 OBP). Lurking below the surface, though, is a BHIPx of .339 (through Sunday) propping that number up. Rios has gone...

Troy Tulowitzksi - Its looking more and more likely that Troy Tulowitzski will be heading to the 15-day DL with left quad problems. He's had a rough April and hopefully a little rest and recovery will do him good for...