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American League Fantasy Notes: A.L. East
Posted by Tom Massimo Categories: Fantasy, Injuries, MLB, News,
BALTIMORE ORIOLES:
Don’t be fooled by the 3 win run by Rodrigo Lopez. He is a fly ball pitcher who is not striking out enough hitters. Such pitchers are always living on the edge.
Daniel Cabrera is expected to be activated from the DL in time for Monday’s start against the Blue Jays. It is advisable to keep him reserved to see if the rest had an effect on his control problems.
With Cabrera back, Adam Loewen will probably return to the minors. He is not ready to contribute on the Major League level due to a lack of control.
Jay Gibbons goes on the 15-day DL with soreness in his shoulder, hip, and knee. The move is retroactive to May 27th and he should return when eligible. Brandon Fahey, Eddie Rogers, and Luis Matos should all see some extra ABs in Gibbons’ absence. Fahey and Rogers are not recommended. Matos is a better hitter than his current .184 average shows and can provide a temporary speed source for AL-only leagues.
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Tap The Schedule And Twist The Cap: 6.4.06
Posted by Dennis Velasco Categories: Athletes, Injuries, MLB, NBA, News, Playoffs,
NBA: A “yee-hah” congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks who beat the Phoenix Suns last night in the desert, 102-93. The Mavs will face the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals as both franchises will be making their championship series debut. The road to the title begins on Thursday, June 8th in Dallas.
MLB: Arguably the best player in the game today, Albert Pujols, suffered a strained oblique in yesterday’s game betwen his St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. At this point it’s unknown when Pujols will return to the team, but he could miss as much as six weeks, according to team physician, Dr. George Paletta. Stay tuned.
*Rich Harden takes the hill for the Oakland Athletics again. Athletics Nation stand up! Oh, and cross fingers that Harden doesn’t get hurt again because he’s probably your best pitcher. Harden will try to handcuff the Minnesota Twinkies in Oakland this afternoon.
*Chris Young of the San Diego Padres will face the Pittsburgh Pirates this afternoon and hopes to continue his brilliance from earlier this week. Young was flirting with a no-no against the Colorado Rockies when he went eight frames only allowing one hit, a double by OF Brad Hawpe to lead the eighth inning. Young is currently 4-3 with a 3.80 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, .215 BAA, with 54 strikeouts in 66.1 IP.
*Tonight’s featured game is between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Cleveland Indians. Yesterday, the Indians completely waxed some Angels butt, 14-2. John Lackey pitches for the Angels, while a dominating C.C. Sabathia takes the mound for the Tribe. Both teams were considered playoff contenders before the season, so this could potentially be a warm-up of sorts before October rolls around.
*Well, Dan Haren DID make me look like a genius yesterday. He went six frames, allowing zero runs, only three hits, while striking out six and walking two. Haren didn’t get the decision, but he made up for Monday’s loss to the Kansas City Royals!
Enjoy the games!
Oakland Athletics’ Rich Harden Comes Off The Disabled List
Posted by Dennis Velasco Categories: Athletes, Injuries, MLB, News,
Rich Harden of the Oakland Athletics will be activated to start the final game in the series against the Minnesota Twins today. Harden was sidelined with a strained back muscle and was placed on the disabled list on April 27th and was brought along slowly in hopes of letting the muscle heal as much as possible. Before getting injured, Harden was 3-0 with a 4.06 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, .189 BAA, with 28 strikeouts in 31.0 IP.
Harden is thought to be one of the better pitchers in the league with an assortment of pitches and a tenacious attitude. At only 24 years of age, Harden shows a lot of upside still and can only blame injury for him not reaching his full potential at this stage in his career. Harden is a Cy Young caliber pitcher and should contend for the award every season for the next several seasons. In fact, if Harden remains healthy, he should contend this year.
Albert Pujols Strains His Oblique
Posted by Dennis Velasco Categories: Athletes, Injuries, MLB, News,
St. Louis Cardinals 1B Albert Pujols strained his right oblique in the second inning of yesterday’s matchup with the division rival, Chicago Cubs. It happened when Pujols chased a foul pop-up from the bat of Cubs 3B Aramis Ramirez. Pujols finished out playing the inning, but was replaced in the third inning at first base by Hector Luna.
Pujols, who is mashing the ball as well as anyone this season, currently leads the Majors in homeruns (25) and RBI (65). Obviously, losing Pujols for any amount of time will have an impact on the Cardinals batting order that is already without OF Jim Edmonds, who is doing a stint on the DL. Depending upon the severity of the strain, usually an injury like this takes weeks to recover from, which many Cards fans don’t want to hear. Further evaluation will be made today.
After suffering a right elbow injury and needing surgery just before this season, tonight Eric Gagne made his first appearance in a MLB game since June 12th of last season. He suffered an elbow injury last season as well that landed him on the DL for the rest of the 2005 season.
Needless to say, the Dodger faithful have been waiting for a long time for their closer to get back on the hill. Gagne came out in the ninth inning in a non-save situation to face the Philadelphia Phillies’ middle of the batting order. The Dodgers were down 8-6 at that point and eventually would lose by that score. Regardless, the crowd roared when Gagne came out of the bullpen and deservedly so. Before getting injured last season, Gagne was considered a beast of a closer and, arguably, the best reliever in the game.
Gagne got clean-up hitter, Pat Burrell, to fly out to right field. He struck out the powerful Ryan Howard, which just pumped up the crowd for the prospect of a 1-2-3 inning. However, Gagne hit Aaron Rowand with a pitch and walked David Bell before finally getting Mike Lieberthal to groundout into a force play.
Gagne came off the DL on Thursday and quickly got to work. He should immediately reclaim his role of closing out games, as tonight’s appearance in the ninth hints at the inevitable. How effective he’ll be remains to be seen, but considering he’s been resting his arm and he’s as competitive as anyone in the Majors, I’m thinking if you give him the baseball in the ninth, he’s going to get the job done.
Chicago Cubs Pitcher Mark Prior Working His Way Back
Posted by Dennis Velasco Categories: Athletes, Fantasy, Injuries, MLB,
Have faith, Cubs fans! With things always seemingly up in the air with the Chicago Cubs regarding injury, a plan has been laid out for Mark Prior to rejoin the Cubs and actually pitch a Major League Baseball game.
Prior, a pitching phenom out of USC and drafted second overall in the 2001 Amateur Draft, has dominant stuff as his 2003 numbers show - 18-6, 245 K’s in 211.1 IP, a 2.43 ERA and 1.10 WHIP (walks+hits per inning pitched). However, various injuries have stifled Prior’s growth in 2004 and 2005… and, of course, this season.
To start off 2006, Prior, and fellow fireballer Kerry Wood, were put on the shelf with indefinite stays on the DL (disabled list). Both are integral parts of the Cubs pitching rotation and could have been a devastating staff when you add fiery competitor, Carlos Zambrano. However, a three-headed beast of a frontline rotation remains but a dream if Prior and Wood can’t stay healthy.
And considering their stuff and makeup, in my opinion, Prior is the best of the three. But when it comes to health, not so much. In any case, rejoice Cubs fans that there’s at least a plan in place.
For all of my fantasy baseball geeks out there, if you have Prior on your team, cross your fingers. For those that don’t, if you think you can buy low, I’d take the chance. Otherwise, the definite nature of the indefinite regarding Prior’s health may not be worth it. However, if you’re feeling like Kenny Rogers (the singer, not the player), go ahead and take that gamble now before Prior’s first rehab start. It’ll probably be the best, odds-wise, especially if Prior has an incredible first rehab start. Read More 
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Phoenix Suns Take Game One Of The NBA Western Conference Finals
Posted by Dennis Velasco Categories: Injuries, NBA, Playoffs, Scoreboard,
What is it with the West? All of their games lately have been nothing short of exciting. It seems they’ve all been hotly contested and played down to the wire, with the winning team doing so by only a few points. Well, Game One between the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks was no different.
This was a homecoming of sorts for Suns PG Steve Nash, who played with the Mavs for six seasons. He is the second player the Mavs have “welcomed back” this postseason as the Spurs’ Michael Finley also returned, looking to beat his former team.
How did Nash do?
Well, he showed why he was the MVP this season as he scored 27 points and dished off 16 assists. At one point, he scored 10 straight points for the Suns during the final minutes to bring them back from a nine point deficit. This included a drive towards the basket with the much taller Dirk Nowitzki hanging all over him where Nash basically kissed the glass high with his shot where his body was almost behind the backboard.
But the glory for each team did not lay with its superstars, but with a couple of players who arguably played their best game ever. For the Dallas Mavericks, PG Devin Harris came up huge. He scored a career-high 30 points, as well as hit the potential game-winning jumper bringing the score to 118-117 in the Mavs’ favor with 4.8 seconds to go. That is until the other team’s non-superstar got the ball in the post from an inbounding Tim Thomas. Boris Diaw scored a career-high 34 points, including the actual game-winning hook over Jerry Stackhouse that put the Suns up 119-118. Thomas added a couple of cheapie free-throws with 0.2 seconds left to bring the final score to 121-118.
Again, another competitive game during this season’s NBA playoffs. If the trend continues, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t after witnessing tonight’s game, this series can go down to the wire and the two teams can end up back in Big D for a Game Seven.
*The Mavs’ Nowitzki scored 25 points and grabbed 19 rebounds. The Suns’ Shawn Marion finished with 24 points and 13 boards.
*Each team lost a player due to injury when the Mavs’ SF Josh Howard sprained his right ankle in the first quarter and Suns’ SG Raja Bell strained his calf somehow in the fourth quarter.
*Game Two will be held in Dallas again on Friday.
New York Yankees Outfielder Hideki Matsui Out For At Least Three Months
Posted by Jeff Chan Categories: Athletes, Editorial, Injuries, MLB, Scoreboard,
Hideki Matsui broke his left wrist while trying to make a sliding catch last night. With right fielder Gary Sheffield already out with an injury the Yankees may look to a trade possibility for help in the outfield. The Yankees ended up losing the game 5-3, being undone by a throwing error by Derek Jeter which brought home the winning run. Boston took two out of three in the series at Yankee stadium. The Yankees threatened in the bottom of the eighth inning by a lead-off double by Bernie Williams, but Jorge Posada couldn’t advance the runner by popping out, followed by a grounder by Cano and a strike out by Cairo to end the inning. This is what really lost the game, the Yankees inability to play small ball and the reliance on the three-run blast. Perhaps with Bernie Williams and Bubba Crosby in the lineup, the Yankees will start to play a little bit more “small ball”, or National league style baseball, with the emphasis on advancing the runners, more sacrifice bunts and hit and run plays. This injury could actually be a silver lining and can actually help the Yankees in the long run.
New York Mets Victor Zambrano Out For the Season: Is Barry Zito Coming to Town?
Posted by Jeff Chan Categories: Editorial, Front Office, Injuries, MLB,
You can never please Mets fans. The average Mets fan always thinks he can do a better job in the front office than the guys in charge. They always think they can do better than the current managers, always second-quessing pitcher use, the rotation set-up, pinch hitter use, etc. Now Mets fans need to lay off Victor Zambrano. It has finally been revealed that Zambrano has been pitching hurt since the day he got here. That’s why he’s been stinking up the joint, the blame should go to the General Manager who was in charge of the deal, Jim Duquette. Duquette traded prospect Scott Kazmir for damaged goods. Now looking back at the last few years, you have to admire Zambrano’s guts for pitching while injured. Mets fans should stop complaining and instead pool their resources and buid a time machine to prevent the trade from happening. For now, we can countdown the days until Lasting Milledge trades his Mets uniform for an Oakland A’s jersey. What are your thoughts on what the Met front office should do? Hold on to Milledge? Who looks like a future star. Give Jose Lima another shot? Put Aaron Heilman in the rotation? Clone Pedro Martinez through stem-cell research? Or go for broke an shop for another starter?
Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee suffered a broken wrist by colliding with Los Angeles Dodger SS Rafael Furcal, as he was running down the first base-line. This move will take the punch out of the Chicago Cubs line-up. After watching the Red Sox and White Sox get over their respective championship drought “curses”, many Cubs fans thought 2006 was their turn but it doesn’t look like it is the Chicago Cubs’ year. Lee is expected to miss at least six weeks.
Read More | ESPN
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