4/30-5/1: Venting, Cheering, Huff's Ding Dongs, and May.

[wrveres]

Its official.
Your fantasy baseball season is 1/6 over. 1/5 if you are in H2H. Time flies. If your dirtbag crew hit .220 in April, they are going to have to hit .300 the rest of the way to be fantasy relevant in September. No small task. Now is the time to look at your strengths and weakness, and adjust. Preseason projections are useless from here on out. You need to look at the reality on the field, and whats it doing to your teams standings. Buy low, sell high, and trade from a strength to fill a weakness, and all that jazz. By the end of May your team needs to have a clear direction, and hopefully that is up in a number of categories.

good luck.

Ive gotten a couple of complaints about how the Padres are not in the best/worst poll(s). The idea was a simple king of the hill type thing for fun. Who ever won the week before would face off against the best or worst team from the opposite league, based upon the standings. Here's the standings on the worst/best team in baseball poll so far.

Best team in baseball				     Worst team in baseball			
week2	Rangers 13	Rockies 6		     Mets 22	RedSox 11
week3	Phillies 11	Rangers 9		     Mets 22	Whitesox 3
week4	Phillies	Indians		             Mets	Minnesota?

So looking at the results, this weekend we will have the Phillies and the Indians (the top team in the AL), and Monday we will probably have the Mets vs Minnesota. Once the Mets lose the Worst team in baseball poll, then we can look at the other NL Teams, and we will go by who ever is in last at the moment. Does that make sense?

Heres your two start pitcher stuff.

Rotographs - CBS - Razzball

Hot.

Ryan Howard went 2-for-4 with a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, as he finished with six RBIs Friday, against the New York Mets. It was Howard's 10th career grand slam. Howard has 27 RBIs in the month of April, giving him the franchise record. Former OF Pat Burrell, now with the San Francisco Giants, had 24 RBIs in April of 2008.

Jose Bautista went 2-for-3 with a home run, two walks, two runs scored and two RBIs Friday, against the New York Yankees. Bautista, who led the league in homers in 2010, is first in the American League in batting average (.372), homers (9), runs scored (25), walks (28), on-base percentage (.542), slugging percentage (.795) and OPS (1.337)

Andre Ethier doubled in the fifth inning of Friday's 3-2 victory against the Padres to extend his hitting streak to 25 games, tied for the second-longest streak in Dodgers history with Paul Lo Duca, Willie Davis and Steve Sax.

Joey Votto went 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored Friday, against the Florida Marlins. Votto has now reached base at least once in 26 consecutive games dating back to last season

Ike Davis socked a solo home run in the top of the ninth inning Friday, against the Philadelphia Phillies to push his career-high hit streak to 11 games.

Brennan Boesch went 1-for-5 with a run scored and strikeout Friday, against the Cleveland Indians, but it was good enough to push his hit streak to 10 games

Jacoby Ellsbury went 1-for-4 with a run scored Friday, against the Seattle Mariners to push his hitting streak to eight games

Alex Gordon doubled and tripled while picking up his 16th RBI on Friday, helping the Royals down the Twins 4-3 at home

Justin Smoak went 1-for-4 with two more RBIs Friday, against the Boston Red Sox. Smoak has two or more RBIs in three of the past four. He also has at least one RBI in five straight games, totaling 11 during the span

Not So Hot.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi is mulling benching designated hitter Jorge Posada more often. With the veteran Posada batting a woeful .130 through his first 69 at-bats, Girardi may start a rotation at DH. "We've said all along, when you get into some situations where you're playing some long stretches, you might see other guys DH a little bit," Girardi said. "We are going to do that because we're (playing) 32 out of 33 days." Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher could all see time at DH in the coming weeks.

Reds manager Dusty Baker isn't planning on benching Jonny Gomes, hitting just .200, any time soon. "What do you do, just shelve Jonny?," Baker said. "On what Jonny did last year? Here it is April 20-something. If it's June 20-something and he's doing nothing, now we've got a different story. You just don't shelve somebody that quickly. Jonny deserves an extended period of time, (based) on (his) track record."

Kendrys Morales appears to have suffered a major setback in his rehabilitation from a broken left ankle. The team didn't offer many details, but he has been sent to the team's spring facility in Arizona to work on conditioning rather than traveling with the team where he could resume baseball activities. It appears he might be sidelined until at least June or longer

Casey Blake will be sidelined for "at least" four weeks after undergoing surgery on his infected left elbow on Friday

dodgers suck!

[wrveres]

Todays Games - Todays Weather - Bullpen report

Angels (15-11) @ Rays (14-12), 1:10pm	
  LAA: Joel Pineiro (32, RHP, 0-0, undef)	
  TBR: James Shields (29, RHP, 2-1, 2.35)	
	
Rangers (15-11) @ Athletics (13-13), 4:05pm	
  TEX: Colby Lewis (31, RHP, 1-3, 6.95)	
  OAK: Brett Anderson (23, LHP, 2-1, 1.56)	
	
Blue Jays (13-13) @ Yankees (14-9), 4:05pm	
  TOR: Kyle Drabek (23, RHP, 2-0, 3.30)	
  NYY: A.J. Burnett (34, RHP, 3-1, 3.52)	
	
Tigers (12-14) @ Indians (17-8), 6:05pm	
  DET: Rick Porcello (22, RHP, 1-2, 4.76)	
  CLE: (2011, RHP, 0-0, undef)	
	
Twins (9-16) @ Royals (13-13), 7:10pm	
  MIN: Brian Duensing (28, LHP, 2-0, 3.00)	
  KCR: Sean O'Sullivan (23, RHP, 1-1, 4.20)	
	
Orioles (11-13) @ WhiteSox (10-17), 7:10pm	
  BAL: Chris Tillman (23, RHP, 0-2, 6.16)	
  CHW: Philip Humber (28, RHP, 2-2, 3.20)	
	
Mariners (12-15) @ RedSox (11-14), 7:10pm	
  SEA: Doug Fister (27, RHP, 1-3, 3.19)	
  BOS: John Lackey (32, RHP, 2-2, 6.35)	
	
Cardinals (15-11) @ Braves (13-14), 1:10pm	
  STL: Jake Westbrook (33, RHP, 2-2, 7.40)	
  ATL: Brandon Beachy (24, RHP, 1-1, 3.68)	
	
Mets (11-15) @ Phillies (17-8), 1:10pm	
  NYM: Jonathon Niese (24, LHP, 1-3, 5.10)	
  PHI: Roy Halladay (34, RHP, 3-1, 2.41)	
	
Giants (12-13) @ Nationals (12-13), 4:05pm	
  SFG: Jonathan Sanchez (28, LHP, 2-1, 3.21)	
  WSN: John Lannan (26, LHP, 2-2, 4.05)	
	
Brewers (13-12) @ Astros (9-17), 7:05pm	
  MIL: Randy Wolf (34, LHP, 3-2, 2.64)	
  HOU: Wandy Rodriguez (32, LHP, 1-3, 5.40)	
	
Marlins (16-8) @ Reds (13-13), 7:10pm	
  FLA: Josh Johnson (27, RHP, 3-0, 1.06)	
  CIN: Edinson Volquez (27, RHP, 2-1, 6.35)	
	
Pirates (12-14) @ Rockies (16-8), 8:10pm	
  PIT: Paul Maholm (29, LHP, 1-3, 3.90)	
  COL: Jason Hammel (28, RHP, 2-1, 3.80)	
	
Cubs (11-14) @ D'backs (11-14), 8:10pm	
  CHC: Matt Garza (27, RHP, 0-3, 4.11)	
  ARI: Ian Kennedy (26, RHP, 3-1, 4.02)	
	
Padres (9-17) @ Dodgers (14-13), 10:10pm	
  SDP: Tim Stauffer (29, RHP, 0-1, 3.21)	
  LAD: Hiroki Kuroda (36, RHP, 3-2, 3.21)

Johnson and Beachy again today.

[bigh0rt]

Nice to see Carlos Santana hopefully shaking his April woes with HR in back-to-back games including a walk-off Grand Slam last night.

With 3 starts left on my slate, I'm trotting James Shields and Brian Duensing out there today, and trying to decide whether Colby Lewis @Oak or Bronson Arroyo vs Fla is a better way to finish up. You'd think Lewis would be the easy choice with the match up and park, but he's just been dreadful.

EDIT: Lewis is an underdog against Brett Anderson. Screw that. Arroyo it is.

[bigh0rt]

Jason Hammel has posted 3 consecutive QS and faces the Pirates today. He's owned in nearly no leagues and is definitely worth watching if you can.

[KCollins1304]

Starting Shields today, benching Pineiro. Curious to see which Pineiro we'll get this year.

[wrveres]

RJ's got his two start article up here.

[AussieDodger]

Starting: Volquez, Niese
Bench: N/A

Declare jihad on: Ron Gardenhire, Bobby Jenks, whoever gave Carlos Gonzalez that flu


My SPs are facing Halladay and Josh Johnson, but I've benched that many starts this week (Dempster etc) that I'm forced to have a crack. I'm interested to see how Halladay pulls up after 130 pitches last time.

[wrveres]

berkman sitting today. make adjustments if you can.

[AussieDodger]

I KNEW M.Melancon was getting abused by his manager............

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8458/news;_ylt=ArcyX4b0bzsJDQoUv_gTXPGFCLcF

Apr 29 RHPs Mark Melancon and Jeff Fulchino made their National League-leading 15th appearances of the season Friday. They're on pace to pitch 93 games apiece. Melancon allowed a run in one inning, raising his ERA to 1.98, while Fulchino pitched a scoreless inning, dropping his ERA to 3.55.

No wonder the Ks have dried up (1 K in his last 7 appearances), he's knackered already and it's not May yet

[CBMGreatOne]

Starting: Volquez, Niese
Bench: N/A

Declare jihad on: Ron Gardenhire, Bobby Jenks, whoever gave Carlos Gonzalez that flu


My SPs are facing Halladay and Josh Johnson, but I've benched that many starts this week (Dempster etc) that I'm forced to have a crack. I'm interested to see how Halladay pulls up after 130 pitches last time.

I'm hoping for a clean six innings. Don't want to see that pitch count continuing to accumulate to the point where he's going 120+ every time out. Honestly though, Halladay is the most rubber-armed pitcher of our generation. He should be fine.