Year	AVG.	RBI	HR
2006	.330	100	24
2007	.296	81	18
2008	.283	66	13

AL Grumblings

The Yankees shipped puzzling former ace Chien-Ming Wang down to their minor league complex in Tampa so that he could work out his mechanics and perhaps regain his form after three rough starts left him with a 34.50 ERA. Wang faced Phillies minor leaguers for seven innings, throwing 70 of 91 pitches for strikes and striking out eleven. However, he also coughed up four earned runs on nine hits. The current diagnosis is that Wang’s arm strength is not where it was before, perhaps due to his extended layoff with last year’s leg injury. As a result, his fastball is 3-5 mph slower and without any sinking motion, so hitters simply sit on his fastball and tee off. Wang will rejoin the Yankees in Boston this weekend, but will likely be placed on the DL to give him some time to build up his arm strength. The Yankees will probably call up Phil Hughes to take his place in the rotation, but he’s not likely to start against the Red Sox. Hughes has been dominating at Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, posting a 3-0 record with a 1.86 ERA and 19K’s in 19IP. If and when he gets the call he’s worth grabbing in AL only formats and may be worth a flier in deeper mixed leagues. * The early numbers from Robinson Cano this season are very encouraging, especially considering his difficult start to last season in which he batted .151 in April and didn’t cross the .200 mark until May 14^th. So far he’s batting .367 with three homeruns and a .424 OBP, and the good news is that his peripheral numbers support those stats. His BABIP is a tad high at .365, but the rest of his numbers are at or near career norms suggesting that Cano could maintain a batting average over .300. He didn’t hit his third homer until May 4^th last season, so the early power is another plus and could indicate that we may see him approach the 20 homer plateau again as he did in 2007 when he hit 19 round trippers.

Jason Varitek’s offensive decline has been well chronicled, but he worked on his stance and swing this winter, particularly from the left side, and the early returns are encouraging. He’s only batting .231, but he’s hitting for power with six of his nine hits going for extra bases, including three homerun. His peripheral numbers support continued improvement, as his BABIP is very low at .194 suggesting a bit of bad luck and his contact numbers are very strong and potentially sustainable. The biggest test will be how he holds up through the summer doldrums, but if you’re looking for a serviceable second catcher in deeper leagues, you could do worse than Varitek. * Jed Lowrie had surgery on his ailing wrist this past week. The good news is that he should be able to return in eight to ten weeks. He will have to wait about six weeks to heal, then will begin rehabbing which should take no more than a month. That puts him back in the dugout before the end of June. * In the meantime, Julio Lugo is on his rehab assignment with Triple A Pawtucket and will rejoin the team when they head out to Cleveland Monday. The Red Sox will almost certainly activate him and insert him right into the lineup at shortstop despite the decent job Nick Green has done of holding down the fort. It’s nothing more than a hunch, but if you need a middle infielder for your AL only or deep mixed league team, Lugo is in better shape than he has been since joining the Red Sox and should be a decent pick up. He had a good enough spring to win the starting shortstop job outright from Lowrie. Had it not been for his knee injury, he would have been the starter on opening day.

After a punchless 2008 campaign, the Oakland A’s made one of the smartest trades of the winter to bring in Matt Holliday, and signed Jason Giambi as a free agent, to boost the team’s power hitting and give their offense a little bang. Well, a little bang is all they’re getting so far; a really little bang. In fact, there are seven players that have more homeruns than the Oakland A’s as a team. Holliday has been eerily quiet at the plate. He’s played 14 games and is batting .254 with zero homeruns, ten RBI, and three runs scored. As a point of comparison, after 14 games last season, Holliday was batting .315 with three homeruns, 11 RBI, and eight runs scored. Giambi hasn’t been even that good. He’s batting .205 with zero homeruns, six RBI, and seven runs scored. The A’s are getting decent pitching from most of their very young pitching staff, but their hitters have been just atrocious. As a team they’re batting all of .228. All the more reason the A’s will be sellers at mid season and that Matt Holliday will be in another uniform. * Catcher Kurt Suzuki has arguably been the team’s best hitter so far. He bopped a homerun at Yankee stadium during the A’s series there that had to be reviewed by the umpires, despite there being no evidence that a fan had touched the ball. Fortunately they made the right call. But I digress. Suzuki has done well at the plate in his second major league season. So far he’s batting .328 with a homer, four RBI, and seven runs scored. His .346 BABIP indicates he’s going to come down from there a bit, but I like the trends I see in this kid, and recommend him in leagues that use two catchers as a solid number two in any format.

The Toronto Blue Jays are currently sitting atop the AL East, arguably the toughest division in baseball. Not much was expected of this team, mainly because they weren’t expected to have the pitching to contend, especially after losing A.J. Burnett to free agency. But they’ve gotten some very good pitching from their youngsters, even after losing so many to injury and having to mine the depths of the staff just to put a starter on the mound. One of the biggest surprises has been Ricky Romero, but a violent sneeze is responsible for sending him to the DL with an oblique injury. So the Jays find themselves digging even deeper now, and coming up with Brett Cecil to fill the void. Cecil is an interesting character in that he’s a strikeout artist who misses bats like crazy, maintaining very high strikeout rates at each level up the minor league ladder. However, if you’re considering Cecil for your fantasy team based on his 9.1K/9IP in Triple A, be forewarned that he also sports a 4.7 BB/9IP which can be WHIP poison at the ML level. * The Blue Jays finally had enough of B.J. Ryan’s lack of velocity and persuaded him to hit the DL to work out his mechanics and strengthen his arm. They will now turn to Scott Downs to hold down the ninth inning duties. Downs notched his first save Thursday night against the Texas Rangers after giving up his first run of the season the night before. Prior to that he had made seven straight scoreless appearances dating back to the beginning of the season. With 14 strikeouts in nine innings pitched to date, zero walks, and only four hits surrendered, Downs has been about as good as they get. He will hold on to the job at least until Ryan returns, but who knows how long that will be. Considering Ryan has been aware of, and working on mechanical issues since January, when he declined a WBC invitation, it could be months before he returns to the mound as a closer, if at all.

Baltimore Orioles closer George Sherrill finally blew his first save chance Friday night, coughing up a ninth inning two-run homer to Michael Young of the Texas Rangers. This should come as no surprise considering Sherrill’s fly ball tendencies and batter’s current BAA of .313 against him. Meanwhile, after two shaky outings to start the season, Chris Ray has made five consecutive scoreless outings in which he’s scattered five hits and struck out eight batters. The Orioles are going to make a change; it’s really just a matter of time. So keep Ray stashed away for safekeeping.

The Kansas City Royals have a concern with their All-Star closer Joakim Soria. He’s experiencing soreness in the back of his throwing shoulder, and has been sore for quite some time. There was a period of eight days prior to this past Wednesday that Soria had not been used because of the ailment. After closing out Wednesday’s game with a perfect inning of work, Soria had a reoccurrence of the soreness. MRI scans revealed no structural damage, so they won’t be placing him on the DL for now. However, they plan to use the dreaded closer by committee instead of naming a ninth inning pitcher. It’s hard to say who might get the duty otherwise. Kyle Farnsworth would normally be the first thought, but he’s been shaky all year. Juan Cruz could do the job, but has precious little experience in the role. They also have Robinson Tejeda and Jamey Wright, neither of which has surrendered a single run all season. We’ll just have to wait and see, but my money is on Juan Cruz.

The Tigers are going to bring Joel Zumaya back this weekend, as he’s completed his rehab assignment and appears to be ready. He hit 100 mph at least twice in his outings with Triple A Toledo. While Ryan Perry was likely to be sent down as the least senior pitcher on the staff, it was actually Eddie Bonine that was optioned after Friday’s game. Zumaya won’t figure in the closers mix as long as Fernando Rodney continues to pitch well, but Brandon Lyon now has some competition for the set up pitcher’s role from both Zumaya and Perry. Keep an eye on both of them as potential holds pitchers for leagues that use the stat.

I love what Chris Getz is doing at the top of the White Sox order. He got his third steal of the season against the Toronto Blue Jays Friday night, and he’s maintaining a .340 average thus far while giving the Tigers solid keystone work. He’s still not showing any power, but that’s never been a big part of his game. If he can continue to steal bases he has a shot at fantasy worthiness. But for now he’s nothing more than roster filler in mixed leagues.

Stock Up

Aaron Hill – Toronto Blue Jays – Hill and Marco Scutaro are the tablesetters for the Toronto offense, which leads the majors in many offensive categories. Hill has already hit five homeruns to go with his .377 average. But more importantly he’s driven in 18 runs and scored another 13. He’s nearly matched or already surpassed the production he had in 55 games last year before getting hurt. He’s not going to keep up this kind of production, but there is every indication that a full breakout is in bloom for Hill. If you can get your hands on him somehow, you’ll have quite the hitter on your hands at a fairly thin position.

Ryan Franklin – St. Louis Cardinals – After flirting around with youngsters Chris Perez, Jason Motte, and even considering Chris Carpenter or Pedro Martinez for their closers job, manager Tony LaRussa went with the same old, same old in Ryan Franklin anyway. Franklin seems to embrace the job with verve, and has responded to his manager’s faith in him in a very positive way. The veteran reliever has notched five saves already, has yet to surrender a single run in eight total innings of work, and has a glorious 8:2 K:BB ratio. (Is it obvious that I have Franklin in two leagues?) That all being said, I don’t expect Franklin to keep the job all year, but he should be able to keep it for a few months anyways. So keep an eye on Perez and Motte, as whichever of the two of them is pitching better will get the job if and when Franklin falls flat.

Brandon Inge – Detroit Tigers – Supposedly, Inge has a new approach at the plate that keeps him from dropping his hands, resulting in better bat speed through the hitting zone. Whatever it is he’s doing, he should keep it up because it appears to be working. He’s batting .304, with six homeruns, 15 RBI, and 13 runs scored. Better still, his BABIP of .282, and contact rate of 83% indicate that this is not an aberration and that Inge could really be on to something he can sustain. We could see a career year for Inge this season, and his catcher eligibility makes him a really hot commodity. It’s probably too late to acquire him, but if the Inge owner in your league doesn’t understand what he’s got on his hands, you might be able to pry him away. It’s worth a try, so what are you waiting for?

Stock Down

Pablo Sandoval – San Francisco Giants – What happened to one of the most touted breakout candidates with multi-positional eligibility? I’ll tell you what happened; he fell flat on his face with huge, left coast thud. Mr. Breakout Catcher 2009 is currently sporting a 77% contact rate, a .263 batting average that was at just .195 until a recent four game hitting streak, and a .333 BABIP that tells me he’s exceeding expectations. You read that right; his current batting average is probably better than it should be, and he’s really more like a .250 hitter – without any power either. If he wasn’t catcher eligible he’d be nearly worthless. The good news is that he is just 22 years old, so he has plenty of opportunity to grow and improve. The bad news is that the Giants may have rushed him to the majors. Keeper leaguers should hang on, but he doesn’t really belong in mixed leagues right now, unless it’s 15 teams or larger and using two catchers.

Todd Helton – Colorado Rockies – I have to admit, Helton had me totally fooled with his spring performance. I thought for certain he was going to make a big comeback this year after back surgery fixed him up. It now looks like the spring was just a mirage. He’s got one homerun, a .269 batting average, and peripheral numbers that indicate this is about all we can expect from Helton going forward. The Rockies have themselves a really expensive replacement-level player on their hands blocking Joe Koshansky from the big leagues.

David Ortiz – Boston Red Sox – What is wrong with Big Papi? Well, that’s a question I cannot answer for you. Supposedly he’s healthy, but his numbers so far this season are worse than pedestrian. They’re downright ugly. What worries me most, besides the complete lack of power, is the 27% strikeout rate, along with a correspondingly low 8.1% walk rate. This is a batter that typically hovered around a 15% strikeout rate and 15% walk rate. He’s hitting line drives at around the same rate, and his BABIP is just below .300, so it’s entirely possible that we’re not going to see a batting average above the .250-.260 range from Ortiz this season. As the the power – well, I just don’t know.