Might as well book it now - take a good look at Zack Greinke, 2009 Cy Young Award winner.

Ladies and Gents, welcome to The Knot Hole Gang, where we look at all the news that matters for your fantasy team. It’s been a wild week with the suspension of Manny Ramirez dominating the news. We’re going to ignore that almost completely and focus on what’s happening on the field. So let’s head out to the hole in the outfield fence and see what’s going on down at the ball yard.

Tampa Bay Rays

Carl Crawford is on a base-stealing tear during these early weeks of the season, stealing his 20^th base Wednesday night. Crawford has now stolen at least one base in nine consecutive games, a total of 14 during that streak, and he now stands just five short of his total of 25 steals for the entire 2008 season. Fourteen of his 20 steals have come against AL East teams. Now that I’ve dropped all those numbers on you, I’ll tell you why Crawford could easily crush his own personal season best of 59 stolen bases, set back in 2004. The three teams that have given up the most stolen bases in the AL are all in the East division. The Red Sox lead the AL with 36 steals allowed, while the Yankees have allowed 31, and the Orioles 29 thefts so far this season. Those three teams have played 16 games against the Tampa Bay Rays already, and Crawford has compiled 14 stolen bases in those games. If Crawford maintains his current pace over the 38 remaining games with just those three teams he will garner 47 steals. If he can steal just a few bases during the 18 games with Toronto, who with 21 steals has allowed the sixth most in the AL, then Crawford will easily surpass 59 steals. This will be one instance where the unbalanced schedule will work in a player’s favor. If it weren’t for all those games against the AL East, would Crawford get so many chances to steal? Who knows? *** Here’s a cool little stat courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau – Evan Longoria (10 HR, 38, RBI) and Carlos Pena (13 HR, 30 RBI) rank 1-2 in the AL in HR and RBI and are the first teammates to reach 30 RBI in the first 30 games of a season since Alex Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez did it with the Seattle Mariners back in 2000. Longoria brought an 11-game hitting streak into Friday’s game, during which he’s batted .382, and he’s had 20 RBI in the last nine games.

Texas Rangers

Chris Davis had a ridiculously high ADP in drafts this spring, something that many touts screamed about as the beginning of the season drew near. But even they could not have foreseen the precipitous drop in production and batting average that has befallen Davis since the start of the season. His contact rate of 54% is exceptionally low, and partially explains why he is striking out almost 42% of the time. But Davis is also striking out looking about 27% of the time, 7% higher than last season. So he is not being aggressive at the plate, either. That is probably the biggest reason for his less successful numbers this season. *** Taylor Teagarden now has himself a regular gig as Matt Harrison’s personal catcher. Harrison is 3-0 since Teagarden took over, which was after Harrison had three tough starts and had run his ERA up to 9.20. Harrison gave up four runs in the first two innings of Teagarden’s first pairing with him, but has not allowed a run in the 19 innings since, and his ERA is a much more respectable 4.79 as a result. Teagarden has also thrived in those three games, batting .454 and raising his season’s average up to .172 in the process.

New York Yankees

Jose Molina joined Jorge Posada on the DL leaving the Yankees catching situation in dire straits. They’ve already dug down pretty deep into the depth chart in bringing up Francisco Cervelli to replace Posada, and must now dig even deeper. It looks like Kevin Cash will get the call to replace Molina, who could miss up to a month with a quad strain.  *** Mariano Rivera served up two home runs in the bottom of the ninth Thursday to blow his second save of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays. Manager Joe Girardi subsequently admitted that Rivera’s shoulder has been bothering him quite a bit this season, and the closer is not pitching at anywhere near 100%. Rivera was recently rested for five consecutive days to give his shoulder a chance to recover.*** A-Rod is back, and he announced his return loud and clear by launching the first pitch he got off of Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie into the left field seats for a three run homer.

Kansas City Royals

Although Sidney Ponson pitched fairly well in his last start it’s just a matter of time before the Royals replace him in the rotation with Luke Hochevar. Down at Triple A Omaha, Hochevar is currently a nifty 5-0, with an ERA of 0.90 and a 0.95 WHIP. His 30:10 K:BB ratio is not bad, but could be improved upon, but Hochevar has come a long way since last year’s 6-12, 5.51 effort in terms of his overall command. He is definitely worth keeping an eye on when he finally arrives.*** Coco Crisp is only batting .231, but his .364 OBP has gone a long way towards helping the Royals score runs. Crisp has crossed the plate 22 times this season and leads the team in steals with seven.*** How good is Zack Greinke this season? Well, he leads all AL pitchers in wins with six, ERA (0.40), strikeouts (54), complete games (3), and shutouts (2). On top of that his BAA is .189 and he has not allowed a home run in 45 innings this season. Not too shabby, eh?

Oakland A’s

The A’s found themselves in a desperate situation for infield help. Mark Ellis is going to be out for another month with a calf strain, Nomar Garciaparra and Eric Chavez are also on the DL for an undetermined stretch, and Bobby Crosby finally had to be called upon to handle the second base duty. So they went out and made a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays for Adam Kennedy to play second base for at least a while. Kennedy found himself without a big league job after the Cardinals tossed him aside for, well, nobody in particular. He’s a career .278 hitter, with just a touch of pop, and a little bit of speed; but he can handle the glove pretty well, and that’s just what the A’s need. However, fantasy players in all formats can ignore Kennedy, just like most of baseball did this past winter, as he is nearly useless in the fantasy game. *** Andrew Bailey picked up a two inning save subbing for Brad Ziegler who is sick with the flu. Bailey has made 15 appearances for the A’s this season and struck out 24 batters in 21 innings of work, with an ERA of 1.27. He’s probably the closer in waiting should Ziegler break down at some point. He’s also worth a roster spot to bring down your ratios and grab extra K’s. *** The A’s have shuffled their lineup lately, with Orlando Cabrera batting in the leadoff spot, Kurt Suzuki batting second, and Ryan Sweeney now hitting in the sixth position. *** Santiago Casilla is on rehab assignment and on schedule to return May 15^th.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariner offense has gone to sleep in recent days. Over their last four games the team has batted just .198, scored a total of four runs, and struck out 27 times.   This was the result of putting Jose Lopez in the three spot, Russell Branyan into the cleanup spot, and Adrian Beltre into the five-hole. Manager Don Wakamatsu made these moves to try and jumpstart those players, all of whom have struggled to hit. Maybe he messed with a good thing though. In the ten games prior to the lineup changes, the team batted .301, scored 53 runs, had 11 home runs and only struck out 55 times. Someone should tell Mr. Wakamatsu not to fix something when it isn’t broken. *** Chris Jakabauskus has not won a single start since he replaced the injured Ryan Rowland-Smith. He’s 0-4 with an ERA of 8.14 as a starter. *** Carlos Silva could be done in a Mariner uniform. The team has not yet announced what they intend to do with Silva, but it’s doubtful he will make another start for the Mariners, though it’s also not clear who might replace him. Jason Vargas or Garrett Olsen have been mentioned as possibilities.

Stock Up

Juan Pierre – LA Dodgers – With Manny Ramirez out of town for 50 games, Pierre suddenly becomes a starting outfielder again. Because the Dodgers no longer have Manny’s production to count on, Manager Joe Torre will likely try to play more small ball, which plays right into Pierre’s strengths. Given full time at bats, and a green light to run, Pierre could easily put up 30 steals over the next 50 games, plus he won’t hurt your batting average.

Josh Anderson – Detroit Tigers – Carlos Guillen was put on the DL this past week, so Anderson, who was already getting increased playing time, will now become a full time player. He’s got the speed to be a force on the bases, and playing half of his games against teams in the Central division that seem to give up more stolen bases than most won’t hurt. He bats in a powerful run-scoring lineup in front of the likes of Miguel Cabrera and Curtis Granderson, so he should score plenty of runs.

J.J.Hardy – Milwaukee Brewers – Hardy struggled all through April, but is finally starting to come around. Over his last six games he is batting .429 with two homeruns, ten RBI, and he’s only struck out three times in his last 27 plate appearances. He’s well on his way towards breaking out of his season long funk. Fantasy owners that stayed patient will be rewarded.

Stock Down

Chris Dickerson – Cincinnati Reds – Dickerson is batting just .213 this season, and has not looked anything like the fearsome hitter we saw last season before a broken leg derailed him and ended his big debut. He’s been a mere shadow of himself at the plate, on the base paths (caught stealing twice) and in the field (three errors in LF). Now he’s been replaced in the lineup by Lance Nix, which is almost an insult because Nix is nothing to write home about either.

Alexei Ramirez – Chicago White Sox – The Cuban Missile has been benched by Ozzie Guillen, and replaced at shortstop by Jayson Nix. (Hey, we got a Nix thing going here!) Ramirez was struggling, but this has more to do with his attitude and body language on the field than anything else according to Guillen. Ramirez should be back in the lineup soon, as Nix is nothing more than a glorified utility guy. Until then you’ve got to bench the Missile.

Chad Tracy – Arizona Diamondbacks – Chad Tracy was benched before manager Bob Melvin was given the heave-ho in favor of A.J. Hinch. However, his .191 average and complete lack of power almost ensure that Hinch will maintain the benching and give rookie Josh Whitesell a chance to see what he can do. Tracy worked hard to get back into the lineup after knee surgery threatened to end his career, so I don’t expect him to take this lying down. So unless Whitesell blows everyone away, Tracy will be back sooner rather than later.