Everybody in fantasy baseball wants to know what is wrong with Carlos Beltran's knee.

For Worse

1. How will the Japan Series affect fantasy production? The Red Sox and Athletics early regular season opener on March 25th will not be helpful to their fantasy owners.  The games will be played at the level of a spring training game with an “exhibition feel” to them. After the two-game set, the teams will then be off for a week before resuming their regular seasons.  It could put players on both teams behind their competition in readiness.

2. What do all the injuries mean for the Mets fantasy players? Several Mets have lingering injuries that downgraded their fantasy value.  Carlos Beltran’s knee is not right and he has played sparingly in spring training.  Expect him to play when the season starts, but not to do much running. Carlos Delgado had a freak injury where his forearm was gashed, but his persistent hip injury is even more of a concern.   That type of injury will bother him all season.   Moises Alou’s hernia will keep him out until May or possibly June.  Speedy Angel Pagan will get a lot of playing time until Alou comes back or until the Mets acquire another outfielder.  Pagan is worth looking at in NL-only leagues.

3. Who has the most embarrassing injury? Astros 2B Kazuo Matsui will start the season on the DL. He is recovering from surgery to fix an anal fissure.  Didn’t Kevin have that on an episode The Office?  Here’s wishing Matsui well.  George Brett was a pretty good player despite some hemorrhoids, so this shouldn’t be a problem for Matsui going forward.  Going backward would be a problem, perhaps, but not going forward.