Was Wes Helms the spark that was needed to get Jorge Cantu going?

Cleveland Rocks

The Cleveland Indians has sign pitcher Fausto Carmona to a four-year contract extension worth $15 million. At first glance, the contract looks like highway robbery if you consider what .500 pitchers have been getting in the free agent market over the last couple of seasons, but if you take a closer look at his contract you will notice the club options and player incentives that could raise the value of the contract to $48 million. Carmona’s contract ties for the highest given to a pre-arbitration pitcher (Adam Wainwright, St. Louis). Last season Carmona ranked amongst the top five pitchers in innings pitched, but due to his incredibly hard sinkerball he was able to finish the year ranked 41st in pitches thrown. Carmona’s ability to get batters out quickly helps the Indians to rest their bullpen while Carmona pitches into the eighth inning. So far this season Carmona is 1-0 with a 0.69 ERA and a batting average against below the Mendoza line. Carmona has come out of the gates on fire and has eyes set on winning 20 games. Carmona remains a must-have pitcher in all formats of fantasy baseball and is a good choice to build your fantasy pitching staff around.

Insurance Plan

The Philadelphia Phillies and the Florida Marlins have agreed to a trade that sent third baseman Wes Helms to Miami for a player to be named later. Helms was replaced by Pedro Feliz over the winter and was brought in by the Marlins to back up Jorge Cantu at third. Cantu had gotten off to a very slow start hitting just .200 with no home runs and no RBI; then, on April 6, his team brought in a backup that is very capable of starting on another team, and Cantu snapped out of his funk. Since Helms was brought into town Cantu is hitting .380 with two home runs and five RBI. If Cantu is not able to start hitting as he did 2005 with the Rays then look for Helms to start cutting into to his playing time. Helms is nothing more than a low end reserve at this time. When he does make it into the lineup make sure that you look over all other options before placing him onto your active roster.

Cold Market

• There have been a couple of fairly good players on the trade block since the beginning of the season, but there is not much interest them right now. The Red Sox and Coco Crisp both want to part ways with each other because of the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury. The Sox do not want to pay any of his $11 million owed to him and it looks as if the rest of major league baseball feels the same way. The Chicago Cubs were in the mix earlier, but they acquired Reed Johnson so their need for an outfielder has disappeared. For the time being, the Red Sox and Crisp are going to have to live with each other and keep splitting the playing time in center field between the young rookie and non-hitting veteran. AL-only owners need to watch this story throughout the season, if your league has a SOL policy when it come to players sent to the other league, you need to start finding a center fielder to replace Crisp when he gets sent to the NL. Some other teams that may be looking to pick up an outfielder would be the Rays and Giants.


• The Cubs have completely stopped talking to another team as well. The Cubs and Orioles were supposed to be close to agreeing to a deal that would send Brian Roberts to the North Side of Chicago, Mark DeRosa has recovered nicely from heart surgery and now there is not need for the speedy second baseman. Just because the O’s are winning right now does not mean that they will stop trying to sell off their veterans for young up-and-coming talent. I can almost guarantee that the Orioles will move Roberts by the July 31 trade deadline. Currently, Roberts is hitting .278 with one home run and five RBI. Just like the Crisp situation, owners must keep a close eye on Roberts. Roberts is still a solid starting second baseman in all formats of fantasy and will be especially helpful in rotisserie leagues because his base stealing ability.


• Joe Crede is another player that was on the trade block to begin the season, but there was little to none interest in him and the Chicago White Sox decided to just go ahead and let him play. Since the start of the season Crede came out of the gate on fire and is making it very hard for the White Sox to continue wanting to shop him around. Crede is hitting .361 with 3 home runs and 11 RBI in nine games. So far, it looks like there are no ill effects from his back surgery that he had less than a year ago. San Francisco was one of the teams that was interested him in the beginning of the season so be watchful of the trade talks and be ready to find another third baseman in AL-only leagues. Fantasy owners need to ride Crede all the way, until either he cools down or starts having the back problems come back.

Injury Bug Bites the Tigers Again

As if the Detroit Tigers did not have enough problems right now, they just got another one on Friday night. Dontrelle Willis did not even record an out before hyperextending his knee. Initially the Tigers thought he may have blown his knee out completely, but they may have gotten lucky this time. Jeremy Bonderman is the only starter to make it six full innings in a start so far this season, and they are already without fireballer Joel Zumaya until the All-Star break. The Red Sox have designated pitcher Kyle Snyder for assignment and it appears that the Tigers may attempt to bring him in to help fill the gap either in the rotation or in the bullpen. Currently the Tigers are listing Willis as day-to-day, but he could make his first career trip to the DL. If the Tigers bring in Snyder, one should consider him as nothing more than a low-end middle reliever and used only in the deepest of leagues that actually use middle relievers. If Snyder get some starts, watch and see how he handles it first then make the decision to pick him up.

Rumor Mill

• The Astros have a decision to make when both Kazuo Matsui and Ty Wiggington are both ready to return to full time duties. Mark Loretta is currently making $2.75 million and this is above the league average for a glorified utility man. The Astros may look to trade Loretta for some bullpen help. There are no teams jumping out of their seats to make the trade now, but the Giants and Dodgers have little interest and if the O’s can dump Roberts, they may make a move to get the cheap veteran to play second for the remainder of the season.


• We are two weeks into the season and Sammy Sosa is still a free agent. If no one contacts him soon, it may be the end of his career. With no one calling him, Sosa is seriously considering retirement. Personally, I think it would be great for baseball to have another one of the highly suspected steroid users leave the game for good. It would put the MLB one step closer to putting the steroids era behind them. Hopefully, Barry Bonds will follow Sosa into retirement and let everyone just forget about the damage they caused Americas pastime.


• The Philadelphia Phillies have signed veteran reliever Steve Kline to a minor league contract after the San Francisco Giants released him. He is not worth picking up.