Tuesday Tidbits

Having already touched on the fantasy news involving B.J. Ryan, Scott Downs, and Kevin Youkilis, let's move on to some other relevant Mark Wahlbergs of the day. (That would mean the other relevant happenings of the day, for all of you not keeping up with the gloss.)

• Jimmy Rollins was dropped to the fifth spot in the order tonight, in an effort by Charlie Manuel to do something to try and jump-start him. Shane Victorino will bat leadoff for as long as Rollins doesn't, so he gets a slight boost in fantasy value for the moment. As for J-Roll, he responded tonight with a solid game, peppering the box score with 1's (1-for-3 with one run, one steal, one RBI, and one walk). Rollins may never recapture his 2007 MVP form, but I still think he's a solid buy-low candidate in trades.

• Chien-Ming Wang could be closer to making a return to the Yankees. In a rehab start at AAA today, the Taiwanese right-hander tossed 6 scoreless innings. A few days ago, Yankees GM Brian Cashman stated that it would take more than one rehab start for the Yankees to consider re-inserting Wang into their rotation, but if he is solid again in his next rehab start, and if Phil Hughes struggles with his next start, it's likely that Wang will get the call immediately thereafter. Wang, as long as he's physically sound, is a recommended add in AL-only leagues once he gets the call, though you might want to keep him reserved for his first start to make sure he doesn't pitch like, well, a guy with an ERA of over 30. Don't go anywhere near him in mixed leagues. I'm shocked that Wang is still owned in 33% of Yahoo leagues, which goes to show that a lot of yahoos play in Yahoo leagues.
  

• Poor, poor Manny Acta. I really haven't seen a major league bullpen this horrific since, well, I don't even know, to be honest. Acta basically had no choice but to remove Joel Hanrahan from the closer role earlier in the season when he was getting lit up, but there were no viable alternatives. Julian Tavarez got a crack, and predictably stunk. Kip Wells got a crack, and predictably stunk. Tonight it was Joe Beimel's turn to blow a save and cost the Nationals yet another win (the Nats are actually getting pretty decent hitting and could be 15-16 with a good bullpen right now; instead, they are 10-21). Ultimately, Hanrahan is likely to get his job back and is the only one in the Nats bullpen that I would even consider owning in NL-only leagues. I wouldn't touch any of those other players, even in NL-only leagues.

• Troy Tulowitzki was able to play tonight after his slight quad strain on Sunday and went 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored, so he appears good to go for this week's action. Tulo has been hitting in the #2 hole again lately, so he gets a solid boost in value with that lineup spot. He should be starting in virtually any format.

• Trevor Cahill picked up his second win in as many starts tonight, limiting the Royals to 2 runs in 6 innings. Cahill is now 2-2 with a 3.69 ERA, decent numbers to be sure, and the rookie has actually allowed 2 earned runs or fewer in 6 of his 7 starts this season (he was lit up for 7 runs in 2 2/3 innings by the Rays). Cahill still has terrible peripheral stats though (just 14 K's against 20 walks in 39 innings), so he should only be on AL-only rosters.

• Clayton Kershaw had another shaky outing on the road in a loss to the Phillies tonight, completing 5 innings and allowing 4 runs. Though Kershaw did strike out 5 in the loss, what killed him was a 43-pitch 4th inning. That's right, 43 pitches in a single inning! Other than that taxing inning, Kershaw's pitch count was actually not too bad. Kershaw is too inconsistent to trust in shallow mixed leagues right now, but those in deeper mixed leagues might want to consider rostering him and starting him for his home games at Dodger Stadium. In 3 home starts, Kershaw has allowed just 2 earned runs in 19 innings. On the road in 4 starts, Kershaw has allowed 20 earned runs in 19 innings.

• I hope you didn't have Clayton Richard, Jeremy Sowers, or John Koronka in your lineups today. If you did, you apparently haven't been reading this blog, I'll tell you that!
  

• Give Chan Ho Park credit; with his role in the rotation basically on the line, he has turned in back-to-back solid efforts. Park picked up his first win of the year tonight against his old team, the Dodgers, tossing 6 innings of 2-run ball. Park should only be on non-shallow NL-only rosters, but doesn't make for a bad play for his next start, which will come against the lowly Nationals.