Tuesday Tidbits

With the Brad Lidge situation already mentioned, let's get to some other thoughts of the day...

• After a cold May, Andre Ethier has begun June on a tear. Ethier slammed two home runs tonight (giving him 11 on the season), and this marks the second game out of the last three that Ethier has done that. He has five homers in June already. His batting average had dipped to around .250 with the brutal May showing, but after tonight it is back up to .280, plenty acceptable. Ethier's hot, so make sure you get him into your lineup in any format.

• Justin Upton was surprisingly back in the lineup tonight, pleasing his owners for sure. Even though he went 0-for-4, he did draw a walk and score a run, and the most important thing is that his shoulder was healthy enough for him to play after injuring it over the weekend. It is unbelievably unlikely that the D'backs would risk any type of injury to their 21-year-old star--particularly when they are so far back in the standings--so I'd feel fairly confident in inserting Upton back into your fantasy lineups.
  

• Matt Cain is showing why you can never predict a pitcher's won-loss record from year-to-year. Up until this season, Cain had been the victim of horrible run support in his young career, usually finishing with terrible records yet posting ERA's in the mid-to-upper 3's. But this season, the Gigantes have been scoring runs for him; tonight, despite allowing 4 runs in 6 1/3 innings, Cain picked up his NL-tying 8th win of the year. To be sure, Cain is deserving of having 8 wins considering that his ERA is just 2.55, but Dan Haren is 4-4 with an ERA significantly lower than that. You just can't predict these type of things, and it's another example of why you should look toward other stats when trying to predict pitching performance.
  

• I had suggested that Miguel Cabrera could be a possibility for shallow mixed league owners to bench while he plays through a hamstring injury, and through 9 innings today he was 0-for-4, which meant he was 0-for-his-hamstring-injury. But then Cabrera stepped up and hit a solo homer leading off the 10th inning, the winning margin in a 7-6 Tiger victory. I still don't think Cabrera is close to 100%, and I still think fantasy owners can consider benching him if you have a guy like Todd Helton ready to step in, but in most formats, certainly, you have to roll with Cabrera.

• Cubs GM Jim Hendry has made some questionable moves, but signing Ted Lilly certainly has not been one of them. Lilly has been excellent as a Cub (and healthy), and after a bit of a slow start this year, Lilly has really gotten things rolling lately. He threw shutout baseball over 6 2/3 innings today for his seventh win of the season, and Lilly has allowed only two runs in his last three starts. With the recent surge, Lilly's ERA is down to an even 3. In 78 innings, Lilly is striking out 3 more batters than he's walking (63 K's against just 20 walks), and he has a sterling 1.05 WHIP. Claude Monet would probably have a soft spot for a guy named Lilly, and obviously, those that own Lilly are quite happy that they do. He's a rock-solid mixed league starter.

• Mark DeRosa's hitting line doesn't look like anything spectacular, at .267/.332/.449 thus far. But with a grand slam home run tonight, DeRosa now has 42 RBI on the year, along with 10 homers. And most people probably don't realize he has scored 38 runs, too. Roto leaguers realize the value that DeRosa provides, and he is on a pace to hit 27 homers, have 113 RBI, and score 103 runs. A 30/100/100 player is a very valuable player in fantasy baseball, and DeRosa is flying-under-the-radar, probably because of the aforementioned hitting line. The subject of so many trade rumors, though, remember that if DeRosa gets traded to a contender, it's possible he could see a decrease in at-bats, at least slightly. For that reason, there's nothing wrong with seeing what DeRosa could fetch in a trade (a trade in your fantasy league, I mean). If you think you could get equal value, go ahead and make a deal.
  

• Remember when Josh Beckett got rocked in an April 30 start and his ERA stood at 7.22? Me either. (OK, that's a lie, because I just looked it up.) Well, all Beckett has done is toss seven straight quality starts since then, and his ERA has gone down in each of the seven. The latest was a superlative effort against the Yankees tonight in Fenway Park, as he gave up just one hit in 6 shutout innings. Beckett's ERA is all the way down to 3.77 now, and in 76 1/3 innings on the season he has 76 strikeouts. His record is 7-2, and his WHIP is down to a respectable 1.30. I hope you didn't panic and waive Beckett when he had a bad first month. On the flip side, to those of you that bought low on him, kudos. He's a great option going forward, just like his rotation mate, Jon Lester.

• Jered Weaver is shining like he did in his rookie season. Perhaps driven by the terrible death of his good friend Nick Adenhart, Weaver is pitching like a fantasy ace this season. Weaver has been harder to hit this year, with 69 K's in 81 2/3 innings, and his ERA (2.31) and WHIP (1.04) are superb. He bested the Rays tonight to move to 6-2, allowing two runs in 6 innings (which raised his ERA just a tick). I don't think Weaver will maintain numbers quite this good, but I do think the ability--and motivation--is there for Weaver to be a rock-solid mixed league starter all year.
  

• Maybe Jimmy Rollins just needs a kick in the ass to actually play well. Whenever Rollins has been the leadoff man this season, he's basically stunk it up, as his fantasy owners know all too well. Earlier in the year, Charlie Manuel dropped him down to the fifth spot in the order, and Rollins actually had a couple of good games. So Manuel re-inserted Rollins into the leadoff role, and he went right back to bad-to-mediocre hitting. Manuel dropped Rollins into the sixth spot in the order yesterday, and what has Rollins done? Just go 5-for-8 with 2 runs, a homer, and 2 RBI. Charlie, if you can hear me, listen up: keep Rollins batting sixth for a while! If it takes Rollins getting embarrassed in order to get him going, I'm all for it. Just keep him hitting lower in the order for a while. I implore you. Seriously, for those that own Rollins, I still say you have to be patient. You're not going to get anything close to fair value in a trade, and Rollins plays a position that has a dearth of attractive options. He's still a potential lottery ticket going forward, so you should hold on to the ticket and hope you can cash it out.

• Ben Zobrist, in the loss to the Angels, hit his 12th home run of the season. His OPS is 1.094. Seriously, what is going on here? This can't last...can it? I like him as a sell-high, but most people are probably skeptical, like I am, so you probably can't get much for him in a trade. But hey, maybe you can try to trade him to a big Rays fan in your fantasy league. Assuming that isn't something you can do, though, the best course of action is to just enjoy this ridiculously hot play while you can. Who knows, maybe Zobrist will be an amazing surprise this season.

• David Wright hit a home run for the first time in 100 at-bats tonight, yet his fantasy owners can't be incredibly disappointed in his overall play. Despite the fact that Wright has a mere four home runs on the season, he is the 20th-ranked player in Yahoo leagues. After all, the guy is now hitting a robust .348, with 14 stolen bases and 35 RBI and 37 runs scored. It seems as if Wright knows he needs to run more often on the basepaths to keep his fantasy owners happy, and as an owner of Wright myself, I can say thank you David. There is no question that Citi Field is going to be a deterrent to Wright's power numbers, but at the same time I expect him to heat up a bit in the power department, and a 30-steal season is quite likely. And when Jose Reyes is able to come back, Wright's RBI totals will improve. I had Wright as the #3 option on draft day before the season, and I would still have him as a certain top-10 option going forward, maybe even top-5 (Citi Field really has been a negative for hitters, much more so than I would have anticipated). Before the season I was thinking of something like .315-30-120 with 20 steals...now I'd think maybe .320-22-108 with 35 steals.