The first week of the baseball season just re-affirms the rule of not wasting a high draft pick on a closer because of the good chance you can find saves late in the draft or through free agency. The leader in the clubhouse with week one almost complete, Jon Rauch of the Minnesota Twins who saved his 4th game in the Twins 2-1 win over the Chicago White Sox. In other fantasy baseball news from around the diamond on Saturday…
Hitters:
Jose Reyes returned from the disabled list for the New York Mets and went 1-for-4 hitting lead off. It is safe to get him active in all formats for next week.
Not the way you want your first start in the major leagues to go, Juan Francisco went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts for the Cincinnati Reds.
Jason Varitek played for the first time this season and delivered two solo home runs to power the Boston Red Sox offense.
Ryan Howard went 2-for-4 with three RBI and is well on his way to another 40+ home run season with his third dinger of the year.
Nelson Cruz slugged his 4th home of the season and looks ready to duplicate his 30+ home runs from last year.
I have caught two of the Atlanta Braves games this season and in each one I have seen Troy Glaus made a terrible play at first base. I know the Braves have him there for offense and not his defense, but if he is not slugging home runs by May and still playing that type of defense and if the team is in the race for the playoffs, I have to think they make a move at that position.
Pitchers:
Scott Baker was much better in his second start, allowing one run in seven innings with three strikeouts.
Jeremy Bonderman picked up his first win in almost two years, allowing one hit in five innings with five strikeouts.
Carlos Zambrano allowed three runs in seven innings with nine strikeouts to notch his first win of the season.
Rookie Jaime Garcia worked six solid innings, allowing one run with five strikeouts to pick up the win. Garcia struggled with his control throughout the game, pitching first-pitch strikes to only 9 of 25 hitters, but helped his cause by recording 10 ground ball outs.
CC Sabathia lost a no-hitter in the 8th inning and finished with 7 2/3 scoreless innings of one-hit ball with five strikeouts. It would have been interesting to see if he had made it through the eighth without allowing a hit if the Yankees would have send him back out for the ninth as he threw 111 pitches.
Dana Eveland tossed 7 1/3 shutout innings with two strikeouts to pick up the win for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Jered Weaver allowed one run in six innings with seven strikeouts but received a no decision.
Closers:
Ryan Perry picked up a save for the Detroit Tigers with Jose Valverde getting the night off after already working in four games this week.
Matt Capps sure does like to make hings interesting as he loaded the bases in the ninth innings before getting Rod Barajas to line out to save his second game of the season.
It looks like Neftali Feliz might have some value after all this year after Frank Francisco blew his second save of the season. Francisco has given up three runs in each of his last two appearances, leaving him with a 27 ERA.
George Sherrill got the chance to close out the Los Angeles Dodgers win after Jonathan Broxton pitched the previous two days, but he was not up to the task, has the Florida Marlins rallied for the win with three runs in the ninth inning
