With a lot of the actual fantasy baseball draft preparation now completed, let’s take a look at some of the happenings around the baseball diamond over the weekend. These news & notes will be more focused on changes that affect players value as well as players coming back off of injuries or rookies that might make an impact.
For example, I don’t care that Fernando Martinez hit two home runs this weekend because it really means nothing in 2010 with Jeff Francoeur, Carlos Beltran (when healthy) and Jason Bay in the New York Mets outfield.
Injuries:
Catcher Russell Martin of the Los Angeles Dodger has an injured groin and is expected to miss four-to-six weeks which means he will likely miss opening day. I would knock 50 at bats from his projections just to be safe.
Third basemen Alex Gordon will be out for three-to-four weeks with a broken thumb. With Gordon usually being drafted two to three rounds earlier than he should every year, the injury just puts him back to where he should have been all along.
Hitters:
For those people concerned about Justin Morneau and his back problems from last year affecting his power in 2010, it was nice to see him get his first home run of the spring today.
The recent signing of Orlando Hudson by the Minnesota Twins bumped J.J. Hardy from the second spot in the batting order. On Sunday, Hudson was hitting second with Hardy in the sixth spot.
Value going up for Jason Bartlett as it looks like he might open the year as the lead off hitter for the Tampa Bay Rays. Value going down for B.J. Upton who was hitting seventh in the order on Saturday.
Mmmm, Matt Kemp as the new number two hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers? Not sure I like that. In 55 at bats in the number two hole last year, he hit two home runs with only five RBI. It definitely means he is going to have a hard time breaking 100 RBI if he stays in that slot the entire season.
Pitchers:
Kyle McClellan threw three shutout innings with four strikeouts in his bid to secure one of the St. Louis Cardinals starting rotation spots. The magic of Dave Duncan continues.
Ian Kennedy threw two scoreless innings for Arizona and is a good late game play in National League only formats after missing the majority of the 2009 season.
While spring training numbers are usually not that important for the majority of pitchers as they work on new pitches, get used to being stretched out, etc., for some coming back from injury it does has some impact to their draft status. Jeremy Bonderman of the Detroit Tigers was pounded on Sunday, allowing six runs in only 2/3 of an inning.
Shaun Marcum tossed two scoreless innings on Saturday with two strikeouts. He is a great end game option in mixed league formats in 2010.
Francisco Liriano hurled two scoreless innings with three strikeouts as he looks to carry over his strong performance from the winter league. Another outing or two like this and he is going to start rocketing up draft boards.
At some point this season Jaime Garcia is going to have some value for the St. Louis Cardinals. He might have to start the season in Triple-A to build up arm strength after missing part of 2008-09 with Tommy John surgery, but he is worth holding onto in NL only leagues. He tossed three hitless innings on Saturday with three strikeouts.
