Yes that’s right… David Ortiz hit his first HR of the season in the bottom of the 5th inning off Brett Cecil.

I was hoping for a better picture… but you get the point.

Usually the first homerun from a power hitter on May 20th, is not something to get excited about. However Ortiz’s homerun is encouraging because he’s been getting under alot of baseballs and popping them up, it was hit to the deepest part of the ball park, and Ortiz is very likely to go on a tear over the next few weeks. 

You have to remember, Ortiz is a guy who while injured last season hit 23 homers and drove in 89 runs. It’s not beyond him while healthy this year to hit another 25-30 and drive in 100. I think the years of 35+ homers are over. But I don’t think Ortiz is done by any means. I guess I’m just optimistic, but hey I’m a redsox fan, and I traded to get him after the first 3 weeks of the season, trading Clayton Kershaw.

DON’T LET ME DOWN DAVID!

Go pick up Mat Gamel! In any format, any league, just do it!

Stop reading this and go do it!

Ok but seriously, if you need a stud 3b, Mat Gamel (Mil – 3B) will be your guy. Although for the moment he will still be coming off the bench to pinch hit (he was 0/1 today) for the moment. Interleague play is coming up and they will be traveling to Minnesota to play the Twins shortly. He will get the DH spot in everyone of these games.  In 119 AB’s Gamel is hitting .336/.428/.647.

Enjoy the 3B eligibility too. I have to imagine the Milwaukee Brewers are trying to find somewhere else to play this guy, since DH is not an option.

Oh Manny Acta why is your bullpen so bad? The Washington Nationals bullpen is bad, that we know, but t is so bad it is on pace to obliterate the record for blown saves (34 is the record the “Natinals” are on pace to record 52 BS’s).

Acta sums up his problems with this hilarious quote: “We have tried everyone and their cousins…”. 

Going forward I’m sure you figure out who’s the guy in DC to right this ship? The answer will be either Joe Beimel (He did blow the most recent save last night however) or Joel Hanrahan (Who has been surprisingly better as of late). I recommend staying away from the National pen. In fact even in the deepest of leagues I would rather get a set up guy on another team (Like Ramon Ramirez of the Red Sox who has more wins (4) than Beckett or Lester), then let the Nationals’ pen ruin my fantasy day.

But if you’re an ER chaser, add Beimel, he has more strike out potential, as well as the current faith of the manager.

Now that the Mannyroids talk is dying down a little bit, it’s time to get down to business! This is going to be a weekly column about typical fantasy diamonds in the rough. These are players you can look to add to give your team a little boost that are available in 50% or plus of most common fantasy formats.

Koji Uehara (Bal – SP) – I’m not jumping up and down about Koji yet, but if you’re in a deep league, you could do worse than adding him. My colleague Bush10623 does a great job talking about why to add him here. I personally would put him on your watch list wait one more start to see if he’s for real. He’s availble in about 93% of most leagues, so no rush yet.

Freddy Sanchez (Pit – 2B) – Freddy is an interesting guy to be on this list. A former batting champ, who had an injury plagued 2008 is about 57% available in all Fantasy formats. The depth at second base is really good this year, but this guy is for real. He will get 170-190 hits, bat .300+ and knock in 60-80 runs. Sanchez is the real deal who should be owned in most formats.

Chris Duncan (Stl – 1B/OF) – Chris Duncan’s power is real. He’s definitely a threat to hit 20HR’s and drive in 70+. His average is not however. Duncan is a career .268 hitter, but becomes valuable in leagues that carry OBP and SLG. He’s available in almost 75% of all fantasy formats. If your power numbers are lacking, or you drafted Adam LaRoche (sucks doesn’t he), he can help you in the power and OBP departments.

Jesus Flores (Was – C) – Flores will not wow you with his career .261 BA. However Flores is only 24 years old and is only in his third year in the major leagues. Flores will not keep up the power hitting, but he has the potential to hit around .300 and slg close to .450. Fantasy owners looking to stop the bleeding after the Ryan Doumit injury, look no further an Flores. He’s available in over 80% of fantasy leagues and could be a nice replacement over the next 6-8 weeks.

Remember don’t expect the world with these finds, I’m only showcasing a handful of players who could be interesting additions in the short term to your line up. Always add or drop players at your own risk!

I Saw this and had to include it.

So the obvious thing that happened this week was Manny Ramirez being suspended for 50 games for using a woman’s fertility drug. Everyone on this site has been all over this story, so I really don’t have much to say. But if you’ve been living under a rock for the last 24 hours you can check out the original breaking new article from the LA Times here. For the Dodgers, it could not have come at a worse time. They were riding a 13 game home winning streak and firing on all cylinders. The best move to make here is to go pick up Juan Pierre. Pierre guarantee you cheap source of steals, as well as a high avg and on base percentage. Go get him in all formats, he will help your team and might even be trade worthy in deeper leagues.

In the last 7 days we have had a Matt LaPorta sighting among the leagues. And he has barely cracked a line up with a 2-13 showing with 2 runs, a HR, and 2 RBI. Don’t panic yet Fantasy owners you should expect big things from LaPorta this season. In deeper leagues where LaPorta has been snatched up, you might want to think about grabbing Mat Gamel (Mil-3B). If you weren’t paying attention you can read my notes about Gamel here.

Overrated Prized prospect of the last couple of seasons Jarrod Saltalamacchia (Or the Sultan of Sodium as others refer to him) has started to show why he was an A+ prospect. In his last 3 games he’s got 4 hits, 1 HR, and 5 RBI’s. His season line is just an Ok, .276/.313/.447 with 10R/21H/3HR/13RBI, I think he deserves your attention in deeper leagues. Especially leagues where you drafted Soto, Doumit, or McCann early to bolster the C position. I believe he posses the ability to hit 20HRs this year, but I don’t know if we’ll see that .300 avg we all hoped for.

Can someone please tell Carlos Pena to come back down to earth? The man has been crushing the ball as of late. Over the last seven days Pena is batting .304 with 4HR’s, 6RBI’s, and slugging an other worldly .913. Pena is a definite threat to hit 40HR’s and 100+ RBI’s, but expect the K’s to creep back up on his line and he should finish the year hitting about .255. Its a great time to sell high on Pena owners if you are in a keeper leagues and buy low on someone who is underperforming or injured (Jose Reyes, Russell Martin, Cole Hamels, Brandon Webb).

There will be lots more to talk about this weekend. And if something good happens check back here and I’ll have written a post about it (I promise  hope).

 I’m not worried about David Ortiz. And you shouldn’t be either!

David Ortiz will be fine! It’s May 7th and he’s in a slump! If it is July 7th and he still doesn’t have a HR, I’ll be singing a different tune. All signs point he’s coming out of it, but he is definitely in a HR slump. After one full month of baseball I’m not ready to write off a guy who came off of an injury plagued 2008 campaign and still hit 23 HR’s and 89 RBI’s. Granted he hit .264 but he did slug .507. Even at his awful pace, he’s still going to hit 85 RBI’s, that’s not terrible by any means.

If you’re in a fantasy league, its time to buy low on David Ortiz (I took a bigger gamble and traded Clayton Kershaw for Ortiz a couple of weeks ago). There is no way he goes all year with a .250 avg, 323 on base percentage, .215 slugging and zero HR’s.

The LA Times has broken the story. Manny Ramirez will be suspended for PED’s for 50 games effective today. This looks to be true as the Dodgers have already made a move to promote outfielder Xaiver Paul from the minors. Manny would be set to return around July 4th from this suspension.

The obvious effect of this will be how will the Dodgers make up Manny’s production? He is batting .348 with a .492 on base percentage and  slugging .641. Manny is  a once in a generation type hitter, so there is no one way to make this up. Juan Pierre looks to benefit from this the most, as he will start everyday in left field for the Dodgers.

Once a month I want to take time and talk about the latest and greatest Fantasy Prospects down on the farm that if you’re taking your team seriously you need to watch with a close eye.

Matt LaPorta- (Cle – OF) – He received the call up when Travis Hafner went down. Originally brought up to platoon with David Delucci (Why Eric Wedge, WHY!), he has started three games so far. Although he is only 1-10, that one hit happened to be his first major league homer (If you don’t believe his power is real check out this video). LaPorta, who was acquired in the CC Sabathia trade with the Brewers last year, was awful post trade in Double-A. LaPorta was even worse playing the in Venezuelan winter league (.164 BA 22k’s in 67 AB’s). But this was no cause for concern. He was batting .333 with 5 homers when he received the call up this year. This guy is a fantasy stud, and once he gets his bat going consistently will be a factor in Clevland OF. Ben Francisco is LaPorta’s only roadblock, it’s only a matter of time before he falters. Find a spot for LaPorta on your roster in all but the shallowest formats, he will pay dividends shortly.

Mat Gamel – (Mil – 3B) – Another stud 3B to come up through the Brewers system. The important thing to remember here is that he will get promoted because of bat definitely not his defense (his defense believe it or not is worse than Braun’s, 5 Errors in AAA already this season). Gamel’s only roadblock is Bill Hall (let’s remember that Bill Hall was benched for a period of time last year), but you can only deny a .385 AVG, 7HR’s and a .756 slg percentage for so long. Look for Gamel’s call up to come between now and July. If you have a spot in dynasty or deep leagues you should stash him. He will be an immediate impact when he does arrive at the big show.

Tommy Hanson – (Atl – SP) - Hanson should have started the year with the big club, but was demoted to AAA probably so Atl could hold his rights a little longer. Since he has been sent down down he is killing the AAA level. Hanson has 48 strikeouts in his first 32 2/3 innings. Batters are hitting a dismal .179 against Hanson. His only roadblock is Jo-Jo Reyes, who has been terrible for the last 2 years. I would expect a late May early June call-up. He is a SP worth stashing in every format.

I would first like to say thank you to Jeff for giving me the opportunity to post here on MajorLeagueBlogging.com. I’m excited to be a part of the MLB family. With that said it is time to get to business!

I’m going to keep this post brief because want to set up my weekly fantasy add/drop session on Tuesdays and my major league round up on Fridays. But these are just a few of the ideas I have. There will be plenty to follow trust me.

When anyone offers you a trade in Fantasy Baseball what do you think about? Do you think about every stat involved with making that trade? Do you get emotional because your mancrush is involved in the trade talks? Or do you evaluate the trade on who’s getting the best player?

There are a lot of different takes on this. I can tell you though never, I mean never trade on emotion. The best man in my wedding decided it was a good idea on draft day of a keeper league to offer up Hanley Ramirez. I know the first thing I thought too was is this guy nuts? But it gets much worse. He took a trade that only netted him Jason Bay, Jon Lester, and Carlos Marmol. I tried to counter this insane offer with David Wright and any pitcher on my roster (I had hamels, billingsley, Zambrano, and Broxton drafted at this point – oh and I had A-Rod on the bench so no worries there). He turned me down, why? Because he “Really wanted Lester.” His team is also in last place at this point.

I’m not bitter anymore, but this is definitely the way to set your team back in a keeper league. The best advice I can say about trades is something a wise man once told me, “Whoever gets the best player in the trade, usually gets the best deal.”