The Phillies placed 2006 MVP Ryan Howard on the 15-day D.L. with a quadriceps problem. It is retroative to May 10, the day after he hit a pinch-hit grand slam off Brandon Medders, who allowed three inherited runners to score in the process. This is a big blow to most fantasy offenses - Howard going on the D.L. not Medders allowing the three inherited runners to score. Hopefully, it will be only be for the 15 days.
What it makes me consider, though, is how much injuries affect who wins and who loses in fantasy baseball. Howard was a consensus 1st round pick, and if my Yahoo! free agent pools are representative of others' FA pools, can only be replaced by the likes of Casey Blake, Mike Jacobs, Jose Vidro, Casey Kotchman, etc. Granted, that is better than what is available in my NL-only league (Greg Dobbs, Julio Franco, Ramon Martinez, Mark Sweeney, Javier Valentin and Daryle Ward), but it is a far drop from Howard to Blake.
While blaming bad luck can sometimes sound like whining (and sometimes is just an excuse for an unknowledgable player), it does play a part in the final results. Ask yourself this: If a league is comprised of the 12 best fantasy players, what would seperate the 1st place team from the last place team? Luck