Fantasy Baseball Notes from Sunday

Ryan Braun hit his 28^th homer of the season on Milwaukee’s 11-6 loss to the Astros.  He is hitting .303-28-80-9 for the season. How many people were expecting him to tail off after the ROY season he had last year?

Jeff Samardzija pitched 2 shutout innings, striking out 3 and earned his first major league save in the Cubs come from behind win vs. the Marlins. This from a guy who had started 15 games at AA Tennessee, with a 44/42 K-BB ratio in 76 innings and a 4.86 ERA. Closer of the future in Chi-town? Wood is a free agent at the end of the year.

George Sherrill earned his 30^th save of the season in Baltimore’s 5-2 win vs the Angels. Will this be his last save as an Oriole?

Clayton Kershaw earned his first major league win today vs. the Nationals. He pitched 6 innings, giving up 4 hits and a walk, striking out 5. Are the Nats better than some of the AA competition Kershaw has faced this year?

Speaking of the Dodgers, a day after optioning Blake Dewitt to AAA Vegas, they send Andy Laroche down to join him to activate pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney and his .094 batting average. Nice move, Ned!!

Ubaldo Jimenez shut out the Reds in Cincinnati 11-0, going 6 innings, giving up 5 hits, 1 walk and k’ing 2. He lowered his ERA to 3.80. Since June 1, he has 8 quality starts in 12 games started, 6 wins, and his ERA is under 2.80. Time to put him on your 2009 list of sleepers.

Johan Santana threw a complete game to win his 9^th game of the season in the Mets 9-1 victory over the Cardinals. He gave up 6 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 5. He also managed a single after not running out a long fly ball that hit off the RF fence. Wonder if he will get abused by Mets fans on WFAN tomorrow?