The trades just kept on coming in rapid succession yesterday, and we're likely to see more today before the trade deadline officially passes. Of very little fantasy relevance: Austin Kearns to the Yankees. But there were a couple of trades that will have a lot of impact in terms of fantasy.
Edwin Jackson coming back to the American League, honestly, is a bit surprising to me, and I think the White Sox will be extremely shocked if he is still a member of the team tomorrow. I do like the move for the Diamondbacks, as Daniel Hudson will slot into Jackson's spot in the rotation, and should benefit from pitching in the NL West ballparks a fair amount.
The trade won't become official until today, but I really like Lance Berkman going to the Yankees for fantasy purposes. I think we could see a marked improvement from him now that he'll: 1) be playing a lot more games at the very lefty friendly Yankee Stadium, and 2) will be DHing a lot of the time and should help to keep him healthy down the stretch.
Martin Prado left last night's game late and had x-rays done on his right hand, but they were inconclusive. Watch for updates to see if he will miss any time. Clearly a huge blow to his owners and to the Braves if they lose him for an extended period of time.
Jose Bautista just continues to hit homeruns at this point. He hit a grand slam last night against the Indians, and now has 31 homeruns on the season and 79 runs batted in. At this point, it's going to take a prolonged slump in my opinion to keep him from hitting 40 homers this year.
Shaun Marcum had another great start, albeit against the Indians. He struck out 10 over 7 innings of 1 run ball to record the victory. I'll say this much - the Blue Jays really seem to know how to find excellent pitchers and develop them.
At one point, the Cubs-Rockies game was close enough to warrant Rockies' closer Huston Street to warm up. Not after the 8th inning. Leading the hit parade was OF Carlos Gonzalez, who went 4 for 6 with 3 runs scored, his 20th homerun of the season, and 66th RBI of the season. His pace for the season: .314, 103 runs, 31 homeruns, 104 runs batted in, and 22 stolen bases.
Brett Anderson returned to the mount yesterday against the White Sox, and did not fare all that great: 5 earned runs and only 1 strikeout over 5 1/3 innings pitched. I want to see one more start before I get a true reaction, but I don't like what I saw yesterday.Elvis Andrus went 4 for 5 last night in the loss to the Angels, and stole his 25th base in the game as well. Very little power from him, but the runs scored and the steals are both very nice. Shortstop seems surprisingly shallow at the moment, but I can't put him into my top 5 unless his batting average picks up.
A day after being traded to the Phillies, Roy Oswalt had a poor outing against the Nationals in his debut. He went 6 innings, struck out 4 and allowed 4 earned runs, and even got thrown out on a well hit ball (by himself) by the right fielder. Not quite what they were hoping for on day one, but there will be better days than that for sure.
On the other side of the trade, J.A. Happ threw 6 shutout innings in his debut, striking out 6 Brewers. The part I'm not so sure was great was the 4 walks he allowed in the start, but I do think that Happ is worth owning in all but the shallowest of leagues.
Jhonny Peralta must enjoy being a Tiger a lot more than he did being an Indian, at least so far. He had 2 homers against the Red Sox last night, both off of Jon Lester. Not sure if there's a lot of fantasy advice to glean from this performance, but it is nice to see that he might be hitting again.
Joey Votto hit his 27th homerun of the season, but it wasn't enough for the Reds to beat the Braves yesterday. He also raised his batting average to .326 and now has 72 runs batted in as well.
Miguel Montero went 3 for 5 with a homerun, 2 runs scored, and 4 runs batted in. A bit forgotten due to missing so much time with injuries, Montero could still play from here forward as a top 5 catcher.
Miguel Tejada made his debut with the Padres and played shortstop. It was announced that he would also see time at 2B, 3B and out in left field potentially through the remainder of the season. Sadly, this is only relevant in NL only leagues really, as Tejada has not really hit all season long. But the position flexibility could be really nice in deeper leagues.