Who will be the next fantasy star to go down with a significant injury? Yesterday, we learned that Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton broke his upper arm taking a headfirst slide into homeplate. He will be out for 6-8 weeks and will be replaced on the Rangers roster by former prospect Chris Davis. David Murphy is expected to get the majority of the at bats in Hamilton's absence. I wrote about Murphy in one of my fantasy sleeper articles this offseason, and had this to say about Murphy:
Ron Shander projects Murphy to hit .282-.349-.450 with 15 HRs, 67 RBIs and 12 SBs this year. If you consider the fact that Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz have proved to be injury prone, Murphy could outperform his projections with more ABs in 2011.
Fake Teams Fantasy Player of the Day
Angels starter Dan Haren threw a complete game one-hitter on Tuesday night, walking two and striking out 8. Haren is now 3-0 on the season with a 0.73 ERA, and well on his way to re-establishing himself as a top-10 starter in 2011. One concern is he threw 125 pitches in the ballgame, but when a starter has a one-hit shutout going, managers tend to let them stay in the game.
Astros shortstop Angel Sanchez just keeps on hitting. He went 4-5 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored on Tuesday night, and raised his triple stat line to .395-.438-.512 with 8 RBIs. He won't hit like this all year, but he could keep the job when Clint Barmes comes back from the DL.
Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal broke his left thumb sliding into third base last night, and will be out for 4-6 weeks. Utility guy Jamey Carroll will take his spot at SS, and has some value in NL-only leagues. I picked him up in one of my NL-Only leagues yesterday morning when I learned of the news.
More Roto Roundup after the jump:
Giants outfielder Andres Torres, who injured his achilles a few days ago, will avoid the DL. Aaron Rowand has been manning CF for the Giants in his absence. Does Andres Torres repeat his 2010 season this year?
Mets outfielder Jason Bay is at least 2 weeks away from returning from the DL with his rib cage injury. Willie Harris, of all people, continues to get the majority of starts in his absence, and now that Lucas Duda sent down to the minors, Harris has LF all to himself. An owner in my big money NL-only league keeps reminding me that he picked Harris very late in our draft. I told him Harris was the 5th outfielder and proceeded to draft Scott Hairston, who I have already dropped.
Do you hear those drums? Yes, they have started to beat in Albuquerque as Dodgers prospect Jerry Sands hit yet another HR last night, a 3 run shot. He now has homered in 4 straight games, and has 12 RBIs so far this season. Is that James Loney looking over his shoulder?
Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth went 2-3 with a HR, 2 runs scored, an RBI and a SB in his first game against his former teammates. He has had a slow start to the season, hitting just .237, but has a very good OBP of .370 and is slugging .500.
Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos went 2-3 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI vs the Phillies and is now hitting .450-.522-.550. Ramos will eventually become the starting catcher in Washington, so his value should increase as the season progresses.
Rangers utility infielder Michael Young started at second base yesterday and went 3-3 with 2 runs scored, and RBI and a SB. Young just continues to hit even though there was some thought that he would not respond well to being a utility player. Young is hitting .341-.348-.432 so far this season.
Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus went 1-3 with a run scored and 2 SBs on the season. I didn't rank Andrus too high in my preseason rankings, mainly because he is a one category guy at shortstop. He doesn't hit for a high BA or hit for power, but should be a 35+ base stealer this season.
Tigers outfielder Ryan Raburn went 2-4 with an RBI and two runs scored on Tuesday afternoon. Raburn was productive in his 374 ABs last year hitting .280-.340-.474 with 15 HRs and 62 RBIs.
Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford went 0-3 and is now hitting just .152-.204-.174 on the young season. Manager Terry Francona has been batting Crawford in the leadoff spot lately. Crawford is a career .275 hitter in the month of April, so he is due to get hot real soon.
Rays DH Johnny Damon went 2-4 with 2 RBIs and his 3rd SB of the season, as the Rays won their second straight game against Damon's former team.
Rays starter David Price had his best start of the season, going 7 2/3rds innings, giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits and two walks, but struck out only 3 Red Sox. He outdueled Red Sox ace Jon Lester, who pitched 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 7 hits, 2 BBs and 8 Ks. I have a bet with a Red Sox fan, that Clayton Kershaw would have better stats than David Price this year. So far Kershaw has a 24-4 K/BB rate vs Price's 12-4 K/BB rate.
Braves starter Tommy Hanson shutout the Marlins for 7 innings, giving up just 6 baserunners and striking out 5, as he won his first game of the season.
Jason Heyward went 1-3 with a walk and his 3rd HR of the season. I projected Heyward to go 25-90 this year and he is starting the year showing more power than last year even though he is hitting 6th in the Braves lineup.
Astros outfielder Hunter Pence went 3-5 with 4 RBIs on Tuesday night and is now hitting .326-.367-.478 with a HR and 9 RBIs. He seems to like the third spot in the Astros lineup.
Michael Bourn went 2-5 with 4 runs scored, an RBI and 2 SBs last night. Can he stay healthy enough to steal 50 bases this year?
Mariners rookie starter Michael Pineda wo his first major league game, giving up one run on 5 hits, 2 walks and striking out 7. Pineda threw first pitch strikes to 23 of the 29 batters he faced, and should be picked up in all leagues.