Roto Roundup: Josh Hamilton, Daniel Bard, Jarrod Parker, and Others

In an attempt to shore up their bullpen, the Red Sox are skipping Daniel Bard's next start, and he will work exclusively out of the bullpen going forward. I imagine he will be closing real soon.

White Sox outfielder Alex Rios is having a solid bounce back season, and he went 3-4 with a double, triple and 3 RBI yesterday, and is hitting .333-.396-.511 with a HR and 7 RBI thus far in 2012. Rios had a horrific 2011 season and fantasy owners are left to wonder how many White Sox players checked out last year playing under Ozzie Guillen.

Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley has had an excellent, and surprising, start to the 2012 season. Well, he came down to earth yesterday against the Astros, of all teams. Coming into the game, he was 4-0 with a 1.78 ERA (H/T to TrueblueLA) pitching in Houston. Yesterday, he put up all sorts of crooked numbers, as he gave up 9 runs, 5 earned, on 4 hits, 4 walks, just 2 strikeouts and 2 home runs, one of which was a grand slam to Jordan Schafer. His ERA ballooned from 1.33 to 3.04 after this start.

I want to let everyone know that if you have fantasy baseball questions, you can hit me up on Twitter at @faketeams, as I am on Twitter almost every night.

More Roto Roundup after the jump:

Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez shutout the Dodgers for 7 innings yesterday, giving up just 3 hits, 3 walks and striking out 6. He is now 1-2 on the season, yet owns an excellent 1.42 ERA. Amazing.

Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay was sent back ti St. Louis to pay a visit to team doctors after he experienced growing discomfort in his right shoulder. A DL stint is very possible, so plan accordingly. Outfielder Shane Robinson has replaced him in centerfield, but is only rosterable in the deepest of leagues.

Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse got the Opening Day start for the Cardinals this season, and has pitched like an ace since. He held the struggling Pirates offense to just one run in 7 innings on Sunday, giving up 6 hits, no walks and striking out 5. He is now 3-0 with a 0.99 ERA and 0.66 WHIP. He is a candidate to regress from here though.

Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton is having an excelent season thus far, and he would be the talk of baseball if it wasn't for Matt Kemp's hot start. Hamilto went 3-3 with a walk, HR and 2 RBI yesterday, and is now hitting .418-.438-.776 with 7 HRs and 17 RBI. I think Hamilton is playing for a big contract this offseason, as he will be a free agent should the Rangers not sign him long term.

Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero held the struggling Royals to 2 runs in 8 innings, giving up 5 hits, 2 walks and striking out 5. Romero is now 3-0 with a solid 3.29 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in his 4 starts this season. Romero is out to prove that his 2011 season was real.

Danny Duffy was a pitcher who I had targeting in my AL-only league a few weeks ago, but was a few dollar short in my bidding, Duffy has had a nice start to the 2012 season, but yesterday the wheels came off. He gave up 4 runs on 5 hits, 5 walks and 5 strikeouts in just 4.2 innings. What was worse was the fact that it took him 113 pitches to get 14 outs yesterday. He currently owns a 20-10 strikeout to walk ratio in 17+ innings, so he still needs to work on improving his control. Once he does that, I think he will be a more valuable and consistent fantasy starter.

One of our readers asked a question about Diamondbacks reliever Bryan Shaw last night in the fantasy baseball chat I hosted. The question was whether Shaw is the DBacks backup closer, as he already has two saves this season. I wanted to verify how set up man David Hernandez was used before Shaw got his save opportunities. Shaw earned a save on April 8th, with Hernandez pitching on April 6th and April 7th. Shaw also earned a save on April 15th, and Hernandez again pitched the day before. Hernandez did not set up Shaw in either save chance, but it appears that Shaw is the back up closer. Not sure why, as Hernandez closed games last season when J.J. Putz was on the DL. Something to watch going forward.

There was a report on twitter yesterday, and on other sites, that Diamondbacks pitching prospect Trevor Bauer was promoted to AAA. That turned out to be inaccurate, as another DBacks prospect, Charles Brewer, was promoted instead. It is just a matter of time before Bauer, or Tyler Skaggs, gets called up to replace Josh Collmenter in the Diamondbacks rotation.

One pitching prospect who is getting called up is Athletics prospect Jarrod Parker. Parker will get the call up to start Wednesday night vs the White Sox. I own Parker in my AL-only league, and due to the league rules, I will wait to activate him to make sure he is up for good.

Mariners pitching prospect Taijuan Walker had another good outing in AA last night as he gave up 2 runs on 4 hits, 3 walks and 6 strikeouts, in 5 innings of work. He also induced 8 ground ball outs. I asked Fangraphs Dave Cameron on Twitter if Walker is expected up in 2013. His response was "if he isn't, there is something wrong."