Deep League Fantasy Fishing - Week 6/7

Every week I give pick-up suggestions for leagues that are of the deeper variety. These suggestions aren't for everyone because that would just be dumb. These leagues are usually scrapping the bottom of the waiver wire looking for the week's useful guy or an injury replacement for a few days or even weeks. So turn your attention to the few suggestions I have this week.

Brian Dozier SS Min - A starting shortstop. Period, that was my opener. Original, I know. He doesn't need to hit a ton, because the guys he replaced weren't doing that either. Seems a little rushed by the Twins here but Gardenhire gets the most out of scrappy ball players. He got on base at a nice .360 clip as a minor leaguer. He's started out 3-8 and is going to get every chance at regular at bats. Sounds good to me in an AL only or 20 teamer where your starting Jason Bartlett.

Jarrod Dyson OF KC - Just get the sound of Mickey, Rocky's trainer, in your head here. Speed, speed and maybe some runs, but mainly speed. Lorenzo Cain isn't coming back for a month and Dyson will be given the keys to the lead off spot in the sleeping giant known as the Royals line-up. Since May clicked over and he basically started everyday in CF, he is 9-32 with 9 runs scored and 2 SB's. That's just 8 games folks. Extrapolate that over a month of play and that's a .300 avg, 25 runs scored and 7-8 SB's

Travis Ishikawa 1B Mil - Now hear me out first before you start giggling and skim past it. Stat wise he is your borderline NL-only type guy. I ask you this: who is going to take at bats away from him? Derek Lee isn't here yet and Corey Hart is needed in RF. All I am saying is start him versus right handed pitchers and you might have something. This pick-up is for more of the really deep league that punted a CI spot and needs a platoon type guy.

Andy Dirks OF Det - Gets the spot in the line-up that I like to call the "Leyland's easy chair". He hits in front of 2 great hitters and has been good so far in May with 5 two hit games. Add in occasional pop and a lot of chances to score. That spells a guy that will be added more then dropped. Better to add early in speculation than be left wondering why didn't I Dirka Dirka.

Scott Diamond SP MIn - Is he awesome, probably not. He is servicable on a match-up basis in leagues with 14 teams or more. He's got a great mix of pitches and locates well. His offense isn't a juggernaut so it's more of match- up delight here. Could be a sneaky guy for counting stats this week albeit against two tough teams. Grab him now, start him on Sunday against Toronto, see how you stand in the match-up on Thursday and maybe start him against Mil.

Christian Friedrich / Alex White SP COL - Both youngsters are with the grown-up club now. White threw last night and pitched well enough for the win, Unfortunately the Rockies forgot to bring their bats with them and were swinging with strands of fussili. Friedrich starts today's afternoon tilt against the same Padre team. Now it's probably too late to add him for today's game but next week with the arrival of Jeremy Guthrie one of these guys will, or should get bumped. The other is going to have a 2 start week against some pretty juicy non-hitting opponents, SF and Sea. So a situation to monitor is how well Friedrich pitches today. That determines next week.

Jason Frasor RP TOR - The Blue Jays bullpen is scuffling. Sergio can't get back soon enough, but til then they have to rely on CoCo Cordero.... or do they. I personally think that they may mix and match in the coming weeks because that is better then relying on what hasn't worked. New things are always so shiny. Be the first kid on your block with a new saves candidate in the year of the closer crap storm.