After a dominant relief outing in his Major League debut, Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Max Scherzer is heading to the rotation to make his first career start on Monday. If Scherzer is as dirty against the Phillies as he was in his debut, he could stick in the rotation for more than just a spot start. Over the long term, though, look for Scherzer’s rough mechanics to force him back into a relief role.

Arizona sees Scherzer as a future starter, but the club could find itself in a similar situation with him as the New York Yankees were with Joba Chamberlain and the Boston Red Sox with Jonathan Papelbon. Do they keep the most electric arm in their organization at the back end of the bullpen, or do they rock the boat and hope Scherzer can be equally as dominant while eating more innings? Read more »

To less hardcore baseball fans, the name Larry Walker doesn’t carry a lot of clout. If you didn’t see him play or hear numerous, numerous people rave about his immense abilities, his name blends in with a mass of other very good, non-Hall of Famers.

But if you do listen to all of that talk and can appreciate the fact that Walker had once-in-a-generation, five-tool ability, you can appreciate how gifted Texas Rangers center fielder Josh Hamilton is. The reason? Hamilton is raking to start the 2008 season, and he is collecting comparisons to Walker faster than he’s adding to his MLB-leading RBI count. Read more »

Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Pat Burrell and Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Ben Sheets are two players who, throughout the years, have become a bit overrated. Burrell’s bat has previously gone silent in key situations, and the injury bug has bitten Sheets on-and-off in recent season. It had been a long wait for the two to fulfill their massive potential, but early signs are good in 2008: Burrell is on a tear, batting .354 and Sheets’ ERA is under 1.00.

Burrell has saved the Phillies with clutch hits multiple times this season. With Ryan Howard struggling, Burrell and Chase Utley have kept the Phillies afloat in the National League East standings. Burrell, who is leading the majors with 25 runs batted in, has been relaxed at the plate this season, and willing to go with the pitch to the opposite field, instead of trying to pull everything like he has in the past. Read more »

Alex Rodriguez sits atop Imaginary Diamond’s first player rankings list, largely out of respect for what he did last season. Hanley Ramirez, Chase Utley and David Wright are all nipping at his heels, especially with A-Rod parked in the garage with a sore quad.

Rising on this week’s list are Lance Berkman, who has gone on a five-category tear to start the season; Rafael Furcal, who looks fully healthy after an injury-plagued 2007; Chipper Jones, who’s hitting everything that moves; Carlos Zambrano and Miguel Tejada.

Some of those falling down the board are Ryan Howard, who’s missing everything that moves; Adam Dunn, for the same reason; C.C. Sabathia, who dug fantasy owners a huge hole in the pitching categories; Eric Byrnes, who has two sore hamstrings; and others. Read more »

With May fast approaching, fantasy owners are starting to make the trades that will set the tone for the rest of the season; either you’ll be regarded as a genius who fleeced the weak, or you’ll be a member of the “weak” and residing in your league’s cellar for the next five months. 

When dealing with early-season trades, one needs to remember that balance is still the key. If you find yourself on the losing end of pitching stats for two weeks in a row, don’t pillage your team to trade for three staff aces. With that being said, here are some trades which have gone down the past few days that you might be interested in replicating for your own fantasy needs. Read more »

When Prince Fielder hit his second home run of the night on Wednesday, he did more than lift the Brewers to a 5-4 win over the Phillies. He hit two home runs in a game for the first time this season and made a little personal, meaningless history in the process.

In 2007, when Fielder became the youngest player in baseball history to hit 50 home runs, his first two-homer effort also came on April 23, also in a 5-4 win. In each contest, his second homer of the night was the game-winner for the Brew Crew. Read more »

There is a little bit of everything in available in the offensive player pool this week. There’s a great option for prospect watchers in Toronto’s Adam Lind and raw power in St. Louis’ Ryan Ludwick and Seattle’s Richie Sexson. Speed and middle infield help are also available in doses with Washington’s Felipe Lopez and Houston’s Kazuo Matsui.

Personal feeling is that Lind ends up being the best of this bunch. He’s got all the tools to make a big splash early and grow into a star. Besides, don’t young, exciting players make it more fun to manage a fantasy team? Read more »

We turn our attention to the free agent marketplace and put starting pitchers under the microscope. At this point in the season, your needs in this area are varied - from a one-time spot start to desperation for an arm that can save your pitching staff. Hopefully, most are closer to the former than the latter because there aren’t a lot of long-term fixes available.

Angels right-hander Ervin Santana fits that mold if he can conquer his road demons. Same deal for Twins starter Nick Blackburn, who is talented and poised enough to have prolonged success as a rookie, but is not guaranteed to keep his spot in the rotation. The point is, if free agent pitchers were perfect, they wouldn’t be free agents. Find the risks you want to take, take them and hope for the best.
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Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury has just about put veteran backup Coco Crisp in his rearview mirror for good. He is in the same form now as when he burst onto the scene in 2007, igniting the Red Sox offense with an array of skills and carving out a huge piece of the team’s outfield time share.

First point in his favor over Crisp, Ellsbury is quickly becoming an adept leadoff man for the Sox. Look no further than his 12 walks and just four strikeouts in 43 at-bats to gauge that progress. For comparison’s sake, he had just eight walks and 15 strikeouts in 116 at-bats in his debut last season. The production results have been much the same; Ellsbury has scored 15 runs over the last 11 games, and Boston has been victorious 10 times over that stretch. Read more »

I was in Boston this past weekend to watch my friend run the Boston Marathon. It was a great road trip. Three friends and I drove seven hours, got a cheap hotel room and made t-shirts. We discussed things we could do while we were there and more than anything else, I wanted to see the Red Sox play in Fenway Park.

We decided that Sunday afternoon’s game against the Texas Rangers would be our best chance to get some tickets from a scalper for a decent price. About an hour before the game, we walked to Fenway and started looking for shady guys whispering, “Who needs tickets?” Sure enough, about 20 minutes later we found a guy with standing room seats that were in our price range of $50 or less.

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