![](\"http:\/\/a323.yahoofs.com\/ymg\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts__26\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts-249397539-1272267782.jpg?ymGgtCDDoee61GaR\")
•<\/strong> Chalk up another double-digit strikeout effort for Colby Lewis<\/a>(notes)<\/a>,<\/span> who struck out 10 in 6 1\/3 innings to improve to 3-0 for the Rangers. Things looked a little dicey early for Lewis. Austin Jackson’s<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> first major league home run led off the highlight reel (video)<\/a>. It was a glorious shot and the Tigers would plate two more runs in the first and one in the second to put Lewis on the ropes. But the righty settled down, later crediting his off-speed stuff<\/a> with allowing him to retire 15 straight hitters. Lewis joined Nolan Ryan and Bobby Witt as Rangers pitchers with multiple double-digit strikeout games in April. Decent company. <\/p>\n\nThe backstory has already been told<\/a> in this space and so far the Lewis saga has played out exactly as predicted. The Boston start wasn’t overly messy, but it also wasn’t particularly useful (5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, ND). Lewis’ next turn should come against Seattle, then the Rangers have series against Oakland, Kansas City, Oakland (again) and Toronto. As Andy advised after that 10 strikeout turn against Cleveland, you can’t possible drop a player after a performance like that. Well, after today’s gritty effort, you can’t possibly let the rest of this story play out on someone else’s roster. Lewis had been added in about 2,500 leagues as of Sunday evening, but still remained a free agent in about 80 percent of Yahoo! leagues. Act now.<\/a><\/p>\n \n•<\/strong> Brad Hawpe<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> landed on the disabled list Sunday, allowing Eric Young<\/a> Jr. to shed the "NA" tag via a promotion from Triple-A Colorado Springs<\/a>. Young did not start Sunday, but singled as a pinch-hitter and stole second base in the eighth inning. Everyone knows the story here. Young stole 58 bases in the minors in 2009 and in six seasons on the farm had 303 swipes in 573 games. Reliable first-hand accounts say he has as much speed as anyone in baseball<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nIf you’re chasing steals and have a disposable roster spot, Young could help out in a MI slot. Just know that he wasn’t exactly tearing it up in Triple-A (.228 avg., 17 Ks in 57 ABs) and his promotion was characterized as a depth move. The Rockies could move Carlos Gonzalez<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> down in the order, yes, but Young hasn’t exactly established himself as a reliable table setter. We’ll see if manager Jim Tracey decides to give Young an extended look at second base (Clint Barmes<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> reached base three times Sunday, but is hitting just .204), or keeps him stashed as a late-inning weapon on the basepaths. Stay tuned.\n<\/p>\n \n•<\/strong> Paul Konerko<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> homered for the third consecutive game and fifth time in nine games in Sunday’s 3-2 win over Seattle. It wasn’t cheap (video here<\/a>), but Konerko is. As Sunday draws to a close he’s a free agent in about 46 percent of Yahoo! leagues. It may be true that corner infielders with pop are like point-per-game centers in hockey, but we’ve discussed before that most MLB cleanup hitters are relevant in most formats, and the case gets stronger when the guy hitting out of the four hole is a perennial 30-homer threat playing half his games in a solid hitting environment.\n<\/p>\n \n•<\/strong> Lefties entered play Sunday hitting .458 against Cleveland’s Justin Masterson<\/a>(notes)<\/a>,<\/span> so the A’s decided to front-load their lineup with left-handed batters, going L-L-L-L-R-L-R-L-R from top to bottom. The result was a tidy 11-0 victory, with the lefties having their way with Masterson and three Tribe relievers. Eric Chavez<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> turned back the clock with two hits and three RBIs and Daric Barton<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> went 3-for-4 to raise his average to .328. These struggles aren’t anything new for Masterson, who last year held righties to a .203 average while lefties fattened up, hitting .323. He’ll try to snap a nine-decision losing streak against Minnesota. The Twins have a couple of decent left-handed swingers in the heart of their order and perhaps a visit from Masterson can get Jason Kubel<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> going again.\n<\/p>\n \nBarton sustained a small fracture in the middle finger of his right hand in the seventh inning. He’ll be evaluated Monday and his status for Oakland’s upcoming six-game road trip is in doubt<\/a>. Jake Fox<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> was behind the dish for the Athletics. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI single, but more importantly collected his fourth start at catcher. One more earns him catcher eligibility, and if he can ever get his bat going consistently, there’s four-position appeal here (he’s already good to go at both corner infield positions and outfield).\n<\/p>\n \n•<\/strong> A pair of baseball’s top pitching prospects had useful turns down on the farm Sunday. Toronto’s Kyle Drabek<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> struck out seven<\/a> in 5 2\/3 innings in his best start since joining the Blue Jays organization. Drabek had Tommy John surgery back in 2007, but was the top pitcher in the Phillies minor league system last year (12-3 at two levels) and was considered to be nearly major league ready entering the 2010 season.\n<\/p>\n \nMeanwhile, Phillippe Aumont<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> appears to be getting comfortable<\/a> in the Phillies system. He pitched six no-hit innings in his longest and most effective start since joining the organization in the Cliff Lee<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> deal. Will we some day refer that Halladay-Lee four-teamer as the Drabek-Aumont deal?\n<\/p>\n \n•<\/strong> Speaking of Lee, his owners got some good news<\/a> on Sunday, as the rehabbing lefty threw six strong innings for Triple-A Tacoma. Lee is on target to make his Mariners debut Friday against Texas.\n<\/p>\n \n \n•<\/strong> Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer states the case<\/a> for Carlos Santana<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> remaining in the minors near-term. Goods points, all, even if the arbitration angle was muffled a little bit. Lou Marson<\/a>(notes)<\/a>,<\/span> for the record, went 0-for-3 Sunday to lower his average to .088. Santana pinch-hit Sunday at Triple-A Columbus and flied out. He’s hitting .333. Handshakes<\/strong>: Francisco Cordero<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> walked two and allowed the tying run to reach third base, but held on for his seventh save in a 5-4 Reds win over the Padres. … Matt Capps<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> made it 8-for-8 in save chances, retiring three in a row to protect a 1-0 lead after allowing a James Loney<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> double to lead off the ninth. Tyler Clippard<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> worked a scoreless eighth. … Jim Johnson<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> got five outs for the Orioles, but had nothing left in his third inning of work and had to be bailed out by Cla Meredith<\/a>(notes)<\/a>,<\/span> who got the last two outs in the 10th for his first save. … Bobby Jenks<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> blew away Ken Griffey Jr.<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> with a high fastball to record his fourth save of the season. A Casey Kotchman<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> double had put the tying run in scoring position. … Joakim Soria<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> struck out Michael Cuddyer<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> and Jim Thome<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> to close out his fifth save of the season. A Justin Morneau<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> RBI double had cut the K.C. advantage to 5-4.\n<\/p>\n \nRyan Franklin<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> earned save No. 6 in fairly routine fashion. … Chad Qualls<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> punched out Greg Dobbs<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> and Chase Utley<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> to notch save number four in Arizona’s 8-6 win over Philadelphia.\n<\/p>\n Injury blog:<\/strong> Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> was not in the lineup Sunday, stating he was only 50 percent<\/a> after getting hit on the knee by a Johnny Cueto<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> slider on Saturday. … Ryan Zimmerman<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> took some cuts Sunday<\/a> and could be back in the Nationals lineup Monday. … Freddy Sanchez<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> could return to the Giants lineup in two weeks<\/a>. … Kerry Wood<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> threw a bullpen session for the Indians on Sunday, but no timetable has been set<\/a> for his return. … Justin Upton<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> is day-to-day after fouling a ball off his left leg<\/a>. … Cameron Maybin<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> was still feeling the effects<\/a> of a Saturday collision, so he sat it out Sunday.<\/p>\n Speed round:<\/strong> Rhyne Hughes<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> went 4-for-9 with a double and two RBIs for Baltimore over the weekend subbing for a struggling Garrett Atkins<\/a>(notes)<\/a>.<\/span> … Nolan Reimold<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> went 2-for-5 batting leadoff<\/a> for the first time in his career. … David Price’s<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> first career shutout featured nine strikeouts. … Justin Smoak<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> is hitless in seven at-bats for the Rangers. … Fifty at-bats later, Brandon Wood<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> finally has his first RBIs of the season. Of course, it took a late break by Yankees left fielder Marcus Thames<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> to open the door. But hey, gotta start somewhere. … Sixty-percent owned Brad Penny<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> won his third consecutive start, pitching into the eighth and scattering eight hits in a 2-0 win over the Giants. … Kelly Johnson<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> still wants your attention. He hit his seventh homer of the season Sunday.<\/p>\n They really tried to play through this for a while …<\/p>\n No theme tonight. Just a series of bullets to throw a tarp over the fantasy week that was. • Chalk up another double-digit strikeout effort for Colby Lewis(notes), who struck out 10 in 6 1\/3 innings to improve to 3-0 for the Rangers. Things looked a little dicey early for Lewis. Austin Jackson’s(notes) first major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6884,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-543112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6884"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/a323.yahoofs.com\/ymg\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts__26\/ept_sports_fantasy_experts-358586592-1272267918.jpg?ymPitCDDjdWonl9O\")
•<\/strong> Tyler Colvin<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> hit .468 for the Cubs in spring training to make the roster and now is doing everything he can to force manager Lou Piniella to find a way to get him in the lineup. The Cubs gave Marlon Byrd<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> a rare day off Sunday, with Colvin batting fifth with favorable results: 3-for-4, three RBIs, triple short of cycle. He’s now 7-for-14 with two homers in his last three starts. Byrd and his .338 average aren’t going anywhere, but Piniella is committed to an outfield rotation<\/a> that will keep all parties fresh. "I said we’d give everybody an opportunity and some at-bats and playing time, and that’s what we’re doing," Piniella told MLB.com. Colvin has already started at all three outfield positions in 2010.\n<\/p>\n
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