Fantasy Baseball Morning Update: Cautious with Crawford
Pretty good, Hyun-Jin Ryu. If only I had bet money on my National League Rookie of the Year prediction.
First pitch: The Mets and Marlins begin the NL day at 12:40 p.m. ET, while Twins-Tigers kicks off the AL action at 1:08. There are five afternoon starts today.
Interleague DH issues: The Phillies started Delmon Young at DH last night, and he hit a home run. Would you let that guy play the outfield if you could avoid it? Me neither.
Streaming starters: Sorry about yesterday's terrible Edwin Jackson pick - we're down to 15-12 for the season. Today's choice is San Diego's Andrew Cashner (owned in 4.7 percent of FOXSports.com leagues) against the Cubs, while Thursday's selection is Philly's Kyle Kendrick (29.1 percent owned) versus the Marlins. If you like to stream starters, you need to chase the Marlins every chance you get. Their lineup was pretty horrendous before Giancarlo Stanton got hurt.
On to the news:
- The sometimes brittle Carl Crawford was scratched from Tuesday's game due to a tight hamstring, and Dodgers manager Don Mattingly suggested that Crawford might get today off as well. Crawford has played pretty well so far, so be happy that Mattingly is being careful with him.
- In other Dodger news, Hanley Ramirez started at shortstop and hit a homer. Start him if you've got him, fantasy owners.
- After blown save No. 4 for J.J. Putz, Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said he wasn't ready to discuss a possible closer change. I'm ready to discuss it, and I think it's time to stash setup man David Hernandez (2.1 percent owned) if you have the roster space.
- Giancarlo Stanton's hamstring injury is pretty bad. The team's website says the "best-case scenario" has Stanton returning in 3-4 weeks.
- Joel Hanrahan is off the DL, but Andrew Bailey is still the Red Sox' closer.
- After worrying millions of fantasy owners with murmurs of forearm tightness on Monday, Stephen Strasburg and his "structurally perfect" right arm are expected to make their next scheduled start on Saturday.
- As expected, the Angels placed OF Peter Bourjos on the DL with a strained hamstring. The moderately speedy J.B. Shuck took Bourjos' place in the outfield on Tuesday, and could be worth an AL-only look if he stays in the lineup. On the bright side, the Angels got Erick Aybar back from the DL last night.
- No surprise here: The Yankees finally placed 3B Kevin Youkilis (back) on the DL. Last night, the Yanks went with the fearsome duo of Eduardo Nunez and Jayson Nix on the left side of their infield. In other Yankee injury news, 1B Mark Teixeira (wrist) isn't expected back before the end of May.
- White Sox 3B Jeff Keppinger (back spasms) hopes to return to the lineup tonight or tomorrow.
- You need to see this home run that Edwin Encarnacion hit last night. Colossal. Titanic. Oh. My. Goodness.
- Rangers C A.J. Pierzynski was scratched last night due to an oblique injury, and he might not play tonight, either.
- Who's heating up? Jason Bay? Really?
- Here's an interesting article looking at the strong start of A's 3B Josh Donaldson.
- Mike Moustakashit a home run! Wooooooooo!
- Despite struggling (5.32 ERA) at Triple A, SP Jordan Lyles is about to get called up by the Astros. He might even start Thursday.
- Look for Jhoulys Chacin to come off the DL and rejoin the Rockies' rotation on Sunday. SS Troy Tulowitzki (rotator cuff) is expected to play tonight after a two-game absence.
- The Braves are hoping to get Brian McCann back early next week.
- Here's a link to Tuesday's edition of the Fantasy 15 podcast, during which Adam Meyer and I discussed the slow starts of Matt Cain, Josh Hamilton and Victor Martinez.
See you back here tomorrow morning.

