Fantasy Baseball Morning Update: Jays' Lawrie shut down
Reds' Double-A SS Billy Hamilton stole five bases in a doubleheader last night, giving him 147 steals for the season. That's a new minor league record, and serves notice that Hamilton could be a one-category fantasy monster in 2014. If he's not already owned in your keeper league, I'd be shocked.
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Milwaukee's Marco Estrada tossed six shutout innings on Tuesday, raising our streaming starter record to 79-50 and reminding us that we should stream against the Cubs whenever possible. Today's pick is Kris Medlen (owned in 29.4 percent of FOXSports.com leagues) versus the Nationals, while Thursday's selection is Rays' ground-ball machine Alex Cobb (5.7 percent owned) against the A's.
On to the news:
- Oh, no. The Blue Jays had been planning to get 3B Brett Lawrie back on Tuesday, but he woke up Monday with new oblique soreness. The Jays' website reports that Lawrie will be shut down until at least Monday, and says that manager John Farrell "didn't eliminate the possibility that Lawrie might not be able to return at all this season." Keep your fingers crossed, Lawrie owners.
- John Axford has been reinstated as the Brewers' closer, and got last night's save.
- Today's schedule features five afternoon games, beginning with Royals-Rays at 1:10 p.m. ET, plus a Marlins-Diamondbacks doubleheader. Set your lineups accordingly.
- Tigers SP Doug Fister has a groin injury that might cause him to miss his Saturday start. Drew Smyly would be Fister's likely replacement.
- Yu Darvish's scheduled Thursday start is up in the air due to a quad issue. We should know more later today.
- To continue the starts-in-doubt theme, Mets SP Johan Santana (back) might miss his Thursday start, and the team's website says that if Santana gets skipped, his season could be over. Look for an announcement today.
- Evan Longoria moved back to third base last night to make room for the return of DH Luke Scott. BA killer/inexplicable Halpin favorite Sean Rodriguez was the roster casualty, getting sent to Triple A.
- Four more hits for Dewayne Wise? Really?
- After last night's dominant performance, Stephen Strasburg is 15-5 with a 2.85 ERA ... and up to 145 1/3 innings. Strasburg probably won't reach his limit until the season has less than two weeks remaining.
- Cardinals OF Carlos Beltran missed Tuesday's game due to a sore left hand. It doesn't sound serious.
- That was a really nice first start of the season, Brett Anderson. I guess people should pick you up after all.
- The A's activated Seth Smith from the DL, and he had two hits with two runs scored on Tuesday. Smith should play enough to be useful in AL-only leagues. To make room for SS Stephen Drew, the A's sent 2B Jemile Weeks to the minors, and will use an Adam Rosales/Cliff Pennington platoon at the keystone.
- Twins OF Denard Span was supposed to get an MRI on his clavicle yesterday, but couldn't because he's claustrophobic. No, I didn't make that up. Span is still day-to-day.
- Bad times for the Indians, who announced that OF Grady Sizemore (knee) won't be back this season, and that SP Josh Tomlin will have Tommy John surgery.
- Marlins OF Emilio Bonifacio left Tuesday's game with a knee injury, and will have an MRI today. You should probably bench him for today's doubleheader.
- Rookie Jacob Turner will start one of today's games for the Marlins. FishStripes takes a look at what to expect from Turner right now, and it's predictably bumpy for a 21-year-old.
- Jhoulys Chacin made a strong return to the Rockies' rotation last night. I like Chacin for deep mixed leaguers, even if he pitches a lot of games at Coors Field.
- Cubs SP Matt Garza (elbow) is officially done for the season.
See you back here tomorrow morning.

