Sunday Quick Hits

Here's whats happening in baseball today:

- Justin Morneau returned to the lineup the day after breaking his nose. I advised yesterday to sit him but it looks like he's going to play through it.

- Mike Pelfrey was demoted to AAA after struggling at the major league level thus far. The Mets recalled star prospect outfielder Carlos Gomez but he should go back down once Orlando Hernandez comes off the DL soon.

- Rockies disgruntled and struggling pitcher Kim was swapped for equally as bad relief pitcher Julio of the Marlins.

- Sidney Ponson was released by the Twins leaving the 5th starter spot to one of the young players. They spot won't be needed until next saturday so keep your ears open. Early favorite is Kevin Slowey.

Howard Hits the DL

In a quite expected move, Ryan Howard was officially placed on the 15 Day DL. He should have already been out of your lineup but if you were holding out hope you definately need to pick up someone to fill his shoes for the time being. His DL stint is retroactive to last Wednesday's pinch hit grand slam so he is eligible to come off the DL Thursday the 24th -- If he's ready by then. He should be, but you never know.

Tough Break For Morneau

Defending AL MVP was lost today due to a broken nose. The Twins lost the game too. His status is Day To Day. He Broke it when third baseman Nick Punto caught a line drive hit by Brandon Inge and threw to Morneau to try for the double play. But the ball one-hopped Morneau and bounced off his nose. His nose was treated by the trainer to stop the bleeding and then had a doctor set it back in place. Take him out of your lineup for now.

Elite Pitchers Making Headlines

A couple of elite pitchers have been making headlines this year. Here's an update about whats going on:

- Roger Clemens will make a tune-up start next week. It will probably take him 3-4 tuneup starts before he's ready which puts him on track to get to the majors in the first week of June.

- Roy Halladay had to have emergency surgery and will be out 4-6 weeks. The surgery was not baseball related.

- Some good news out of Toronto, BJ Ryan's back is okay! Everything else...not so okay.

- Jake Peavy is still dominating teams. Taking down the Cardinals in another 10 K outing yesterday.

- Carlos Zambrano continues to struggle. Debate and speculation over his contract is all over the media. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

Let me know if you like the bullet point format. And feel free to Email Me questions, comments etc.

Big Dawg Baseball

Big Dawg Baseball recently found themselves one man short of a full staff and asked me if I would be interested in doing writing for the rest of the year. Of course, I was honored to be asked and I will now be covering the AL East for them every tuesday for the rest of the season. It is behind a subscriber wall but there is a bunch of great information bye some really great writers and it is defintaley worth it.

Anyway, be sure to check out my article every tuesday.

Denver Post

Robert Sanchez, a staff writer for the denver post, also runs a fantasy baseball blog for denverpost.com. The other week Robert emailed me and asked me if I would write a guest article for his blog. Of course, I obliged, and my article is now up. You can find a direct link to it here. It analyzes some of the oddities through the season thus far and takes a look at a team that would be winning most normal leagues. The catch? All the players were usually undrafted.

Check it out.

BJ to get TJ

Could it get any worse for the Blue Jays? They are currently in last place in the AL East, 9.5 games behind 1st place Boston and almost as far out of the wild card race. Behind Halladay and Burnett, their rotation consists of Ohka, McGowan and Marcum. Who? Yeah thats what I thought. Oh yeah and now, Jeremy Accardo is their closer. Frasor is still the Closer on the teams official depth chart but we all know how that experiment went. Why is Accardo the closer? Not only is BJ Ryan on the DL, but he is going to have Tommy John Surgery and will miss the rest of the season. Time to look towards next year Toronto.

Taking a look at the Reds

UPDATE: Bailey will not be called up to replace Milton for this start but he still may be worth adding. He is a top prospect and will be up sooner rather than later.

One major move and one possible move thrust the Reds to the front of my mind today. The first priority is that one of my breakout picks for the year has just been demoted. Edwin Encarnacion could make a great buy low canidate for a lot of teams and I think the Reds acted hasitly in demoting him. If someone in your NL only or deep mixed league drops him, you would be wise to grab and stash him. I think he could still have a fantasy impact later in the year.

In other news, the Reds still have not announced who will start in Eric Milton's place on Sunday. Speculation is swirling that it may be the beginning of the Homer Bailey era in Cinci. That would make the top 3 pitching prospects all debuting in the first 6 weeks of the season: Bailey, Lincecum, and Hughes. If Bailey is unowned in your league you need to add him.

And we wonder why the Rangers don't win...

Why do we wonder why the Rangers don't win? When you make moves like trading John Danks and another stud to the White Sox for Brandon McCarthy, you don't deserve to win. But that isn't even what I'm complaining about this time. Eric Gagne was activated from the DL and of course, he's going back to the closers role. If it ain't broken don't fix it! You know Gagne is going to get hurt again and Otsuka probably doesn't enjoy being toyed with like this. Let Otsuka close, and let Gagne be the setup man -- in between vacations to the DL.

Fantasy Impact: I doubt anybody dropped Gagne when he went on the DL but clearly, he needs to be on your roster if somebody did. And, don't go about dropping Otsuka, you'll regret it when Gagne makes his next trip to the DL -- in probably a week or so.

Zumaya, Igawa, Clemens and More

A couple of thoughts about the happenings of baseball recently:

- Zumaya will miss 12 weeks as he is scheduled to have surgery for a finger injury. Anybody hoping Zumaya would become the closer at some point this year needs to temper their expectations. Zumaya will probably remain in the setup role for the rest of the year but if there are DL spots and you have room he is worth hanging onto because he can contribute with an IP and strikeouts 3 out 4 nights once he is healthy.

- Kei Igawa was sent to class A Tampa after struggling in the majors. Igawa was merely a PR signing to keep up with the Red Sox in Japan but that is one expensive PR signing. Class A seems a little bit harsh, doesn't it? Igawa didn't have any fantasy value to begin with but if you were still holding out hope for him, it's time to drop him.

- More details have surfaced about the Roger Clemens signing. It appears Clemens should be ready to start in the majors by mid-june at the absolute latest. Additionally, Clemens contract includes a similar clause as his contract last year that states that he doesn't have to travel with the team if he is not scheduled to pitch.

- A couple of players have been suspended recently. Scott Proctor, Joe Torre, Matt Capps, and Juan Salas. The Proctor and Capps suspensions were minimal. Joe Torre obviously has no fantasy implications. Salas was suspended for 50 games for violating the MLB's drug policy. But he isn't really fantasy worthy either.

- Brian Lawrence signed with the New York Mets. He is expected to make some minor league rehab starts and then get a shot at the major league rotation. He doesn't really have any fantasy value either.