The MLB Season’s long 162 game schedule presents many injuries along the way for all 30 teams around the game. For Fantasy owners, though they don’t have a minor league system filled from A ball up to triple A with new talent. This is where great fantasy owners separate themselves from the good owners in most leagues.

Most of the time when you get the news of an injury, it isn’t good news, but it may be positive for another owner or the team that picks up the stud minor leaguer who comes up and shows he is ready to play. The season is approaching the half way point and some key players are on the injury report.

Here is the good and bad to expect from key players injured around MLB:

Matt Wieters, Baltimore Orioles: Fantasy owners of Wieters received the worst news possible yesterday with the announcement of season ending elbow surgery. Wieters was having the best season of his career and looked to be the fantasy catcher option that most teams were looking for.

Jose Altuve, Houston Astros: The Astros second baseman avoided the disabled list, but has only pinched hit since leaving the game on June 12. Altuve currently leads all of the majors with 90 hits despite missing nearly three full games.

R.A. Dickey, Toronto Blue Jays: Dickey, who left the game late against the Baltimore Orioles with an apparent groin injury is expected to make his next start for the team.

Mark Trumbo, Arizona Diamondbacks: Trumbo started taking batting practice the first week of June. This news should come as a relief to fantasy owners and he is expected to be back in early July.

Brandon Belt, San Francisco Giants: The Giants first baseman broke his thumb and expected to miss the next couple weeks. He has been working both during infield drills as well as taking two handed swings.

CC Sabathia, New York Yankees: Sabathia has been dealing with a knee injury for most of  the 2014 MLB Season. The Yankees starter has recently started throwing off flat ground, but isn’t expected to return to the rotation till at least July.

Joel Hanrahan, Detroit Tigers: The Tigers signed the former closer this off-season to provide depth in the bullpen. Hanrahan is recovering from Tommy John surgery and has reported no pain in his throwing process. The Tigers could get him back in early July depending on how the throwing program continues.

Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies: Cargo is one of many key contributors from the Rockies on the disabled list. The other key stars are Nolan Arenado, Michael Cuddyer and Jorge De La Rosa. Gonzalez had a tumor removed from one ofhis fingers and is recovering well. Look for a return somtime in mid to late July.
 

The summer heat is rolling in but MLB players all over the game continue to be cold. While every player goes through struggles during the 162 game schedule most find a way back, but for the rest those struggles could last the entire season.

These types of struggles don’t help fantasy owners, but more importantly the ones that play in leagues that last all season. You can’t afford to let a player go that might bounce back a month down the road, but on the other hand it limits your roster to one less guy.

This gives us a chance to look at some of the games better hitters who have struggled over the last 30 days.

Justin Morneau, Colorado Rockies: The Rockies first baseman got off to a hot start, but has cooled off over his last 30 days. In that time frame Morneau is only hitting .202 with just 17 hits in 84 at bats and has only seven runs batted in. If you look deeper in his last ten games he has only five hits in 38 at bats with zero home runs.

Justin Morneau

Shin-Soo Choo, Texas Rangers: Choo was handed $130 million dollars this off-season by the Texas Rangers, but has yet to live up to it during his first season. Only Justin Smoak and Brandon Hicks have hit worse based on players with enough at bats. In that stretch Choo has hit two home runs  and driven in eight runs for his fantasy owners, but is only hitting.167.

Shin-Soo Choo

Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins: The Twins would love to see Mauer get back on track and have recently signed Kendrys Morales to help bolster the lineup. Mauer has only nine hits in his last 107 at bats and zero home runs.This type of production makes it difficult for fantasy owners to play him in a power position like first base.

Joe Mauer

David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox: Ortiz has still produced hitting seven home runs and drove it 19 runs over the stretch of his last 30 games. The real concern is he has only two additional hits on top of the seven home runs and has a .219 batting average.

David Ortiz

Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays: The Rays have struggled on offense as a whole, but for a player like Longoria these types of struggles are hard to imagine. In his last 30 games he has only three home runs with five runs batted in and a .236 batting average.

Evan Longoria

These are just a few of the key players but the list could also include Dustin Pedroia, Matt Kemp and Albert Pujols.

The Pittsburgh Pirates called up their top prospect Gregory Polanco not only creating a stir in the baseball world but also the fantasy side. Polanco is a player that has been projected as a five tool player at the Major League level. The move will give the Pirates one of the games top young outfield tandems with Polanco, Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte.

In his first appearance for the Pirates, Polanco picked up his first hit in five at bats. Polanco will be making his second start tonight in right field and will face Chicago Cubs starter Jason Hammel. While the buzz might be a little high for a player with five career at bats the future is bright not only for him as a player but one of the top fantasy players in the near future.

In 2012 at A ball Polanco put together a terrific season finishing with a .325 batting average. He showed his potential at all aspects picking up 142 hits, 26 doubles, six triples and 16 home runs. He also drove in 85 runs, scored 84 times and stole 40 bases. He followed that season up moving from high A ball all the way up to triple A appearing in two games at Indianapolis.

While spending time with three teams Polanco finished with a .285 averages along with 12 home runs, 71 runs batted in and 38 stolen bases. After his short stint in triple A last season Polanco started this season at Indianapolis and has been red hot. In 62 games he has hit .348 with 86 hits in 248 at bats. Along with the highest batting average he has also posted a.405 on base percentage and a .945 ops. 29 of the 86 hits have gone for extra bases, including 17 doubles, five triples and seven home runs along with 49 runs batted in.

Now it is hard to imagine what type of player he will become but for now he is one of the most attractive players on the market if he has not been picked up by fantasy owners. For daily fantasy owners it might be a little hard to play him early on but he could be a great play at a cheaper cost.

For fantasy owners in keeper leagues it might be a good time to evaluate your rosters. Polanco has the ability to hit over .300 with 25-30 home runs and 30-35 stolen bases making him a fantasy dream!

Interesting things are occurring in the Dodgers outfield. Scott Van Slyke who hit a two run home-run Monday night in a 6-2 win over the Reds leads all Dodgers outfielders with a 1.060 OPS. All this at the cost of one-fortieth of the other outfielders on the team.

After a sluggish start the Dodgers are trying to shape things up and inserting Van Slyke into the lineup has been a good gamble. 11 of his 20 hits have gone for extra bases and he has walked 18 times in 40 games. Despite having fewer than one-third the at-bats of most regulars, he is fourth on the team with six home runs. His 6-foot-6 frame has not impeded him from being the second-best center fielder defensively for the Dodgers.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has the luxury of having a centre-field duo of Ethier-Van Slyke and left-field duo of Kemp-Crawford. Although Kemp and Crawford seem a bit unsettled as Kemp called it ‘a little weird’ when asked about his position switch. It is not surprise that Van Slyke is sound defensively as his father Andy was a 5-time Gold Glove winner in the 1980s. He has overcome tremendous amount of adversity to get to this point as he was a 14^th round pick who was dropped from the team two winter’s ago. He’s still only 27 and makes the major league minimum salary. He’s been valuable so far this season and may even be used as trade bait down the line if the Dodgers are looking to pick-up another player for the playoff run.

All in all, it’s an interesting story that will be intriguing to watch depending on how the Dodgers season goes.
 

The weekend is approaching for fantasy owners with a full slate of games from Friday to Sunday. While every team will be in action over the weekend, the idea behind which MLB players will have big fantasy games should be the key topic at hand. Now we still have a few games in between but the options should be endless over the weekend.

The first thing we looked at is how the home stadiums have stacked up against each other as far as home runs per game. We will start with the bad news for fantasy owners as the top few stadiums for home runs per game will not be used over the weekend as their teams are on the road. This includes the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks. The good news is the fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland A’s both play at home and both stadiums are averaging more than two per game.

Teams to consider players on:

Oakland A’s, New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Then we looked at each night how each hitter in the league stacks up against the pitcher they are facing on each night. This helped me to zone in a few key players to consider when building lineups for each day.

Friday Games:

Albert Pujols, Los Angeles Angles: Pujols and the Angles will be facing off against Aaron Harang and the Atlanta Braves. For his career Pujols has 27 hits in 79 at bats against Harang including five home runs and 16 runs batted in.

Rickie Weeks, Milwaukee Brewers: Weeks should get the start based on his previous production against Homer Bailey. In his career Weeks has 14 hits in 27 career at bats with two home runs and five walks.

Saturday Games:

Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees:  This pick goes inline with my stadium choices as well as his past production. In his career  Teixeira has 11 hits in 20 career at bats verse Scott Kazmir with two home runs and eight runs batted in. The only concern with Tex has been his health over the past few seasons.

Sunday Games:

Aaron Hill, Arizona Diamondbacks: Hill and the Diamondbacks travel to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers and Josh Beckett on Sunday. In his career Hill has 15 hits in 40 at bats including eight extra base hits and eight runs batted in.

Now these are just a few of the key fantasy players to start over the weekend!

 
 
 
 
Andrew McCutchen has been performing at MVP levels once again this season despite going under the radar. It’s unfortunate that due to the Pirates brutal season McCutchen can’t even crack the top three among outfielder All-Star voting. McCutchen is now hitting .309/.423/.509, pretty much identical to 2013’s .313/.404/.508. There’s been more hype and discussion surrounding Gregory Polanco instead of hearing McCutchen’s name amongst MVP candidates.

A definite sign of a great player is when they play at a high level and no one notices because they have become accustomed to seeing that player perform. For instance, Henry Aaron played at MVP-level for twenty years but only won one MVP award early in his career.

The attention seems to be centered on Yasiel Puig and Giancarlo Stanton. Puig is a monster who is hitting better than last season, and Stanton is carrying the Marlins with his bat and great defensive catches in right field. Even Carlos Gomez, who is third in All-Star voting, has gotten more attention with this speed and power.

All McCutchen does his hit, play solid defense, draws walks, steal bases, and seldom misses a game. He’s smart on the base paths and does everything well. All four players mentioned have had excellent campaigns so it’s hard to leave one off the All-Star roster. Here are the numbers:

* Puig (1,472,717 votes): .333/.430/.584, 11 HR, 40 RBIs, 34 runs, 6 SB, -2 Defensive Runs Saved, 2.8 WAR (DRS and WAR entering Monday)
* Stanton (1,259,047 votes): .301/.393/.589, 17 HR, 53 RBIs, 47 runs, 4 SB, 14 DRS, 4.3 WAR
* Gomez (1,192,174 votes: .307/.376/.554, 12 HR, 35 RBIs, 42 runs, 11 SB, 0 DRS, 2.5 WAR
* McCutchen (1,190,516 votes): .309/.423/.509, 8 HR, 31 RBIs, 33 runs, 7 SB, -2 DRS, 2.8 WAR

Stanton’s defensive numbers stand out in the pack with fourteen Defensive Runs Saved. Both McCutchen and Gomez haven’t been as good in the outfield as last season. McCutchen had 11 assists last year and has yet to record one this year. As for the offense, McCutchen’s home run and RBI tallies fall short but that is due to the fact that he doesn’t have much help around him and plays in a tough home run park, especially for right-handed hitters. Although he has 31 RBIs he’s hitting .327/.444/.551 with runners in scoring position.

Tough to leave someone out but I’d pick go Stanton, Puig and McCutchen. On the bright side, the player excluded gets to DH since the game will be in an American League ballpark.
 
 

On Monday night, Lonnie Chisenhall had the night of his career. Nothing, not even a crazy bat throwing incident can take away from a fantastic offensive performance. No matter what happens in the future, Chisenhall will always be remembered for his 5-for-5 game with three homers and nine RBI’s. Chisenhall is the fourth player to do it this season and it has happened a total of 257 times since 2000.

But, since 1914 only 14 players have hit 5-for-5 with at least three home runs. Three others players went 6-for-6 with at least three home runs (Shawn Green, Edgardo Alfonzo, Ty Cobb). Fred Lynn came close to Chisenhall’s performance for the Red Sox in 1975 when he went 5-for-6 with three home runs and 10 RBI’s. In 1950, Gil Hodges went 5-for-6 with four home runs and nine RBIs for the Dodgers. Josh Hamilton went 5-for-5 with four home runs and a double but just eight RBIs in 2012. Green went 6-for-6 with four home runs and a double but a mere seven RBIs twelve years ago. However, no one has ever put up Chisenhall’s numbers in one night.

Of the 33 players since 1914 to have nine RBIs in one game, only three have had perfect games at the plate. Vladi Guerrero went 4-for-4 with two home runs and nine RBI in June, 2004. Danny Tartabull went 5-for-5 (two home runs, nine RBIs) for the Yankees on Sept. 8, 1992; and Jim Bottomley went 6-for-6 (two home runs, 12 RBIs) for the Cardinals on Sept. 16, 1924. All fantastic games, but not a Chisenhall type of game. It was simply one of the greatest individual offensive performances in baseball history.

To recap his night:

* RBI single in the first inning.

* Two-run homerun in the second and fourth inning.

* RBI double in the sixth inning.

* Three-run home run in the eighth inning.

A few years ago, many said Lonnie would be a future star due to this picture-perfect swing. It hasn’t worked out for him thus far as he struggled in 2011 and 2012 drawing just 16 walks in 374 appearances at the plate. Last season he got demoted to AAA where he hit .390. His cumulative line (.225/.270/.398 with 11 home runs in 289 at-bats) was bad enough that Indians decided to convert catcher Carlos Santana to third base. Safe to say many didn’t pay attention to him going into this season.

Now he’s hitting .385/.429/.615. After a great spring, Chisenhall earned his way into the lineup. The key difference this season is that he’s squaring up more balls. He has a 28 percent line-drive rate compared to 18 percent a year ago. In particular, he’s squaring up fastballs: A .395 average versus .215. His experience is finally starting to show as he’s learning to attack in hitter’s counts. Fans will definitely be seeing more of him at third as Santana will shift to the DH or first. Just two games back of the Tigers, Chisenhall must continue his offensive production in order to give the Tigers a scare.

The future of Major League Baseball is down in the minors and that can be said for fantasy leagues as the season moves along. Many fantasy owners of season long leagues monitor the play at the lower level, including the Triple A level. When a player gets hot or an injury occurs at the Major League level these are typically the first players called up.

Now not all the time will this player be a prospect as a few veterans have worked their way back into the bigs by playing well at the minor league level. Last season we saw Lew Ford of the Baltimore Orioles do this after not performing well in years past. This season could be the case for 36 year old first baseman Mike Hessman of the Toledo Mud Hens. The Mud Hens are an affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, who currently have Miguel Cabrera, but they could use this guy in the majors. Hessman currently leads the International League with 14 home runs in 53 games played.

Now your prototypical call ups are your prospect and that could be the case with the Washingon Nationals who could eventually call up 25 year old prospect Steven Souza Jr who is hitting .371 in 40 games with seven home runs and 25 runs batted in.

Here are some other notable Minor Leaguers who could be potential fantasy producers:

Joc Pederson, Los Angeles Dodgers Affiliate:

In 55 games at Triple A, Pederson has hit 15 home, 36 runs batted in and 40 walks. He has also shown the ability to steal a bag with 13 stolen bases in 17 attempts. The 22 year old outfielder could be a great young ball player to team up with Yasiel Puig for the future.

 
 
 
 
Alex Guerrero, Los Angeles Dodgers Affiliate:

Currently on the disable list after a team altercation that led to him losing part of his ear. Before that though the Cuban second baseman was on fire in 33 games hitting .376 with six doubles, three triples and 10 home runs. It is hard to imagine where the dogers would play him with Dee Gordon on the roster.

Taylor Hill, Washington Nationals Affiliate:

Hill has started 11 starts in 12 appearances this season for the Syracuse Chiefs. In those starts he has posted an 8-1 record with a 1.57 earned run average while striking out 51 in 74.2 innings.

Jimmy Nelson, Milwuakee Brewers Affiliate:

Nelson has made ten starts for the Nashville Sound pitching to a 1.64 earned run average and a 6-1 record. Along with the solid earned run average he has been able to strikeout 69 batters in 65.2 innings.

The idea of building the best daily baseball lineup possible might seem easy on paper but not in crunch time. Some of the games best fantasy players use a variety of different websites, stats and even computer programs to help find which MLB player is going to have the best game. When it comes to assembling a great daily fantasy lineup we tend to look at a few key stats.

These key stats include how a player is performing over the past seven days, hitters track record against the pitcher as well as how he does against a left handed pitcher or right handed pitcher. For pitchers we like to look at the team they are playing and examine how they rank in runs scored as well as how that team has played over the past several games.  The key to all of this is setting the lineup to constrict with the dollar amount you are slotted on based on the daily fantasy site you are playing on.

Other key information to look at include weather forecasts for each game and MLB daily lineups to make sure your players are playing that evening.

Top Hitters Over The Past 7 Days:

Josh Willingham, Minnesota Twins: In his last 7 games Willingham has 10 hits in 23 at bats, including one double, four home runs and 11 runs batted in. He has also added six walks and scored six times over that stretch.

Hanley Ramirez, Los Angeles Dodgers: Over his last 7 games Ramirez has picked up eight hits, including one double and two home runs. He has also added a pair of steals, drove in eight runs and scored five times.

Top Hitters Verse Opposing Pitcher:

Jacoby Ellsbury verse Jeremy Guthrie: The Yankees head to Kansas City to take on the Royals and will face Guthrie in game one. Ellsbury has 20 hits in 46 career at bats verse the right hander with seven extra base hits and seven runs batted in.

Jose Tabata verse Kyle Lohse: In his career Tabata has picked up 14 hits in 33 career at bats with one home run and four runs batted in against Lohse. Tabata could be a value pick in any of your daily fantasy leagues.

Top Pitcher Verse Opposing Team:

Nathan Eovaldi verse the Chicago Cubs: Eovaldi has pitched to a 3-1 record with a 3.19 earned run average while striking out 47 in 62 innings In his last three outings he has allowed  combined five runs. He will have his shot against a Cubs team that has scored the fourth fewest runs in the league, tenth fewest home runs and struck out the eighth most in baseball.

Matt Cain verse the New York Mets: Cain is getting activated off the disabled list and will make the start Friday night. The timing for him and fantasy owners might be perfect as the Mets have struck out the second most in baseball and the third lowest batting average in baseball.