Yovani Gallardo (SP-MIL) – Oh boy. If you were watching Sunday’s Brewers game and you saw Gallardo grab his side after throwing a pitch in the third innings, you know right away – oblique. The 24 year-old Gallardo has been one of baseball’s best pitchers this year with a 2.58 ERA, 122:48 K:BB, and .224 BAA in 111.2 innings. There are obviously different degrees of oblique strains, but early speculation has Gallardo missing three-to-four weeks. The fantasy impact: clearly this leaves a huge hole in many rotations. Gallardo’s absence will open up spots for both David Bush and Manny Parra, one of whom was scheduled for a demotion now that Doug Davis is returning. I’ll continue to pound the Manny Parra drum, as despite his inconsistency, is still just 27 and sports a 9.6 K/9.
Jorge De La Rosa (SP-COL) – De La Rosa is nearing a return from a finger injury and had been pitching well in his rehab outings, but DLR then surrendered seven earned runs on 10 hits in just 4.2 innings on Saturday. This was supposed to be his final rehab start, but considering the outcome, the Rockies could choose to give him a little more time. Jhoulys Chacin was scheduled to move to the bullpen (unfairly I might add – see Francis, Jeff), but Chacin may get a temporary reprieve, and should Francis continue to struggle, his rotation spot could be in jeopardy.
Evan Meek (RP-PIT) – Meek entered Sunday’s game against the Phillies in the seventh inning, tossing a perfect inning and ending up with the W. Meek lowered his ERA to 0.96 with an impressive 42:11 K:BB in 47 innings. Meek’s .221 BHIP% is a bit on the low side, so a sub-1.00 ERA is obviously unlikely to be sustainable, but there are few better long-term closer possibilities than Meek. This year though, Meek is batting Joel Hanrahan to take over as Pirates closer once Octavio Dotel is traded, something that seems more a probability than a possibility at this point. Hanrahan has been the guy pitching the eighth inning in front of Dotel recently (including Sunday), so we’ll use that “evidence” to say that Hanrahan is the favorite to close over Meek. Sometimes you have to look beyond simple ERA and to usage patterns.
Jimmy Rollins (SS-PHI) – Rollins was 0-for-4 Sunday, dropping him to .270/.377/.494. Due to a myriad of injuries, Rollins has accumulated just 89 at-bats on the season, but what really stands out there is the OBP. Rollins posted just a .296 mark last year and currently has just a .330 career mark, so is this a fluke or real progress for the 31 year-old? Hard to say. Rollins had seven walks in six games to start the season prior to getting hurt and another four walks in one game recently. The lack of a meaningful sample size tends to lead me to think he’ll regress to a .330-.340 OBP over the course of the season. As far as his fantasy value goes, Rollins’ 22.3 AB/HR rate is right around where we would expect, but just two stolen bases in 24 games seems to indicate that Rollins’ days of 30-50 stolen bases are over.
Colby Rasmus (OF-STL) – If you haven’t noticed, Rasmus has settled in nicely as the Cardinals’ No. 2 hitter in front of a couple guys named Pujols and Holliday. All Rasmus is doing this year is batting .278/.369/.547 with 16 homers and nine stolen bases. Those are All-Star type numbers, but hey, if you’re the NL, you HAVE to make room on the roster for Omar Infante, right? Rasmus homered nine times in 84 at-bats last month and just one time in an equal number of Abs in May, so this power potential may be more on the order of 30 home runs annually than 20-25. The National League is absolutely loaded with young outfielders (Upton, Kemp, McCutcheon, etc.), but ultimately, Rasmus may be the best of the bunch particularly considering who he has hitting behind him.
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