Today's Fantasy Rx

We've already taken the Strickland hit on our three BBW Challenge teams, but fortunately we have Jorge Julio ready to sub for him this week. Before we decide if we want to replace Strickland this week and bench Danys Baez(our token starter listed as a relief pitcher), we're going to see what kind of available cap room we have following our other moves.

The big disaster for many of us is that because of the Cubs' rainout today, Jon Lieber gets a two-start week and Kerry Wood only pitches Wednesday at home against Shawn Estes and the Mets. While this gives us a great candidate for two starts in Week 3, we might have some problems with our pitching staff now.

Colorado: 7 Home games: 3 vs. Houston; 4 vs. Arizona
Houston: 6 Road games: 3 at Colorado; 3 at St. Louis

Anaheim: 7 Home games: 4 vs. Seattle; 3 vs. Oakland
Cleveland: 7 Home games: 4 vs. Minnesota; 3 vs. Kansas City
Philadelphia: 7 Home games: 4 vs. Atlanta; 3 vs. Cincinnati

Toronto: 7 games: 4 vs. New York Yankees; 3 at Tampa Bay

Minnesota: 7 games: 4 at Cleveland; 3 vs. Detroit

Arizona: 7 Road games: 3 at San Diego; 4 at Colorado
Atlanta: 7 Road games: 3 at Philadelphia; 4 at Florida
New York Yankees: 7 Road games: 4 at Toronto; 3 at Boston
Seattle: 7 Road games: 4 at Anaheim; 3 at Texas

All other teams play six games.

Pitchers of interest with two starts:
Jarrod Washburn: Mon:SEA(Abbott); Sat:OAK(Hiljus)
Kevin Appier: Tue:SEA(Halama); Sun:OAK(Zito)
Kevin Millwood: Mon:@PHI(Padilla); Sat:FLO(Dempster)
Jason Marquis: Tue:@PHI(Adams); Sun:@FLO(Burnett)
Jon Lieber: Tue:NYM(Trachsel); Sun:@PIT(Villone)
Ryan Drese: Mon:MIN(Milton); Sat:KC(May)
Chuck Finley: Tue:MIN(Mays); Sun:KC(Reichert)
A.J. Burnett: Mon:MON(Armas); Sun:ATL(Marquis)
Roy Oswalt: Mon:@COL(Neagle); either Sat:@STL(Bud Smith?) OR Sat:@STL(Stephenson)
Hideo Nomo: Tue:@SF(Ortiz); Sun:@SD(Lawrence)
Ruben Quevedo: Tue:@STL(Stephenson); Sun:@SF(Ortiz)
Eric Milton: Mon:@CLE(Drese): Sat:DET(Sparks)
Joe Mays: Tue:@CLE(Finley); Sun:DET(Lima)
Tony Armas: Mon:@FLO(Burnett); Sun:@NYM(Trachsel)
Steve Trachsel: Tue:@CHC(Lieber); Sun:MON(Armas)
David Wells: Mon:@TOR(Prokopec); Sat:@BOS(Pedro)
Mike Mussina: Tue:@TOR(Halladay); Sun:@BOS(Hermanson or Wakefield)
Barry Zito: Tue:@TEX(Rogers); Sun:@ANA(Appier)
Vicente Padilla: Mon:ATL(Millwood); Sat:CHC(Clement)
Terry Adams: Tue:ATL(Marquis); Sun:CIN(Dessens)
Brian Lawrence: Mon:ARI(Anderson); Sun:LA(Nomo)
Russ Ortiz: Tue:LA(Nomo); Sun:MIL(Quevedo)

Diamond Challenge

Starters(6)
Randy Johnson: Thu:@COL(Jennings)
Curt Schilling: Fri:@COL(Hampton)
Roger Clemens: Fri:@BOS(Oliver)
Matt Morris: Thu:MIL(Rusch)
Javier Vazquez: Sat:@NYM(Leiter)
Wade Miller: either Fri:@STL(Kile) OR Sat:@STL(Bud Smith?)
Pedro Martinez: Sat:NYY(Wells)
Greg Maddux: DL Kevin Brown: Sat:@SD(Tollberg)
Mike Mussina: Tue:@TOR(Halladay); Sun:@BOS(Hermanson or Wakefield)
Russ Ortiz: Tue:LA(Nomo); Sun:MIL(Quevedo)
Kerry Wood: Wed:NYM(Estes)
Brian Lawrence: Mon:ARI(Anderson); Sun:LA(Nomo)

Relievers(4)
Jason Isringhausen: 6 Home games: 3vMIL; 3vHOU
Byung-Hyun Kim: 7 Road games: 3@SD; 4@COL
Scott Strickland: 6 Road games: 3@CHC; 3vMON
Danys Baez: Wed:MIN(Reed)
Jorge Julio: 6 games: 3vTAM; 3@CHW

Mussina, Ortiz, and Lawrence each get 2 starts, so we'll start all three of them. Wood and Morris both get home starts against strikeout-prone teams, so that only leaves us with one more starter.

We like both Pedro at home against David Wells, and Clemens in Boston against Oliver since Roger always gets fired up against his old home crowd. We'll look at our offense before deciding which starter.

Our Colorado platoon is obviously in, so Bonds, Juan Gonzalez, Jeremy Giambi, and Jimmy Rollins head to the bench for Helton, Uribe, Walker, and Pierre. We're also going to keep Danys Baez active since he has a home start against Minnesota and Rick Reed, and we'll just bench Strickland for this week.

We'd like to take either Pedro and Klesko or Clemens and Bonds, but we're $50 over the cap at the moment. Although Daryle Ward gets three games at Coors, he's unlikely to start tomorrow against Denny Neagle. He'll likely also miss a weekend game if the Cardinals start Bud Smith, and since the alternative is likely Mike Matthews, we'd expect Ward to sit against either lefty. So at best, Ward gets two games at Coors against the Rockies' best two pitchers(Thomson and Chacon) and two games in St. Louis against Kile and Stephenson.

Jeremy Giambi is likely to play six games, and although they're on the road, he should do fairly well against Texas and Anaheim. Subbing him in for Ward actually gets us $70 more than we need to take Pedro/Klesko or Clemens/Bonds. Bonds has three games in LA and three games in SD, while Klesko has six at home against Arizona and SF. As Klesko's just returned from suspension and may be rusty, and we're still not convinced that Pedro is healthy, we're going to deploy Clemens and Bonds this week to round out our squad.

Shadow of the Umpire & Interview with the Umpire
Week 2: April 8 - April 14

C 	Jorge Posada		990
C	Toby Hall		320
1B	Jason Giambi		1640
1B	David Ortiz		640
2B	Luis Castillo		1000
2B	Alfonso Soriano		900
3B	Eric Chavez		1070
3B	Hank Blalock		500
SS	Alex Rodriguez		1880
SS	Juan Uribe		500
OF	Larry Walker		1530
OF	Ichiro Suzuki		1330
OF	Juan Pierre		1180
OF	J.D. Drew		1010
OF	Adam Dunn		710
OF	Jeremy Giambi		500
DH	Todd Helton		1980
DH	Barry Bonds		1830

SP	Mike Mussina		1380
SP	Roger Clemens		1240
SP	Matt Morris		1190
SP	Russ Ortiz		1140
SP	Kerry Wood		1050
SP	Brian Lawrence		480
RP	Jason Isringhausen	1290
RP	Byung-Hyun Kim		1200
RP	Jorge Julio		750
RP	Danys Baez		700

Internet Challenge

BBWIC is the only BBW game that allows you to make moves more than once a week. You can change players up until Mon@12p Central for games on Monday through Thursday, and then you can switch players by Fri@12p Central for games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Therefore I'm only going to look at the next four days in this space each week, and I'll attempt to include our Friday moves with each Thursday's article.

No starts: Schilling, Clemens, Vazquez, Miller, Pedro, Maddux, and Brown.

Randy Johnson: Thu:@COL(Jennings)
Matt Morris: Thu:MIL(Rusch)
Mike Mussina: Tue:@TOR(Halladay)
Russ Ortiz: Tue:LA(Nomo)
Kerry Wood: Wed:NYM(Estes)
Brian Lawrence: Mon:ARI(Anderson)

Relievers(4)
Jason Isringhausen: 3 Home games: 3vMIL
Byung-Hyun Kim: 4 Road games: 3@SD; 1@COL
Scott Strickland: 3 Road games: 3@CHC
Danys Baez: Wed:MIN(Reed)
Jorge Julio: 3 games: 3vTAM

With only six of our thirteen starters scheduled to pitch in the next four days, our six starting pitchers are practically chosen for us; we'll even risk Randy in Colorado since we have a good feeling about this start. Along with the implemention of our Colorado platoon and the Julio for Strickland switch, we're now 270 over the cap.

We debated about various scenarios, but Ichiro plays four games to Bonds and Klesko's three, and we don't want to bench anyone in Colorado.

Our final decision was to take Jimmy Rollins and his four home games instead of Klesko and his three home games. We also have enough room to keep Daryle Ward instead of Jeremy Giambi, and this way we'll receive any benefits from Ward in Colorado without having to worry about him facing St. Louis.

The Umpire Hunter
Week 2a: April 8 - April 11

C 	Jorge Posada		990
C	Toby Hall		320
1B	Jason Giambi		1640
1B	David Ortiz		640
2B	Luis Castillo		1000
2B	Alfonso Soriano		900
3B	Eric Chavez		1070
3B	Hank Blalock		500
SS	Alex Rodriguez		1880
SS	Juan Uribe		500
OF	Larry Walker		1530
OF	Ichiro Suzuki		1330
OF	Juan Pierre		1180
OF	J.D. Drew		1010
OF	Adam Dunn		710
OF	Daryle Ward		620
DH	Todd Helton		1980
DH	Jimmy Rollins		940

SP	Randy Johnson		1990
SP	Mike Mussina		1380
SP	Matt Morris		1190
SP	Russ Ortiz		1140
SP	Kerry Wood		1050
SP	Brian Lawrence		480
RP	Jason Isringhausen	1290
RP	Byung-Hyun Kim		1200
RP	Jorge Julio		750
RP	Danys Baez		700

Fantasy Baseball & Budget Baseball
(Same game = same rosters and moves for both teams)

We have no relievers on the bench, so we'll stay with Smoltz, Isringhausen, Kim, and Matt Anderson until further notice.

Starters(6)
Randy Johnson: Thu:@COL(Jennings)
Curt Schilling: Fri:@COL(Hampton)
Roger Clemens: Fri:@BOS(Oliver)
Matt Morris: Thu:MIL(Rusch)
Javier Vazquez: Sat:@NYM(Leiter)
Wade Miller: either Fri:@STL(Kile) OR Sat:@STL(Bud Smith?)
Pedro Martinez: Sat:NYY(Wells)
Mike Mussina: Tue:@TOR(Halladay); Sun:@BOS(Hermanson or Wakefield)
Kerry Wood: Wed:NYM(Estes)
Brian Lawrence: Mon:ARI(Anderson); Sun:LA(Nomo)

Mussina and Lawrence are both obvious picks as they're the only pitchers on this team with two starts each. As mentioned above, we really like Morris and Wood's opponents, and since our next two picks without the availability of Ortiz are Pedro and Clemens, we have our six starters.

With our 5-player Colorado platoon activated, we have an extra 490 in salary room. Our current bench is David Ortiz, Bret Boone, D'Angelo Jimenez, Juan Gonzalez, Jeremy Giambi, Aramis Ramirez, A.J. Pierzynski, and Barry Bonds. Of this group, only Ortiz, Boone, and Pierzynski are scheduled to play seven games.

We don't have enough cap room to add Boone, but we can switch Pierzynski for Toby Hall and his six games, along with upgrading from Steve Cox to David Ortiz (same team switch as Pierzynski for Hall). While we may be benching the superior players, we'd rather take our chance with a guaranteed seven games rather than risk rainouts in Baltimore or Tampa.

The Umpire Chronicles
Week 2: April 8 - April 14

C	Paul Lo Duca		1640
C	A.J. Pierzynski		1000
1B	David Ortiz		1580
1B	Todd Helton		3400
2B	Jose Ortiz		1500
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1800
3B	Eric Chavez		2270
3B	Hank Blalock		1100
SS	Juan Uribe		1300
SS	Alex Rodriguez		3430
OF	Larry Walker		2790
OF	Juan Pierre		1880
OF	J.D. Drew		2310
OF	Cliff Floyd		2300
OF	Daryle Ward		1590
OF	Adam Dunn		1610
DH	Jason Giambi		3320
DH	Nick Johnson		1200

SP	Pedro Martinez		2950
SP	Mike Mussina		2940
SP	Roger Clemens		2870
SP	Matt Morris		2650
SP	Kerry Wood		2300
SP	Brian Lawrence		1000
RP	John Smoltz		2610
RP	Jason Isringhausen	2370
RP	Byung-Hyun Kim		2230
RP	Matt Anderson		1990

Today's Fantasy Rx: Take a break.

We're relatively exhausted after assembling thirteen teams over the last month, and to some extent we plan to relax this week. We plan on finally hitting a couple of movies this week along with watching baseball games, and maybe it will stop snowing and raining, allowing us to get outside for seemingly the first time in weeks.

We'll still be posting daily articles, but I plan on catching up on the last couple of magazine reviews along with discussing our last three auctions, all articles that don't require extensive research. Next Sunday will be another Challenge conversation (which we should be able to post earlier since we won't be wiped out from a Saturday draft and corresponding 4+ hours of driving to Madison).

Beginning next Monday, I'll start to discuss the in-season stats. Two weeks gives you an interesting glipse of your team, and while you probably shouldn't make significant moves for another two to four weeks, we can certainly begin to examine the trends of 2002.