Today's Fantasy Rx

Colorado: 3 Home games vs. Los Angeles; 3 Road games in Arizona.
Houston: 3 Road games at Cincinnati; 3 Home games vs. San Francisco.

Chicago White Sox: 7 Home games: 1 vs. Baltimore; 3 vs. Cleveland; 3 vs. Detroit.
Milwaukee: 7 Home games: 3 vs. Pittsburgh; 4 vs. St. Louis.
Montreal: 7 Home games: 3 vs. Chicago Cubs; 4 vs. New York Mets.

New York Yankees: 7 games: 1 at Boston; 3 vs. Baltimore; 3 vs. Toronto.

Los Angeles: 7 games: 3 at Colorado; 4 vs. San Diego.

New York Mets: 7 games: 3 vs. Atlanta; 4 at Montreal.
San Diego: 7 games: 3 vs. San Francisco; 4 at Los Angeles.

Baltimore: 7 Road games: 1 at Chicago White Sox; 3 at New York Yankees; 3 at Tampa Bay.
St. Louis: 7 Road games: 3 at Arizona; 4 at Milwaukee.

Toronto: 5 Games: 2 vs. Boston; 3 at New York Yankees.

All other teams play six games.

Pitchers of interest with two starts:
Aaron Sele: Tue:TEX(D.Davis); Sun:@OAK(Lidle)
Rick Helling: Mon:STL(An.Benes); Sun:COL(Chacon)
Derek Lowe: Mon:NYY(Pettitte); Sun:@KC(Byrd)
Kerry Wood: Mon:@MON(Pavano); Sun:CIN(Acevedo)
Jose Acevedo: Tue:HOU(Mlicki); Sun:@CHC(Wood)
Danys Baez: Tue:@CHW(Rauch); Sun:@MIN(Reed)
Brad Penny: Tue:PHI(Duckworth); Sun:@ATL(Moss/Lopez)
Glendon Rusch: Mon:PIT(K.Wells); Sat:STL(An.Benes)
Nick Neugebauer: Tue:PIT(J.Anderson); Sun:STL(B.Smith)
Pedro Astacio: Tue:ATL(Glavine); Sun:@MON(Yoshii)
Andy Pettitte: Mon:@BOS(Lowe); Sat:TOR(R.Halladay)
Roger Clemens: Tue:BAL(Ponson); Sun:TOR(B.Lyon)
Cory Lidle: Tue:SEA(Garcia); Sun:ANA(Sele)
Ryan Jensen: Mon:@SD(B.Jones); Sun:@HOU(Mlicki)
Bud Smith: Tue:@ARI(R.Johnson); Sun:@MIL(Neugebauer)
Paul Wilson: Tue:@DET(Lima); Sun:BAL(Ponson)

Diamond Challenge

Starters(6)
Randy Johnson: Tue:STL(B.Smith)
Curt Schilling: Wed:STL(Morris)
Roger Clemens: Tue:BAL(Ponson); Sun:TOR(B.Lyon)
Matt Morris: Wed:@ARI(Schilling)
Javier Vazquez: Thu: NYM(Leiter)
Wade Miller: No start
Pedro Martinez: Fri:@KC(D.May)
Greg Maddux: Wed:@NYM(D'Amico)
Kevin Brown: Thu:SD(Tollberg)
Mike Mussina: Fri:TOR(Prokopec)
Russ Ortiz: Sat:@HOU(C.Hernandez)
Kerry Wood: Mon:@MON(Pavano); Sun:CIN(Acevedo)
Brian Lawrence: Fri:@LA(Nomo)

Relievers(4)
Jason Isringhausen: 7 Road games: 3 at Arizona; 4 at Milwaukee
Byung-Hyun Kim: 6 Home games: 3 vs. St. Louis; 3 vs. Colorado
Scott Strickland: 7 games: 3 vs. Atlanta; 4 at Montreal
Danys Baez: Tue:@CHW(Rauch); Sun:@MIN(Reed)
Jorge Julio: 7 Road games: 1 at Chicago White Sox; 3 at New York Yankees; 3 at Tampa Bay

Clemens and Wood are scheduled for 2 starts each, and despite Kerry's blister problems, we'll take the chance and start both of them. Randy and Schilling are both logical starts at home, even if Schilling is against Morris. Mussina against Prokopec is also a very good match-up. As Kevin Brown may be severely injured, we'll stay with Javier Vazquez against the Mets at home.

For relief, Izzy and Julio should both be fine with seven games each. Despite our need for saves, Baez has to go because he'll have two starts, and since Randy and Schilling each only start once, Kim should be in line for at least one or two saves during the rest of the week.

With three games at home, we'd certainly like to play the Colorado platoon, so the rest of our lineup has to fit in around the existing salaries. Ward and Klesko will be back in for Jeremy Giambi and Bonds respectively as Ward should be starting against all right-handers and Klesko plays one more game than Bonds. We're still well over the cap at this point, so we're back to pitching to see what changes we can make.

We need saves, so we'll pick up Eric Gagne at a very inexpensive 500 salary. Although he has three games at Coors, he also has seven games, so should start to help us move up in our weakest category. Since we were already a little concerned about Schilling against Morris, we'll deploy Gagne for Schilling and hope that with Schilling and Morris both offenses have problems. We'll also copy a move we made in Internet Challenge three days ago and pick up Eddie Guardado(900); he has a nice schedule and has been pitching very effectively. Minnesota seems like a better bet for saves than Arizona considering their respective offenses and starters.

As we're burning 2 of our 12 new purchases, we don't want to dump anyone who we might reacquire later in the year. Scott Strickland will obviously be cast off our roster, and with Juan Gonzalez's injury, we're going to release him and move Ryan Klesko into our Colorado platoon. If we find out by tonight that Kevin Brown is out for more than a week or two, we might keep Gonzalez instead, but we'll probably keep Brown around for now.

Our weather has been great around here the last few days. Reasonable temperatures, relatively sunny skies, and a nice breeze have allowed us to keep the windows open and just relax, read, etc.

Apparently this weather is localized around us because as we're about to post, we find out that Cleveland was rained out today, pushing Finley back to Tuesday and giving him Baez's double start. Baez now has a single start, on the road, against the red hot Mark Buehrle, so we need to find an alternative.

The obvious move is to go ahead and start Byung-Hyun Kim for Baez, but that leaves us another 500 over the cap. Jeremy Giambi is the obvious activation as he's only at 500 and he has six home games. Players that we could cut include Jason Giambi, Ryan Klesko, Ichiro Suzuki, J.D. Drew, and Rockies' Helton, Walker, and Pierre. We want to keep Colorado in there, and Giambi and Klesko both have 7 games. Suzuki has six(1 in Texas, 2 in Oakland, and 3 against Texas at home) and Drew has seven; while two of those are against Randy and Schilling in Arizona, the other four are in Milwaukee. We'll risk the loss of steals and bench Ichiro since we have a good feeling about Drew in Milwaukee. It leaves us 330 under the cap, but as we don't want to use more than two moves this week, we'll go with the rest of the team as planned.

Shadow of the Umpire & Interview with the Umpire
Week 3: April 15 - April 21

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	Jeremy Giambi		500
OF	Juan Pierre		1180
OF	J.D. Drew		1010
OF	Adam Dunn		710
OF	Daryle Ward		620
DH	Todd Helton		1980
DH	Ryan Klesko		1300

SP	Randy Johnson		1990
SP	Mike Mussina		1380
SP	Roger Clemens		1240
SP	Javier Vazquez		1100
SP	Kerry Wood		1050
SP	Eric Gagne		500
RP	Jason Isringhausen	1290
RP	Byung-Hyun Kim		1200
RP	Eddie Guardado		900
RP	Jorge Julio		750

Internet Challenge

No starts: Miller, Pedro, Mussina, Ortiz, Lawrence, and probably Brown.

Starters(6)
Randy Johnson: Tue:STL(B.Smith)
Curt Schilling: Wed:STL(Morris)
Roger Clemens: Tue:BAL(Ponson)
Matt Morris: Wed:@ARI(Schilling)
Javier Vazquez: Thu: NYM(Leiter)
Greg Maddux: Wed:@NYM(D'Amico)
Kerry Wood: Mon:@MON(Pavano)

Relievers(4)
Jason Isringhausen: 4 Road games: 3 at Arizona; 1 at Milwaukee
Byung-Hyun Kim: 3 Home games vs. St. Louis
Eddie Guardado: 3 Home games vs. Kansas City
Danys Baez: Tue:@CHW(Rauch)
Jorge Julio: 4 Road games: 1 at Chicago White Sox; 3 at New York Yankees

We're not going to pick up Gagne here right now because he spends the first three days in Colorado; we can still add him on Friday if we want, but we minimize our risk this way. Despite Cleveland's great start, we need saves so will start Kim over Baez.

Home starts by Randy, Schilling, Clemens, and Vazquez seem fairly automatic, and since we're going to bet on Schilling here, we'll keep Morris benched and instead start Maddux and Wood on the road. The Colorado platoon is in for the first half of the week, but we'll be able to accommodate Bonds' trip to Houston in the second half of the week. Now we have to figure out how to cut over 1210 of salary to reach the cap.

Since we want to keep the Colorado platoon deployed and both Jason Giambi and Ryan Klesko have four games through Thursday, we decided to start Jeremy Giambi(3 at home, 2 vs. Seattle and 1 vs. Anaheim) and Jimmy Rollins(3 in Florida) over ARod(1 vs. SEA and two at Anaheim) and Ichiro(1 at Texas and 2 at Oakland). While we could theoretically start Morris instead of Maddux to save salary, and thereby keep Suzuki active, we'll risk the offense if we can improve our pitching.

The Umpire Chronicles
Week 3a: April 15 - April 18

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	Jimmy Rollins		940
SS	Juan Uribe		500
OF	Larry Walker		1530
OF	Juan Pierre		1180
OF	J.D. Drew		1010
OF	Adam Dunn		710
OF	Daryle Ward		620
OF	Jeremy Giambi		500
DH	Todd Helton		1980
DH	Jimmy Rollins		940

SP	Randy Johnson		1990
SP	Greg Maddux		1550
SP	Curt Schilling		1240
SP	Roger Clemens		1240
SP	Javier Vazquez		1100
SP	Kerry Wood		1050
RP	Jason Isringhausen	1290
RP	Byung-Hyun Kim		1200
RP	Eddie Guardado		900
RP	Jorge Julio		750

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.

Randy Johnson: Tue:STL(B.Smith)
Curt Schilling: Wed:STL(Morris)
Roger Clemens: Tue:BAL(Ponson); Sun:TOR(B.Lyon)
Matt Morris: Wed:@ARI(Schilling)
Javier Vazquez: Thu: NYM(Leiter)
Wade Miller: No start
Pedro Martinez: Fri:@KC(D.May)
Mike Mussina: Fri:TOR(Prokopec)
Kerry Wood: Mon:@MON(Pavano); Sun:CIN(Acevedo)
Brian Lawrence: Fri:@LA(Nomo)

Clemens and Wood are obvious starts, as are Randy, Vazquez, and Mussina. As Schilling is the only other home start, we'll again take him for the week.

Our five-man Coors' platoon will play despite Ortiz's recent struggles, although this still leaves us 2670 over the cap. We'll leave Pierzynski active instead of Hall since the Twins are home all week while the Rays play three in Detroit. Cox will start instead of Ortiz because we don't have the cap room for the extra power.

We're still 2250 over the cap, so we need to cut one of our better players. Considering their respective schedules, Helton and Jason Giambi are better plays than ARod, so we'll start D'Angelo Jimenez and his seven games here, leaving us only 180 under the cap.

The Umpire Hunter & Umpire with a Soul
Week 3: April15 - April 21

C	Paul Lo Duca		1640
C	A.J. Pierzynski		1000
1B	Jason Giambi		3320
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	D'Angelo Jimenez	1000
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	Nick Johnson		1200
DH	Steve Cox		1160

SP	Randy Johnson		3580
SP	Curt Schilling		3160
SP	Mike Mussina		2940
SP	Roger Clemens		2870
SP	Javier Vazquez		2600
SP	Kerry Wood		2300
RP	John Smoltz		2610
RP	Jason Isringhausen	2370
RP	Byung-Hyun Kim		2230
RP	Matt Anderson		1990

Today's Fantasy Rx: Don't be afraid to take advantage of your competition as long as you remain within the league rules. We received an e-mail a couple days ago asking if we thought picking up Colon after his great Opening Day start counted as cheating.

Not only do we believe picking up Colon was a perfectly defensible move, we wish we'd done it considering his fantastic start. Everyone playing these Challenges has the same opportunity to add players, and due to the Sunday night start to the season, those who took Colon have a slight advantage over those that didn't.

Almost every fantasy game is based around transaction deadlines, and owners who make their moves later usually benefit from any additional breaking news before their deadline. Diamond Challenge even charged a buck more for Sunday moves last year because they knew that owners would pay more to update their rosters when they could benefit from recent information.

So we see no reason why you shouldn't have played Colon this year, or Esteban Loaiza last year, and as long as the league rules allow a particular course of action, there's no reason not to use the rules to the greatest possible advantage.