Today's Fantasy Rx

Colorado: 6 Road games: 3 at Montreal; 3 at New York Mets.
Houston: 6 Road games: 3 at Philadelphia; 3 at Pittsburgh.

Chicago Cubs: 7 Home games: 3 vs. St. Louis; 4 vs. Milwaukee.
Tampa Bay: 7 Home games: 1 vs. Boston; 3 vs. New York Yankees; 3 vs. Baltimore
Texas: 7 Home games: 4 vs. Chicago White Sox; 3 vs. Detroit.

Boston: 7 Road games: 1 at Tampa Bay; 3 at Oakland; 3 at Seattle.
Chicago White Sox: 7 Road games: 4 at Texas; 3 at Anaheim.
Cleveland: 7 Road games: 3 at Baltimore; 4 at Kansas City.
Detroit: 7 Road games: 1 at Minnesota; 3 at Anaheim; 3 at Texas
Milwaukee: 7 Road games: 3 at Cincinnati; 4 at Chicago Cubs.

All other teams play six games.

With five homers in the past week and Chicago at home for seven against St. Louis and Milwaukee, we'll be adding Sammy to all five of our rosters. We'll determine the actual drop on a team-by-team basis.

Pitchers of interest with two starts:
Jarrod Washburn: Tue:DET(Greisinger); Sun:CHW(Glover)
Randy Johnson: Mon:PIT(Fogg); Sat:@PHI(Coggin) or SUN:@PHI(Adams)
Tom Glavine: Tue:LA(Nomo); Sun:SD(B.J.Jones)
Darren Oliver: Mon:@TB(Sturtze); Sat:@SEA()
Pedro Martinez: Tue:@OAK(Lidle); Sun:@SEA(Baldwin)
Jon Lieber: Mon:STL(T.Smith); Sat:MIL(Quevedo)
Kerry Wood: Tue:STL(B.Smith); Sun:MIL(Rusch)
Chuck Finley: Tue:@BAL(Ponson); Sun:@KC(Byrd)
John Thomson: Tue:@MON(Armas); Sun:@NYM(Trachsel)
Steve Sparks: Mon:@MIN(Reed); Sat:@TEX(Burba)
Ryan Dempster: Tue:SD(B.J.Jones); Sun:LA(Nomo)
Shane Reynolds: Tue:@PHI(Adams); Sun:@PIT(Fogg)
Paul Byrd: Tue:@MIN(Kinney); Sun:CLE(Finley)
Hideo Nomo: Tue:@ATL(Glavine); Sun:@FLO(Dempster)
Ruben Quevedo: Mon:@CIN(Hamilton); Sat:@CHC(Lieber)
Glendon Rusch: Tue:@CIN(Dessens); Sun:@CHC(Wood)
Rick Reed: Mon:DET(Sparks); Sun:NYY(Mussina)
Tony Armas: Tue:COL(Armas); Sun:SF(Ru.Ortiz)
Steve Trachsel: Tue:SF(Ru.Ortiz); Sun:COL(Thomson)
Mike Mussina: Tue:@TB(P.Wilson); Sun:@MIN(Reed)
Cory Lidle: Tue:BOS(Pedro); Sun:TOR(Halladay)
Terry Adams: Tue:HOU(Reynolds); Sun:ARI(Johnson, Batista, or Anderson)
Josh Fogg: Mon:@ARI(Randy); Sun:HOU(Reynolds)
Bobby J. Jones: Tue:@FLO(Dempster); Sun:@ATL(Glavine)
James Baldwin: Tue:TOR(Halladay); Sun:SEA(Pedro)
Russ Ortiz: Tue:@NYM(Trachsel); Sun:@MON(Armas) Bud Smith: Tue:@CHC(K.Wood); Sun:@CIN(Hamilton)?
Tanyon Sturtze: Mon:BOS(Oliver); Sat:BAL(Maduro)
Paul Wilson: Tue:NYY(Mussina); Sun:BAL(Douglass)
Dave Burba: Mon:CHW(Garland); Sat:DET(Burba)
Rob Bell: Tue:CHW(Glover); Sun:DET(Greisinger)
Roy Halladay: Tue:@SEA(Baldwin); Sun:@OAK(Lidle)

Diamond Challenge

SP(6)
Randy Johnson: Mon:PIT(Fogg); Sat:@PHI(Coggin) or SUN:@PHI(Adams)
Pedro Martinez: Tue:@OAK(Lidle); Sun:@SEA(Baldwin)
Greg Maddux: Fri:SD(Jarvis)
Curt Schilling: Wed:PIT(K.Wells)
Mike Mussina: Tue:@TB(P.Wilson); Sun:@MIN(Reed)
Roger Clemens: Wed:@TB(D.James)
Matt Morris: Wed:@CHC(J.Cruz)
Tim Hudson: Thu:BOS(D.Lowe)
Russ Ortiz: Tue:@NYM(Trachsel); Sun:@MON(Armas) Javier Vazquez: Sat:SF(L.Hernandez OR J.Schmidt)
Kerry Wood: Tue:STL(B.Smith); Sun:MIL(Rusch)
Eric Gagne: 6 Road games: 3 at Atlanta; 3 at Florida
Brian Lawrence: Sat:@ATL(Marquis)

RP(4)
Jason Isringhausen: 6 Road games: 3 at Chicago Cubs; 3 at Cincinnati

Byung-Hyun Kim: 6 games: 3 Home vs. Pittsburgh; 3 Road at Philadelphia
Eddie Guardado: 6 Home games: 3 vs. Detroit; 3 vs. New York Yankees
Jorge Julio: 6 games: 3 Home vs. Cleveland; 3 Road at Tampa Bay.

Despite the rather troubling control problems of Wood and Ortiz, we're going to start them for their doubles while hoping for at least one win out of each. If either doesn't show significant improvement, we may have to cut them next week to make room for some of our scheduled May additions to the club.

With Randy, Pedro, and Mussina also scheduled for doubles, we really don't have much leeway in choosing our pitching. Maddux, Schilling, Clemens, Hudson, Vazquez, and Gagne all present attractive options. We'll dismiss Maddux because we're still not convinced of his health, and we'll play the percentages on Clemens and bench him on the road; Hudson will also sit against a rather hot Derek Lowe. Since we'd like to add more offense and we're still desperate for saves, we're going to keep Gagne over Schilling and Vazquez, and at least hope the former gets pounded as we'll likely be one of the few teams sitting him.

While Glavine, Lieber, Rusch, and Lidle all offer intriguing doubles, we're not prepared to add any of them to our rotation full-time since we're looking for pitchers with more strikeout upside, except for ERA/WHIP freaks like Maddux, and we may not even keep him long-term.

On offense, our Coors' platoon will sit as they hit the road for six, and here we'll pick up Sammy for David Ortiz, who seems likely to lose playing time when he returns from his injury troubles. We're not prepared to replace anyone else here since we expect our long-term replacements for the platoon slots of Klesko, Rollins, and Jeremy Giambi to be Vlad, Nomar, and Patterson, and the latter two are available as free agents before the next Colorado road week. Vlad is available as a free agent the following week, and since he's also on the road with Colorado during the intervening week, we don't believe we need to add him now. We'll keep Bonds until Vlad's available since Barry has a 7-game homestand during that week when both Colorado and Montreal are on the road.

At third base, both Hillenbrand and Blalock should play one more game than Chavez, and Chavez remains mired in a rather dreadful slump. We'll take our chance with the youngsters and instead spend more money elsewhere.

We thought about adding Konerko with the White Sox' seven games this week, but as all are on the road and we don't appear to have any extra money, we're going to hold off at this time. With all our non-Colorado healthy players active aside from Chavez, we have 720 remaining under the salary cap for one DH slot. As we can't really replace anyone else at this time, we'll keep Juan Uribe active for another road trip and hope he keeps hitting over .350.

Our one alternative would be to add Konerko for Jason Giambi, but both have poor BB:K and G-F ratios, and aside from the one-game advantage for Konerko this week, Giambi faces an overall nicer schedule for the next two months. Plus, Konerko typically drastically slumps in May while Giambi remains very consistent throughout the first five months before going bonkers in September with .154 point jump over his career OPS for the last month of the year. Even deploying Chavez in lieu of Uribe for a week doesn't compensate for that difference.

We'll add Oswalt as a free agent next week, and the top candidates to lose their roster spots are Kerry Wood, Russ Ortiz, and Brian Lawrence. While we expected to loose Brian Lawrence by now, his fantastic performance and great salary make him a very attractive option. However, his next two scheduled two-start weeks are a road week in Colorado and Milwaukee, followed by a split week in Baltimore and against Seattle. Even his third scheduled two-start week likely includes a Coors' start, so if both Wood and Ortiz pitch solidly this week, we'll add Oswalt for Lawrence next Sunday.

Shadow of the Umpire & Interview with the Umpire
Week 6: May 6-May 12

C 	Jorge Posada		990
C	Toby Hall		320
1B	Jason Giambi		1640
1B	Ryan Klesko		1300
2B	Luis Castillo		1000
2B	Alfonso Soriano		900
3B	Hank Blalock		500
3B	Shea Hillenbrand	450
SS	Alex Rodriguez		1880
SS	Jimmy Rollins		940
OF	Sammy Sosa		1900
OF	Ichiro Suzuki		1330
OF	Lance Berkman		1320
OF	J.D. Drew		1010
OF	Adam Dunn		710
OF	Daryle Ward		620
DH	Jeremy Giambi		500
DH	Juan Uribe		500

SP	Randy Johnson		1990
SP	Pedro Martinez		1770
SP	Mike Mussina		1380
SP	Russ Ortiz		1140
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

SP(6)
Randy Johnson: Mon:PIT(Fogg)
Pedro Martinez: Tue:@OAK(Lidle)< br> Curt Schilling: Wed:PIT(K.Wells)
Mike Mussina: Tue:@TB(P.Wilson)
Roger Clemens: Wed:@TB(D.James)
Matt Morris: Wed:@CHC(J.Cruz)
Kerry Wood: Tue:STL(B.Smith)
Eric Gagne: 3 Road games at Atlanta

No starts: Maddux, Brown, Vazquez, Lawrence.

RP(4)
Keith Foulke: 4 Road games at Texas.
Jason Isringhausen: 3 Road games at Chicago Cubs
Byung-Hyun Kim: 3 Home games vs. Pittsburgh
Eddie Guardado: 3 Home games vs. Detroit
Jorge Julio: 3 Home games vs. Cleveland.

We're finally leading our league here and intend to rely on our pitching to keep us there. As we don't completely trust Wood's control at the moment and we have alternatives in this league, we're going with the big guns across the board: two Snakes, Pedro, and two Yanks, along with an extra closer in Gagne. However, we also want Foulke in there for the extra game, and Kim has worse odds of seeing saves than the other three; he'll sit for the first half of the week.

We have similar moves here to our DC team here as usual. Sammy's our buy while we cut Dave Ortiz and move Sosa into the lineup for Bonds, even though we're not cutting Bonds yet. We'll take the extra game of Blalock and Hillenbrand over Chavez's struggles, but we're still a little short on cash even with using Uribe as our 2nd DH.

Since Pedro makes the second most money among our starters and is facing a good left-leaning offense in Oakland, we'll start Kerry at home instead of Pedro, leaving us about 110 to spare with our roster complete.

The Umpire Hunter
Week 6a: May 6-May 9

C 	Jorge Posada		990
C	Toby Hall		320
1B	Jason Giambi		1640
1B	Ryan Klesko		1300
2B	Luis Castillo		1000
2B	Alfonso Soriano		900
3B	Hank Blalock		500
3B	Shea Hillenbrand	450
SS	Alex Rodriguez		1880
OF	Sammy Sosa		1900
OF	Lance Berkman		1320
OF	Ichiro Suzuki		1330
OF	J.D. Drew		1010
OF	Adam Dunn		710
OF	Daryle Ward		620
DH	Jeremy Giambi		500
DH	Juan Uribe		500

SP	Randy Johnson		1990
SP	Curt Schilling		1540
SP	Mike Mussina		1380
SP	Roger Clemens		1240
SP	Kerry Wood		1050
SP	Eric Gagne		500
RP	Keith Foulke		1450
RP	Jason Isringhausen	1290
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 Guardado until further notice.

SP(6)
Randy Johnson: Mon:PIT(Fogg); Sat:@PHI(Coggin) or SUN:@PHI(Adams)
Curt Schilling: Wed:PIT(K.Wells)
Pedro Martinez: Tue:@OAK(Lidle); Sun:@SEA(Baldwin)
Mike Mussina: Tue:@TB(P.Wilson); Sun:@MIN(Reed)
Roger Clemens: Wed:@TB(D.James)
Tim Hudson: Thu:BOS(D.Lowe)
Matt Morris: Wed:@CHC(J.Cruz)
Javier Vazquez: Sat:SF(L.Hernandez OR J.Schmidt)
Kerry Wood: Tue:STL(B.Smith); Sun:MIL(Rusch)
Brian Lawrence: Sat:@ATL(Marquis)

Randy, Pedro, Mussina, and Wood remain automatic, and Schilling looks very solid here. Almost everyone ahead of us seems to be running Eric Gagne, and since Oswalt's on the road this week, we'll add Gagne for Lawrence, activating him as our sixth starting pitcher. Wood and Vazquez are at risk to be dropped for Oswalt in the next week or two, but we see no need to make that extra move this week, especially with Wood's double start.

Tampa gets 7 games, Minnesota has 6 at home while LA gets 6 on the road, so Lo Duca stays sitting while Hall and Pierzynski start.

We'll also pick up Sosa here while dumping Dave Ortiz, and we'll also insert Sammy into the Coors' platoon. He'll of course be active since Colorado is on the road. Since we need to cut salary somewhere, we're adding Patterson since he also gets seven at home, and we'll cut Barry Bonds while moving Patterson into the Coors' platoon. Berkman will join Floyd, Drew, and Dunn as our outfield regulars.

With Houston likely to face up to three left-handers on the road, we're going to sit Daryle Ward, and keeping Jason Giambi active instead of Ward only leaves us 100 of remaining cap room.

Finally, we're somewhat concerned about Nick Johnson's bone bruise, so we have just enough cap room to activate Uribe and bench Nicky J, bringing us right to an even 60000.

The Umpire Chronicles & Umpire with a Soul
Week 6: May 6-May 12

C	Toby Hall		1000
C	A.J. Pierzynski		1000
1B	Jason Giambi		3320
1B	Steve Cox		1160
2B	Bret Boone
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1800
3B	Eric Chavez		2270
3B	Hank Blalock		1100
SS	Alex Rodriguez		3430
SS	Juan Uribe		1300
OF	Lance Berkman		2540
OF	J.D. Drew		2310
OF	Cliff Floyd		2300
OF	Adam Dunn		1610
OF	Corey Patterson		1370
OF	Jeremy Giambi		1300
DH	Sammy Sosa		3480
DH	D'Angelo Jimenez	1000

SP	Randy Johnson		3580
SP	Curt Schilling		3160
SP	Pedro Martinez		2950
SP	Mike Mussina		2940
SP	Kerry Wood		2300
SP	Eric Gagne		1230
RP	John Smoltz		2610
RP	Jason Isringhausen	2370
RP	Byung-Hyun Kim		2230
RP	Eddie Guardado		1690

Today's Fantasy Rx: Last week I recommended you pick up Lance Berkman for his 6-game homestand. For the week, he hit .435(10/23) with 3 HR, 10 RBI, 4 R, and even 1 SB.

For this week in Challenge, pick up the red hot Sammy Sosa for his 7-game homestand. He always goes nuts against the Brewers, and he faces them four times in Chicago weather that appears headed over 70, or at least 60, degrees for the whole week.