Today's Fantasy Rx

Colorado: 6 games: 3 Home vs. St. Louis; 3 Road at San Diego.
Houston: 6 Home games: 3 vs. Cincinnati; 3 vs. St. Louis.
Cincinnati: 6 games: 3 Road at Houston; 3 Home vs. Philadelphia.

7 Home games
San Francisco: 3 vs. San Diego; 3 vs. Los Angeles.

7 games
Atlanta: 1 Home vs. Florida; 3 Road at Philadelphia; 3 Road at Florida.
Florida: 1 Road at Atlantaa; 3 Home vs. New York Mets; 3 vs. Atlanta.
Los Angeles: 3 Home vs. Arizona; 4 Road at San Francisco.

Teams with six home games: Chicago Cubs, Cleveland, Detroit, New York Yankees, Seattle, and Toronto.

All other teams play six games with at least three on the road.

Pitchers of interest with two starts(whom we'd start if we owned them):
Elmer Dessens: Mon:@LA(K.Brown); Sun:MIL(W.Franklin or M.Kinney)
Russ Ortiz: Mon:FLO(C.Pavano); Sat:@FLO(C.Pavano)
Omar Daal: Tue:@TB(J.Parque); Sun:@BOS(D.Lowe)
Derek Lowe: Tue:@TOR(M.Hendrickson); Sun:Bal(O.Dall)
Bartolo Colon: Tue:@CLE(Ric.Rodriguez); Sun:@DET(J.Bonderman)
Matt Clement: Mon:MON(Z.Day); Sun:PIT(K.Wells)
Ricardo Rodriguez: Tue:CHW(B.Colon); Sun:KC(J.Affeldt)
Carl Pavano: Mon:@ATL(Ru.Ortiz); Sat:ATL(Ru.Ortiz)
Mark Redman: Tue:NYM(A.Leiter); Sun:ATL(M.Hampton or J.Marquis)
Roy Oswalt: Tue:CIN(R.Dempster); Sun:STL(W.Williams)
Kevin Brown: Mon:ARI(E.Dessens); Sat:@SF(J.Schmidt)
Zach Day: Mon:@CHC(M.Clement); Sun:NYM(A.Leiter)
Al Leiter: Tue:@FLO(M.Redman); Sun:@MON(Z.Day)
Andy Pettitte: Mon:MIN(J.Mays); Sun:TB(J.Parque)
Barry Zito: Tue:@TEX(J.Thomson); Sun:@ANA(Ra.Ortiz)
Randy Wolf: Tue:ATL(J.Marquis); Sun:@Cin(R.Dempster)
Kip Wells: Mon:MIL(G.Rusch); Sun:@CHC(M.Clement)
Oliver Perez: Mon:@SF(J.Schmidt); Sun:COL(A.Cook)
Jamie Moyer: Tue:ANA(Ra.Ortiz); Sun:TEX(J.Thomson)
Jason Schmidt: Mon:SD(Ol.Perez); Sat:LA(K.Brown)
Damian Moss: Tue:SD(J.Peavy); Sun:LA(K.Ishii)
Mark Hendrickson: Tue:BOS(D.Lowe); Sun:MIN(J.Mays)

Only deploy in Fantasy Baseball and other leagues that don't count qualitative stats:
Ramon Ortiz: Tue:@SEA(J.Moyer); Sun:OAK(B.Zito)
Ryan Dempster: Tue:@HOU(R.Oswalt); Sun:PHI(R.Wolf)
Aaron Cook: Tue:STL(W.Williams); Sun:@SD(Ol.Perez)
Jeremy Bonderman: Tue:KC(J.Affeldt); Sun:CHW(B.Colon)
Jeremy Affedlt: Tue:@DET(J.Bonderman); Sun:@CLE(Ric.Rodriguez)
Kazuhisa Ishii: Tue:ARI(O.Villarreal); Sun:@SF(D.Moss)
Glendon Rusch: Mon:@PIT(K.Wells); Sat:@ARI(C.Schilling)
Joe Mays: Tue:@NYY(A.Pettitte); Sun:@TOR(M.Hendrickson)
Woody Williams: Tue:@COL(A.Cook); Sun:@HOU(R.Oswalt)
John Thomson: Tue:OAK(B.Zito); Sun:@SEA(J.Moyer).

Diamond Challenge

SP(6)
Randy Johnson: Fri:MIL(M.Kinney or W.Franklin)
Pedro Martinez: Fri:BAL(Jas.Johnson)
Curt Schilling: Sat:MIL(G.Rusch)
Matt Morris: Fri:@Hou(B.Moehler)
Roy Oswalt: Tue:CIN(R.Dempster); Sun:STL(W.Williams)
Kevin Millwood: Thu:ATL(P.Byrd)
Kerry Wood: Sat:PIT(K.Benson)
Wade Miller: Wed:CIN(J.Anderson)
Tim Wakefield: Sat:BAL(Rod.Lopez)
Roy Halladay: Thu:BOS(Burkett)
Jason Schmidt: Mon:SD(Ol.Perez); Sat:LA(K.Brown)
Mark Prior: Wed:MON(J.Vazquez)
Josh Beckett: Thu:NYM(T.Glavine)

Our extra double starts last week leave us someone short now, making Oswalt and Schmidt our only mandatory deployments. Given they each face rather woeful opposition, we also want to keep Randy and Pedro in our lineup, though since he hasn't impressed in either start this year, we're going to bench Schilling. Of the remaining options, while Wade Miller pitched poorly in his first outing, we think he at least should win against Jimmy Anderson and a demoralized Reds' team. Mark Prior also dominated New York and should remain effective at home against the Expos. Kevin Millwood is tempting, however we don't want to worry about a recurrence of his groin injury given the available alternatives.

Since we never wanted Griffey in the first place and only took him since we figured nearly everyone else would roster him, we have no problem dropping him, especially since our Colome gamble failed miserably. However we're not convinced that Colome won't resume closing in a couple weeks, so we don't want to drop him outright. We'll add Mike MacDougal, the cheapest established closer, while dropping Griffey.

On offense we're deploying Vlad since Montreal visits its "home" park in Puerto Rico this coming weekend; we'll keep Orlando Cabrera in the lineup for the same reason. We've decided to pull ARod since we barely took him in the first place and he faces an ugly week of pitching between Oakland at home and a trip to Seattle. Ichiro joins him on the bench for similar reasons, and then we're sitting Aubrey Huff so we can deploy extra outfielders; Frank Thomas looks stronger at first base and we know Phelps will play all his games in the Skydome. Lastly we're forced to sit one of our Colorado outfielders, and we're benching Preston Wilson instead of walker since Colorado faces five right-handers and neither St. Louis nor San Diego afford Wilson many SB opportunities.

Interview with the Umpire(20th lg; 199th div; 4574th overall),
Shadow of the Umpire(22nd lg; 208th div; 4572nd overall), &
Dance of the Umpires(23rd lg; 217th div; 4573th overall)
Week 2: April 7-April 13

C	Eli Marrero		580
C	Toby Hall		460
1B	Frank Thomas		920
1B	Josh Phelps		670
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1460
2B	Luis Castillo		1210
3B	Aaron Boone		1010
3B	Aramis Ramirez		820
SS	Nomar Garciaparra	1330
SS	Orlando Cabrera		1030
OF	Vlad Guerrero		2010
OF	Lance Berkman		1640
OF	Manny Ramirez		1610
OF	Hideki Matsui		750
OF	Austin Kearns		650
OF	Dave Roberts		620
DH	Larry Walker		1400
DH	Jose Hernandez		940

SP	Randy Johnson		2010
SP	Pedro Martinez		1700
SP	Roy Oswalt		1280
SP	Wade Miller		990
SP	Jason Schmidt		790
SP	Mark Prior		750
RP	Scott Williamson	960
RP	Mike MacDougal		750
RP	Matt Anderson		700
RP	Matt Mantei		700

Internet Challenge

SP(6)
Roy Oswalt: Tue:CIN(R.Dempster)
Kevin Millwood: Thu:ATL(P.Byrd)
Wade Miller: Wed:CIN(J.Anderson)
Roy Halladay: Thu:BOS(Burkett)
Jason Schmidt: Mon:SD(Ol.Perez)
Mark Prior: Wed:MON(J.Vazquez)
Josh Beckett: Thu:NYM(T.Glavine)
Kurt Ainsworth: Thu:LA(Nomo).

No starts: Randy, Pedro, Schilling, Morris, and Wood.

We only have to bench two of our eight scheduled starters, so we'll sit Beckett as we don't overly trust him at the moment, and as Ainsworth pitches in a better park with a stronger offense against a weaker opponent than Halladay, we'll go with the rookie over anyone facing Boston's prodigious offense.

Our offense largely decided itself with Huff on our bench as we prefer the RBI opportunities of Phelps and Thomas, both Ichiro and Roberts sitting since they shouldn't get many opportunities to run against respective opposing catchers Ben Molina and Chad Moeller, and lastly we don't have room for Orlando Cabrera given the number of shortstops and outfielders we want to deploy.

As in our other BBW leagues, we'll add Mike MacDougal for Griffey, placing him into the lineup for Colome.

The Umpire Hunter(21st lg; 772nd overall)
Week 2a: April 7-April 10

C	Eli Marrero		580
C	Toby Hall		460
1B	Frank Thomas		920
1B	Josh Phelps		670
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1460
2B	Luis Castillo		1210
3B	Aaron Boone		1010
3B	Aramis Ramirez		820
SS	Nomar Garciaparra	1330
SS	Jose Hernandez		940
OF	Vlad Guerrero		2010
OF	Lance Berkman		1640
OF	Manny Ramirez		1610
OF	Larry Walker		1400
OF	Hideki Matsui		750
OF	Austin Kearns		650
DH	Alex Rodriguez		2010
DH	Preston Wilson		1220

SP	Roy Oswalt		1280
SP	Kevin Millwood		1010
SP	Wade Miller		990
SP	Jason Schmidt		790
SP	Mark Prior		750
SP	Kurt Ainsworth		430
RP	Scott Williamson	960
RP	Mike MacDougal		750
RP	Matt Anderson		700
RP	Matt Mantei		700

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

SP(6)
Randy Johnson: Fri:MIL(M.Kinney or W.Franklin)
Curt Schilling: Sat:MIL(G.Rusch)
Pedro Martinez: Fri:BAL(Jas.Johnson)
Roy Oswalt: Tue:CIN(R.Dempster); Sun:STL(W.Williams)
Kerry Wood: Sat:PIT(K.Benson)
Kevin Millwood: Thu:ATL(P.Byrd)
Roy Halladay: Thu:BOS(Burkett)
Jason Schmidt: Mon:SD(Ol.Perez); Sat:LA(K.Brown)
Mark Prior: Wed:MON(J.Vazquez)
Kurt Ainsworth: Thu:LA(Nomo).

Oswalt and Schmidt are necessities, and Randy and Pedro have excellent singles. The best remaining match-ups include Schilling, Millwood, and Prior, and as we're about 200 short of cap room for Schilling, we're comfortable deploying Millwood and Prior.

On offense, Marrero is injured, we like Phelps and Thomas over Pena at first, Soriano and Ellis at second, and neither Hinske nor Hernandez are better plays than, respectively, Ramirez and Crede or Nomar and Cabrera. In the outfield, Griffey hits our bench until we need a replacement, and we just don't see space to deploy Preston Wilson or Vernon Wells. Matsui and Kearns are too valuable to bench, and Vlad, Berkman, Manny, Pujols, Burrell, and Larry Walker all have great schedules.

The one last problem here is Jesus Colome, and while we wouldn't benching him or using Lance Carter, we don't trust Tampa's bullpen situation right now. As in DC, we'll replace Colome with Mike MacDougal.

The Umpire Chronicles(16th lg; 2004th overall)
& Umpire with a Soul(22nd lg; 3667th overall)
Week 2: April 7-April 13

C	Jason Varitek		1400
C	Toby Hall		1070
1B	Frank Thomas		2030
1B	Josh Phelps		1480

2B	Alfonso Soriano		2570
2B	Mark Ellis		1100
3B	Aramis Ramirez		1800
3B	Joe Crede		1150
SS	Nomar Garciaparra	2300
SS	Orlando Cabrera		1820
OF	Albert Pujols		3150
OF	Manny Ramirez		2690
OF	Larry Walker		2500
OF	Pat Burrell		2420
OF	Austin Kearns		1600
OF	Hideki Matsui		1500
DH	Vlad Guerrero		3440
DH	Lance Berkman		2850

SP	Randy Johnson		4000
SP	Pedro Martinez		2900
SP	Roy Oswalt		2800
SP	Kevin Millwood		2400
SP	Jason Schmidt		1990
SP	Mark Prior		1800
RP	Keith Foulke		2330
RP	Matt Anderson		1260
RP	Matt Mantei		1200
RP	Mike MacDougal		1500

Today's Fantasy Rx: If you own Ken Griffey(820) you essentially need to replace him this week. The best option, if you don't already own him, is Austin Kearns(650), although the only downside of Adam Dunn(900) is the potential for a low BA. If you think you're short on steals, feel free to grab Dave Roberts(620) or Carl Crawford(420). Other players priced similarly to Griffey who could echo his potential production include Juan Gonzalez(950), Randy Winn(930), Jay Payton(810), Raul Ibanez(800), Vernon Wells(750), and of course Hideki Matsui(750).