Today's Fantasy Rx

Arizona: Eddie Oropesa, LH Reliever
3-3 on a 39:24 K:BB in 37.2 IP over 45 G
with 34 H, 2 HR, a 2.62 G-F, and a 4.30 ERA for Arizona.
0-1 on a 9:4 K:BB in 15.1 IP over 15 G
with 14 H, 0 HR, and a 2.35 ERA for AAA Tucson(PCL).

Perhaps Eddie isn't underachieving to a great extent given his poor control, but he remains a dominant reliever with an excellent ground-fly ratio. He also limits both right-handers and left-handers to an OPS under .700, and aside from an August meltdown in which he allowed 9 ER in 8.2 IP, held a sub-3.00 ERA in each of the three previous months. If Oropesa can regain his control, he could post helpful numbers this month, so he looks like someone to acquire in the deepest NL-only leagues.

Previous 2003 Arizona underachievers: April: Mike Myers; May: Byung-Hyun Kim; June: Elmer Dessens; July: Randy Johnson; August: Curt Schilling.

Internet Challenge

If possible, avoid starting anyone not in domes in the Northeast or even the Midwest this weekend, particularly anyone scheduled for Sunday, as the remnants of Hurricane Isabel could cause shifts in many starters' schedules.

SP(6)
Randy Johnson: Fri:@MIL(D.Davis)
Pedro Martinez: Sun:@CLE(J.Davis)
Curt Schilling: Sun:@MIL(W.Obermueller)
Matt Morris: Fri:HOU(R.Oswalt)
Roy Oswalt: Fri:@STL(M.Morris)
Kevin Brown: Fri:SF(D.Hermanson)
Mark Prior: Sun:@PIT(Ol.Perez)
Esteban Loaiza: Sat:KC(Br.Anderson)

No starts: Mussina, Millwood, K.Wood, Halladay, Schmidt, and Ainsworth.

Randy, Schilling, and Kevin Brown are the only starters unlikely to suffer any effects from the weather, and then we'll run Prior and Loaiza since they give us the most salary flexibility. Lastly, we'll deploy Morris over Pedro as he gives us more cap room for offense and represents the Cardinals' last hope to stop the Astros.

We'll use most of our excess cap room to get Gagne deployed for MacDougal. Keeping Hall, Luis Castillo, and Nomar benched are easy decision, however we're sitting Vlad and Manny Ramirez in favor of Erubiel Durazo and Lance Berkman due to the potentially poor weather in New York and Cleveland. While this may cost us one great game from either player, we hope to gain a slight advantage by the end of the weekend.

The Umpire Hunter(5th lg; 113th overall)
Week 25b: September 19-September 21

C	Jorge Posada		1120
C	Javier Lopez		750
1B	Todd Helton		1850
1B	Aubrey Huff		610 
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1460
2B	Marcus Giles		400
3B	Aramis Ramirez		820
3B	Hank Blalock		500
SS	Alex Rodriguez		2010
SS	Orlando Cabrera		1030
OF	Albert Pujols		1750 
OF	Lance Berkman		1640 
OF	Preston Wilson		1220 
OF	Carl Everett		850
OF	Hideki Matsui		750
OF	Vernon Wells		750 
DH	Aaron Boone		1010
DH	Erubiel Durazo		520 

SP	Randy Johnson		2010 
SP	Curt Schilling		1610 
SP	Matt Morris		1300 
SP	Kevin Brown		990 
SP	Mark Prior		750 
SP	Esteban Loaiza		680
RP	Eric Gagne		1430   
RP	Joe Borowski		750 
RP	Tim Worrell		740
RP	Matt Mantei		700

Total Salary for Week 25b: 	30000

Today's Fantasy Rx: Keeping in mind yesterday's advice regarding careful monitoring of your starting pitchers, target categories other than wins as you plan for the year's last transaction period in most leagues. I recognize that most teams likely can't gain much ground in ERA or WHIP, however a couple of bad starts still could cost you points, so running skilled middle relievers in safer parks, particularly those with a chance to grab saves, should help minimize the downside for most teams' pitching.