In the bullets of yesterday's daily notes there are some intriguing nuggets or pearls of wisdom I would like to go back over. The first, Tulo's groin strain and my recommendation of who to possibly replace him with. I looked no further than Marco Scutaro, current Rockies second sacker, who retained his SS eligibility from last year in Boston. Scutaro came through last night with a 2-for-5 night including a solo HR and 2 runs scored. I'm like a crystal ball! FB365 delivers! This is info most people would pay an arm and a leg for and we are just giving it away! Of course said ball was knocked off the table and shattered by an errant elbow as I was trying to catch flies with chopsticks and my recommended start of Bud Norris went down the toilet like the coffee poop I had this morning. He only made it through 1.2 IP giving up nine runs...egh...OK I can't lie anymore. There is no crystal ball. There is a system I have though that involves a dart board, blind fold and a cat. Don't worry the cat isn't harmed because he is the one blind folded throwing the darts.

In other news, Carlos Gonzalez homered again, and Zack Greinke struck out seven in six innings. In other news...
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• The Mariners beat down on the Rangers last night to the tune of 21-8. Justin Smoak had 2 three run jacks and Jesus Montero was 3-4 with 2 BB, 4 Runs, 4 RBI, and was a triple short of the cycle. Derek Holland gave up 8 in 1.2 IP while Yoshinori Tateyama was roughed up for another 8 in .2 IP.
• Adam Jones was hit on the wrist by a pitch last night, but finished the game. He went 0-2 (ending a 20 game hit streak), but went for X-rays after. Google doesn't have anything about the results, but according to the Baltimore Sun Jones says he'll be playing Friday.
• Dayan Viciedo had another strong night going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a Run. In his last 10 games, he is batting .425 with 4 HR's, 13 RBI and 10 runs scored. This might be the 3rd time I've said this thus far this season. Baseball is a game of streaks, ride the streaks.
• Matt Kemp re-aggravated his hammy last night and thinks he will have to go back on the DL. While this is bad news for Kemp owners, it's good news for me and my 2nd place Blog Wars squad , as I'm trying to capitalize on Bobby Abreu's .300 batting average. Don't laugh... it's a really deep league. no comments

I'm going to be totally upfront and honest here. I don't know much about prospects. I'm a big league guy. I love going to minor league games and have the pleasure of living in an area where there is a NY-Penn League team, but I don't know a lot of the guys in the minors. I know the big names, the Miller's, the Bundy's, the Taillon's and d'Arnaud's, but that is about it. I'm a numbers guy, despite my ill will towards math. I can get tons of big league statistics, can't get them for the minors. If you want info on prospects talk to Josh or Charlie, or Mark. Not me. 

I figure I need to get on this prospect band wagon if I'm going to succeed in this industry, so I'm looking into maybe joining a dynasty league. Take over a big league roster, each yearly draft is all minor league players. When looking at available teams in this league, and the prospects affiliated with each one, I had to do a fair bit of Googling to see how good my farm system was I may be inheriting. One name that popped up was  Todd Frazier. I had never heard of him (this was a month ago). The point of all this is not only do I know who he is now, I'm sure everyone in Atlanta does too, because you see, Todd hit a walk off homer last night to cap a 2-1 victory against the Braves. 

Frazier is a power bat at a power position, he has 64 AB's this season, a .250 avg and 3 HR's. A respectable rate of hitting a HR every 21 AB's or so (math wins again!), or a HR every 4 or 5 days... or to broaden it out, a little more than 1 HR every week. Look at all that math! That's currently a better pace than Alex Rodriguez, and similar pace to Kelly Johnson and Billy Butler. Not overly sexy names, but players more than useful to our game. The point is with regular playing time this guy is capable of helping out. If you have nothing better going for you, grab him and see what happens. He's hitting HR's at a better rate than Miguel Cabrera has been.

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So, Adam Wainwright looked like the old Adam Wainwright last night, rattling off the complete game shutout, fanning 9, allowing only 4 hits, 1 walk. He has been mostly average so far this season, with glimpses of his old self, but last night was encouraging (understatement). Yes, this gem came against the Padres, but his next start is Sunday against the Phillies and they aren't quite the force they were of years past. Looking further ahead he draws matchups against the Mets, then Astros. The only way this stretch of games could be any better is if the Pirates were thrown in somewhere, but alas, this isn't a perfect world. This could be just the thing Waino needs to get his groove back. Don't overlook those Astros too much though... Jed Lowrie could kill you.No joke, for now anyway.

Lowrie has a WAR of 0.7 over the last 7 days, tied for highest in baseball. Over that stretch he has a .360 AVG with 3 HR's, 5 Runs and 6 RBI. Eligible at 3B and SS he is the 41st ranked player in Yahoo! at the moment and he is only owned in 51% of leagues. By now I hope you have given up on Alexei Ramirez, Erik Aybar or Jhonny Peralta and grabbed him. Heck, if you read this paragraph before doing it, it's probably too late. 

If anyone is still feeling love not yet completely numb from burns season after season, Gordon Beckham is once again showing signs of his potential, with 3 HR's and a .280 avg over the last week. Ride the streaks folks.

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• Out with the old in with the new in the outfield for the Angels. Mike Trout, Peter Bourjos, and Mark Trumbo all started tonight. 
• Lots of injury notes in Oakland. Brett Anderson is ahead of schedule but had a recent setback, Coco Crisp could be back tomorrow, and Yoenis Cespedes will not be activated when eligible to come off the DL on Tuesday.
• Adrian Beltre's hamstring issue is almost to the point where it is no longer an issue. 
• Jesus Montero busted out of a slump for the Mariners. He attributed his 3-hit day to an at-bat in which he drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch early in the game.
• As soon as the swelling goes down, Paul Konerko will be back on the field for the White Sox. The shiner he got from Jeff Samardzija is worth a look for the boxing fans.
• Detroit will be without Jose Valverde for at least another couple of days. Austin Jackson also figures to be out of the starting lineup for Sunday's action. 
• The Royals have already had 8 different starting pitcher and 14 different relievers through 37 games played this season. That won't change this year given that the team won't be adding a veteran.
• Jeanmar Gomez has a 1.09 WHIP this season after another quality start on Saturday. He's had one bad outing in the eight appearances he's made this season (7 starts) and if we throw out that one bad outing he has a 1.77 ERA. 
• It's possible that Desmond Jennings could be back on May 27th when he's eligible to return. Joe Maddon said the club has not decided if he needs at-bats in the minors first. 
• Brandon Morrow has looked as good as any pitcher on the planet over the last month including Justin Verlander. Morrow threw a complete game 3-hitter Saturday and has not allowed more than an earned run in his last six starts. It's stories like this that inspire people to actually believe in xFIP. 
• The Red Sox might not have to make a decision on Daisuke Matsuzaka by May 23rd when his rehab schedule is supposed to be complete. 
• Adam Jones is on pace for more than 110 RBI, 120 runs scored, and 55 home runs. Yes, it is time to sell high. 
• Alex Rodriguez has 1 home run in his last 72 at-bats. Hank Aaron's Barry Bonds' record appears safe.

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Brett Lawrie was handed a four game suspension for throwing his helmet, but will appeal the decision. Although Lawrie was quoted as saying he needs to explain his side of the story, Metta World Peace would argue that he could have thrown the helmet in a lot of other directions. The video justifies a 4-game suspension. In terms of the violence involved with this situation this is as bad as Carl Everett's head-butting episode 13 years ago. Lawrie really chucked the helmet. He was absolutely justified in erupting (it was a ball), but as a young player he needs to find a better way to let his aggression out. Lawrie is having a good year although he is not on pace for a 20/20 season as almost everyone thought he would have. Here are some other quick notes:
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OK, so the Orioles hitting three homers in a row to open a game may not be extremely fantasy relevant, but it's neat and hasn't been done before. All said and done, they hit five homers as a team in the first game of the double header. Sure teams have hit more, and Strasburg's 13 K's in 6 innings is more impressive, but I couldn't resist the urge to make a bird poop joke in today's headline. On to the bullets...

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It happens on a regular basis. Hot hitting prospect in the minors gets attention, a big league player gets hurt and opens the door, said prospect joins the big league club, fantasy owners flock to get him. Happened earlier this year with Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, the much lesser known Kirk Nieuwenhuis came up the 2nd or 3rd day of the season and has played fantastic ball since. More often than not, said prospect struggles (Belt and Rizzo last year are prime examples). Last night, Scott Van Slyke threw his name into the hat.

Son of former All Star Andy Van Slyke, Scott was batting .336 with eight homers and 25 RBI in 32 games for AAA Tucson. Those numbers put him near the top of the leader boards in the PCL (his eight HR are second behind the aforementioned Rizzo). He was 6th in OPS sporting a 1.034 mark. We all take PCL stats with a grain of salt due to it's rep as a hitters league, however Van Slyke has two things working in his favor for a chance to succeed at the next level. Pedigree and combination of injury/poor performance ahead of him. He was called up because Juan Rivera has hit the DL with a severe hamstring strain or tear. We we learned from players like Jose Reyes, or going a little further back, Ken Griffey Jr. hammies can take more than 15 days to come back from. The Dodgers still have Tony Gwynn and Jerry Hariston (two other players with pro fathers, coincidentally) to play in the outfield, but Van Slyke can also play first base, which means the only person standing in front of him is James Loney. The same James Loney who is batting .213. The same James Loney who has a May OPS of .668 the last three years. The same James Loney who has a manager threatening his playing time should he continue to struggle.

If you are in a league that is NL only, or deep with weekly lineup changes, I would make the add and take a wait and see. He was raking in AAA so we know he can hit, it's just a matter of how much playing time he is going to get. Him slotting into 1B as well as OF only helps him, and I would imagine his pinch-hit-rbi-single in his first MLB at bat last night made a good impression.

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