Scott White

When I need a blog entry fast, where do I turn?

The Observations!!!!!!!

(late Sunday night edition)

The pregame Gil Meche coin flip must have landed on brilliant Sunday, as the Royals right-hander threw seven shutout innings against the Indians -- the same team that roughed him up for eight runs two starts ago. I still say he made too much progress last year to fade into Fantasy obscurity, but if you try to play matchups with him right now, you have a stronger stomach than I do.

So Darrell Rasner has a decent start against the Mariners and everybody rushes to claim him off the waiver wire. OK, fine. He might win a handful of games with Phil Hughes injured and Ian Kennedy excommunicated, but don't mistake him for having the upside to leap to the front of your Fantasy staff. At best, he's the Yankee equivalent to Tim Wakefield.

Melky Cabrera homered again, bringing his season total to six, and while I expect him to slow that pace some, I think the power is legit. Emack and I had a brief discussion about Cabrera's upside a week or two before the season began. He called him overrated, saying he'll top out as a Jay Payton-type player, but I respectfully disagreed. I love his plate discipline and think his power has plenty of room to improve at the age of 23. If you take the average of Hideki Matsui's and Bobby Abreu's career stats, I think you'll get a good idea of what the future holds for Cabrera.

Ha-ha, Jose A. Contreras beat Roy Halladay at his own game, going the distance for a loss Sunday at the Blue Jays. Halladay could last only 7 1/3 innings and, if I may say so, looked rather ... oh wait, he got the win.

Raise your hand if you had Scott Downs for three saves in early May. Right now, he's making his Fantasy owners in AL-only Rotisserie leagues very, very happy, but he'll lose his appeal once B.J. Ryan starts working on back-to-back days.

Mike Jacobs went 3-for-4 one day after hitting a home run, and his hurt finger doesn't seem to affect him at the plate. He'll likely play with pain the rest of the season, so let's hope the trend continues. I could see him hitting 30 homers, but not .280.

Andrew Miller limited his walks and his hits, allowing six baserunners in six innings against the Padres. I need to see more before adding him in any leagues, but he took a step in the right direction Sunday.

Bronson Arroyo ... oy. That's at least seven earned runs in two of his last three starts. He had a great second-half turnaround after a rough first half last year, but at this rate, you have to wonder if he'll even get a chance to duplicate that feat. (For the record, he probably will.)

Chipper Jones, please stay healthy.

In my time following the Braves, I've noticed Kelly Johnson, like a lot of hitters with a high number of walks and high number of strikeouts, tends to have pronounced hot and cold streaks. With five doubles in his last two games, I sense a hot streak approaching. Get him active if you have him on your bench.

I've long criticized Jon Lester, but his five hits and one earned run over his last 14 innings have caught my attention. Those seven walks over that same stretch still bother me, but he looks like a must-add in mixed leagues right now.

I keep waiting for Tim Redding to collapse. I keep getting older.

If you haven't noticed, Rich Aurilia is getting hot, hitting three home runs in his last seven games and going 3-for-3 Sunday. I don't want to overhype him by any means, but Fantasy owners in NL-only leagues need to remember he hit 23 homers the year before last. Granted, he played in a much better hitter's park back then, but still. Don't judge him strictly on his five home runs last year.

Jayson Werth didn't start for the second straight game. *Sigh.*

I don't like four runs in 6 1/3 innings for Ben Sheets any more than you do, but at least he didn't walk a batter. I'm ready to put his triceps injury behind me and call him a Fantasy ace again. Who's with me?

Berkman went 4-for-5 with a yet another home run -- his 10th. Bank on 40 bombs from him this year.

Sure, Aaron Cook looks good now with that sparkling 5-1 record and nifty 2.40 ERA, but you're fooling yourself if you think he'll finish with more than 100 strikeouts or an ERA below 4.00. Seventh-year, 29-year-old starting pitchers don't generally reinvent themselves, and I haven't heard anything about Cook to suggest he has.

Cust, Jack. See Johnson, Kelly.

I think his ERA will rise to about 3.50 before the end of the season, but Greg Smith, the prize of the Dan Haren deal, looks like the real deal. With his 10-strikeout performance against the Rangers, he has allowed three runs or less in all six of his starts and clearly deserves a roster spot in all Fantasy leagues.

That's all for now.