I won't have a chance to go quite as in depth today, but I wanted to touch on a few observations from Friday night's box scores.

First off, my doubts are dissipating on Jason Bay. Are they still there? Yes, but two home runs in three days goes a long way to helping change my mind, at least this early in the season. Suddenly, his OPS is back over .900 -- like it was during those three glorious years in Pittsburgh -- his slugging percentage sits at a respectable .500, and you know I love those 10 walks compared to only nine strikeouts. I still don't want to put my complete faith in him just yet, but I'm feeling a bit more at ease today if I'm one of the many Fantasy owners who drafted him as my third or fourth outfielder.

In that same game, Edinson Volquez pitched five shutout innings before having to leave because of a rain delay, lowering his ERA to 0.87. On the surface, his stat line looks good, but I'd like to see more than one strikeout and fewer than three walks -- in only five innings, remember -- from the hard-throwing right-hander. Ideally, I envision a ratio of no less than 2-to-1, with two marking the number of strikeouts. Take a chance on Volquez if you have the roster space, but I think he could potentially go all Matt Garza in 2007 on us (meaning he'll look good for a few starts, then struggle).

Speaking of walks, Carlos Zambrano had only one Friday night. He had his worst start of the season, sure, but as long as he keeps his walks in check, I think he can pass as a Fantasy ace.

After he allowed three runs on six hits in four innings against the Mets, I'm done with Manny Parra in mixed leagues. There's just too many other good options out there. If he gets on a roll, I can always pick him up again, but I have a feeling he'll go to Triple-A once Yovani Gallardo returns.

Two more homers for Carlos Pena on Friday, pushing his season total to five. He might strike out twice every game and not hit much higher than .250, but those 46 bombs last year look more and more legit.

Peter Moylan recorded his first save. Is he the closer in Atlanta with Rafael Soriano sidelined? If so, he should be a good one, but I don't know if Bobby Cox is ready to make the final call yet.

With two home runs, Jeremy Hermida must want to make up for lost time. Don't forget all that sleeper talk going into the season.

And finally, I don't know what's wrong with C.C. Sabathia (nine runs in 3 1/3 innings, 11.57 ERA so far) or Roy Oswalt (eight in four, 9.00), but I hope (and suspect) they'll turn it around soon.

That's all for now.

Bay, Volquez, Parra, Moylan -- the observations

I don't see Manny Parra going to Triple A at all, his last outing looked a lot worse in the box score than what it actually was. More key is that he's Milwaukee's only in the rotation and David Bush has been struggling immensely this season. Expect a demotion of Bush when Gallardo returns, and if it's not him it will likely be Villanueva

During Parra's last outing he was pitching a scoreless game into the 4th before allowing the first two batters in the inning to get on for New York. Parra next faced Carlos Delgado who hit a grounder to Fielder that Prince simply just didn't reach down far enough with his glove and the ball went right through for a single. For some reason the official scorer gave Delgado a hit as opposed to Fielder an error on the play which Wright scored on from second once he saw the ball get into the outfield. If Fielder makes that play (which he does 95% of the time) New York has 2 outs with a runner on third. Instead he had no outs and wound up allowing 3 earned runs in the inning. In the top half of the 5th the Brewers (now down 3-1) had a runner in scoring position with two outs when Parra's spot in the lineup came up (remember Milwaukee hits the pitcher 8th in the batting order). Ned Yost elected to pinch hit for the pitcher to try to capitalize on a scoring opportunity, however this decision ended Parra's day

Even with the rough statistical outing he still has an ERA just a shade above 4 in his short career, and has 37 strikeouts in 35.1 innings in his career. With the security of being the only lefty in the rotation, and one of only two lefties in the entire pitching staff (more on this in the next sentence) I would have confidence that he doesn't get demoted to Triple A this season. The only other lefty the Brewers have is Brian Shouse, a submarine lefty specialist who gets killed by righties. Also Shouse struggled down the stretch last season for Milwaukee (5.79 ERA in his last 23 appearances to end 2007) so I don't think Ned Yost would feel comfortable with him as their only lefty on the staff. Chris Capuano is injured and may not pitch all season, but even if he returns he's a gigantic question mark not only for his well documented strugges last season but also how he's going to react to the injury. Also there are no real lefty options in Triple A that match up anywhere close to Parra (though Chris Narveson and Mitch Stetter are possibilities)

This is completely unrelated but here are a couple off topic notes about the Brewers that you may or may not know, as much of the national media seems to not be aware of

Villanueva's name is pronounced "BEE-yuh-new-WAY-vuh", I heard somebody from ESPN call him by Charlie Villanueva's last name which is inaccurate. Also it's Billy Hall, not Bill Hall or Bill E. Hall. Nobody locally (Wisconsin) pronounces the "l's" in Villanueva because in actually there are no "l's", he's Latin and it's a "ll". Also nobody has called Billy Hall "Bill" since his rookie season, similar to how Mo Williams hasn't been called Maurice Williams since his rookie season. Just letting you know

Not that you have any control over this but Carlos Villanueva is a switch hitter while on this site he is listed as a right handed hitter. Just in case you were curious (which I'm sure you're not)

Scott White

I White; You Read

Bay, Volquez, Parra, Moylan -- The Observations

Bay, Volquez, Parra, Moylan -- the observations