Today's Fantasy Rx

Based on the strategies discussed that we discussed back on February 26th and February 27th, we narrowed our options down to the following players. For a shorthand dollar evaluation, we followed the suggestion of 2000 CDM Grand Prize Winner Josh Paley and used 2*$CDM/100 to compare a player's CDM salary to their projected 5x5 value.

Catchers: Toby Hall at 320 is a must-own considering he'll likely earn in the mid-teens. For a second catcher, we chose Posada(990) over IRod(1360) and LoDuca(880) because we're not too worried about BA and wanted more HR/RBI upside.

First Basemen: We plan on running a Coors' platoon, so Todd Helton(1980) is a must. We're very enamored of Jason Giambi's 2002 upside and like him at 1640. We considered almost a dozen first basemen from Mike Sweeney(1590) to Carlos Pena(580) before deciding to take both Ryan Klesko(1300) for his power/speed combo and David Ortiz(640) as he'll hit clean-up for a relatively decent lineup in Minnesota.

Second Basemen: As we really didn't like our choices here, we decided to pass on Jose Ortiz(750) for now and go for quality speed in Luis Castillo(1000) and Alfonso Soriano(900).

Third Basemen: Selecting Eric Chavez(1070) seems rather obvious considering his breakout potential this season, but third base offers as many solid second choices as first. We want to add more Texas players based on the quality of their offense, and as we could use a cheap alternative here, we're going to take our chances with Hank Blalock(500) over Eric Hinske(750) or Morgan Ensberg(750), especially since we'd have to wait until week two to use either of the latter two.

Shortstop: Owning ARod(1880) is a must for most owners at this position, and Juan Uribe(500) would even be a great pick for every week at that salary. While we strongly considered Nomar(only 1120), we decided to wait to pick him up later in the year when he'll likely be taking less rest days. Also, Boston has less games scheduled than any other team in April, and they're more likely to lose one or two contests to rain per historical weather patterns. So we'll wait until at least mid-May to add Nomar, and we'll complete our Coors' SS platoon with Jimmy Rollins(940), who should avoid a sophomore slump due to a change in hitting coaches.

As a result of a need for more $ for starting pitching in Week One and Klesko's suspension/injury, we're going to start Uribe for Klesko in our opening lineup.

Outfield: A few of these choices appear to be proverbial "no brainers": Larry Walker(1530) and Juan Pierre(1180) for the Coors' platoon, Ichiro at only 1330 despite the best batters' 5x5 rating from last year, J.D. Drew(1010) still appears ready to post MVP numbers, and Adam Dunn(710) will provide a profit of twice his salary or more. Daryle Ward(620) offers tremendous power potential for a very low cost, and he's also in a nice lineup slot between Biggio and Bagwell, even if their skills are slightly deteriorating due to age.

We had hoped to use Sammy(1900) as Helton's platoon partner, but considering that he's usually a slow starter, the Cubs don't match up well with Colorado in April as the Rockies have at least one series at home in weeks 2-5, and that the Cubs are subject to more northern and likely rainy games, we decided to buck a probable trend and draft Barry Bonds(1830) for some early power. We'll leave Helton at one of our two DH slots to accommodate this semi-weekly exchange, so we'll definitely have to pick up another quality first baseman.

One OF platoon partner will be Jeremy Giambi(500), as he'll rack up the AB from leadoff in April and Oakland is one of the few teams to play seven games in week one. Another team that matches up well with Colorado with regards to having additional home dates when Colorado is on the road, Texas has a very complimentary schedule, and as we have the salary room to add another great RBI source, we picked up Juan Gonzalez(1460) as Walker's platoon partner.

For starters, we want the top aces out there as we fell behind in wins last year and never had the opportunity to catch up. In week one, Randy Johnson(1990), Pedro(1770), Maddux(1550), Schilling(1540), Brown(1430), Clemens(1240), Morris(1190), Vazquez(1100), and Wade Miller(900) are all scheduled to start twice. We're going to take all nine of these pitchers and taxi Maddux, Brown, and even Pedro for the first week. We're concerned about Pedro's injury recovery, and we can't afford to carry Maddux and Brown with everyone else on our team right now.

For week two, we're also looking for high skills' starters on teams with good offenses that will start twice. We've found 5 starters whom we like, including Mussina(1380), Russ Ortiz(1140), Kerry Wood(1050), and Brian Lawrence(1550). We plan to deploy both Maddux and Brown this week as we like the respective road match-ups over alternatives like pitching Randy in Coors.

In the bullpen, Isringhausen(1290) and Strickland(960) both look very underpriced. We'd like to start with Jorge Julio for a few weeks but he's unlisted and therefore not available for the starting lineup in Week One. We'll likely wait until tomorrow evening before finalizing this decision while hoping for a Tampa trade, but our best current choice is probably Danys Baez(700) for one start in Detroit next weekend. We're leaning towards Byung-Hyun Kim(1200 for the fourth slot as his salary is reasonable considering both his IP and upside.

So we don't have to commit to any roster moves before May aside from taxi switches, we're going to carry Julio as a backup in week one and then spot Baez occasionally if he'll see nice starts in a particular week.

We've already planned 6 of our 18 total roster moves for May to give our roster a boost. Oswalt(830) is targeted for a @PHI/PIT double the week of May 6th. Oakland, after a brutal April (like every other AL West team), has a BAL/TB double the week of May 20th, probably for Hudson, and then a @BAL/@TB double the following week, currently scheduled for Erik Hiljus. We'll likely pick up Oswalt and at least one A's pitcher at this point while dropping any ineffective and/or injured pitchers. Ortiz also runs into a rough stretch at this point, so we may cut bait in favor of one of these guys with an easier schedule.

We'll be looking to add Nomar and Sosa sometime in May depending on schedules. We're aiming for either the week of May 6th or 20th for Nomar as Boston plays 7 games both weeks, and we'd like to add Sosa either the 6th or the 27th for the same reason in Chicago. Our likely drops will be Rollins and Bonds, although these could easily change depending on the status of our other players. While we have the money to upgrade at both places in our Colorado platoon, we might gain a bigger advantage by improving elsewhere.

Finally, we expect to spend at least three moves this year on closers, and if Vlad Nunez is more established in Florida by the middle of the May, we'll likely shift to him as Baltimore also enters a rather tough few months the week of May 20th. We don't expect them to face a single team with a projected losing record for at least two months, so this will be a good opportunity for us to experiment with another reliever as other owners hopefully will start to pick up Julio at that point.

Our probable opening roster for:

Shadow of the Umpire & Interview with the Umpire

C 	Jorge Posada		990
C	Toby Hall		320
1B	Jason Giambi		1640
1B	David Ortiz		640
2B	Luis Castillo		1000
2B	Alfonso Soriano		900
3B	Eric Chavez		1070
3B	Hank Blalock		500
SS	Alex Rodriguez		1880
SS	Jimmy Rollins		940
OF	Juan Gonzalez		1460
OF	Ichiro Suzuki		1330
OF	J.D. Drew		1010
OF	Adam Dunn		710
OF	Daryle Ward		620
OF	Jeremy Giambi		500
DH	Juan Uribe		500
DH	Barry Bonds		1830

SP	Randy Johnson		1990
SP	Curt Schilling		1540
SP	Roger Clemens		1240
SP	Matt Morris		1190
SP	Javier Vazquez		1100
SP	Wade Miller		900
RP	Jason Isringhausen	1290
RP	Byung-Hyun Kim		1200
RP	Scott Strickland	960
RP	Danys Baez		700

taxi squad

1B	Todd Helton		1980
1B	Ryan Klesko		1300
OF	Larry Walker		1530
OF	Juan Pierre		1180
SP	Pedro Martinez		1770
SP	Greg Maddux		1550
SP	Kevin Brown		1430
SP	Mike Mussina		1380
SP	Russ Ortiz		1140
SP	Kerry Wood		1050
SP	Brian Lawrence		480
RP	Jorge Julio		750

Internet Challenge Note: We're going to enter the same roster for our IC team as our DC teams despite the availability of additional strategies to take maximum advantage of the two transaction deadlines each week. We'll rotate our pitchers more frequently to maximize starts, and having non-aces that pitch lower in the rotation like Ortiz, Wood, and Lawrence should increase our flexibility here.

Tomorrow we'll discuss our lineup for BBW Fantasy Baseball.

Today's Fantasy Rx: Opening SunDay is tomorrow, so make your plans to find a TV with ESPN2 to watch Cleveland @ Anaheim at 7pm Central.