Today's Fantasy Rx

All teams except for the Cubs and Marlins will play four games this week; Chicago travels to Florida for three games beginning on Friday.

Colorado: 4 Road games at San Francisco.
Houston: 4 Road games at Cincinnati.
Cincinnati: 4 Home games vs. Houston.

Teams with four home games include Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York Yankees, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, and Tampa Bay.

All other teams play four games on the road.

No pitchers will start twice this week.

Diamond Challenge

SP(6)
Randy Johnson: Sun:@SD()???
Pedro Martinez: Sun:TOR(J.Wasdin)
Curt Schilling: Thu:@SD()
Tim Hudson: Thu:@MIN(R.Reed)
Matt Morris: No start.
Roy Oswalt: Thu:@CIN(???)
Mike Mussina: Sun:CLE(J.Westbrook)
Kevin Millwood: Thu:MON(T.Ohka)
Kerry Wood: ???:@FLO(???)???
Kevin Brown: Sat:STL(D.Haren)
Roy Halladay: Thu:@BOS(D.Lowe)
Jason Schmidt: Sat:COL(S.Chacon) OR Sun:COL(D.Neagle)
Mark Prior: ???:@FLO()???

I see no reason to speculate regarding who most of these pitchers will face, and the uncertainty surrounding starts for Randy, Wood, Brown, and Prior means they'll stay benched. Pedro, Mussina, Millwood, and Schmidt all are easy calls here given their decent home starts, and Hudson and Halladay are slightly stronger bets than Schilling or Oswalt right now.

We don't quite have enough salary flexibility to deploy Carl Everett instead of Kearns, and we'll bench Williamson in favor of Mantei to squeeze under the cap.

Interview with the Umpire(4th lg; 27th div; 641st overall),
Shadow of the Umpire(3rd lg; 38th div; 640th overall), &
Dance of the Umpires(5th lg; 25th div; 685th overall)
Week 16: June 14-July 20

C	Ivan Rodriguez		1070
C	Toby Hall		460
1B	Aubrey Huff		610
1B	Erubiel Durazo		520
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1460
2B	Luis Castillo		1210
3B	Aaron Boone		1010
3B	Hank Blalock		500
SS	Alex Rodriguez		2010
SS	Nomar Garciaparra	1330
OF	Lance Berkman		1640
OF	Manny Ramirez		1610
OF	Ichiro Suzuki		1480
OF	Preston Wilson		1220
OF	Hideki Matsui		750
OF	Austin Kearns		650
DH	Frank Thomas		920
DH	Aramis Ramirez		820

SP	Pedro Martinez		1700
SP	Tim Hudson		1340
SP	Mike Mussina		1210
SP	Kevin Millwood		1010
SP	Roy Halladay		890
SP	Jason Schmidt		790
RP	Eric Gagne		1430
RP	Mike MacDougal		750
RP	Tim Worrell		740
RP	Matt Mantei		700

Total Salary for Week 16: 	29830

Diamond Challenge 2nd Season

SP(6)
Pedro Martinez: Sun:TOR(J.Wasdin)
Curt Schilling: Thu:@SD()
Tim Hudson: Thu:@MIN(R.Reed)
Matt Morris: No start.
Roy Oswalt: Thu:@CIN(???)
Mike Mussina: Sun:CLE(J.Westbrook)
Mark Mulder: Sat:@MIN(B.Radke)
Kevin Millwood: Thu:MON(T.Ohka)
Kerry Wood: ???:@FLO()???
Kevin Brown: Sat:STL(D.Haren)
Roy Halladay: Thu:@BOS(D.Lowe)
Jason Schmidt: Sat:COL(S.Chacon) OR Sun:COL(D.Neagle)
Mark Prior: ???:@FLO()???

While we don't mind running Halladay in DC, Mulder allows us to sit Halladay against Boston's offense here. Aside from Mulder, we'll deploy, Pedro, Hudson, Mussina, Millwood, and Schmidt.

We're benching Helton in San Diego, and Florida's brief schedule also indicates we should sit Lowell and Pierre. While we missed his impressive power display this past week, Griffey returns to our lineup for the injured Patterson, and Roberts remains benched while he's on the DL.

As we don't like any free agents this week, we're going to refrain from replacing Patterson on our roster at this time.

Umpire The Masquerade(2nd lg; 4th div; 43rd overall)
Week 16: June 14-July 20

C	Mike Lieberthal		650
C	Toby Hall		460
1B	Carlos Deglado		1420
1B	Aubrey Huff		610
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1460
2B	Bret Boone		1360
3B	Aramis Ramirez		820
3B	Hank Blalock		500
SS	Nomar Garciaparra	1330
SS	Rafael Furcal		970
OF	Albert Pujols		1750
OF	Preston Wilson		1220
OF	Ken Griffey		820
OF	Vernon Wells		750
OF	Austin Kearns		650
OF	Milton Bradley		430
DH	Orlando Cabrera		1030
DH	Erubiel Durazo		520

SP	Pedro Martinez		1700
SP	Tim Hudson		1340
SP	Mike Mussina		1210
SP	Mark Mulder		1080
SP	Kevin Millwood		1010
SP	Jason Schmidt		790
RP	Eric Gagne		1430
RP	Joe Borowski		750
RP	Rocky Biddle		750
RP	Tim Worrell		740

Total Salary for Week 16: 	27550

Internet Challenge

SP(6)
Curt Schilling: Thu:@SD()
Roy Oswalt: Thu:@CIN(???)
Kevin Millwood: Thu:MON(T.Ohka)
Kerry Wood: ???:@FLO()???
Roy Halladay: Thu:@BOS(D.Lowe)
Mark Prior: ???:@FLO()???

No starts: Randy, Pedro, Morris, Mussina, Brown, Schmidt, Loaiza, and Ainsworth.

Schilling, Millwood, and Halladay all look decent, and as either Wood or Prior should pitch Thursday, we're going to deploy both in the hope of one decent start. However Oswalt is just too risky to run, so we'll take Ainsworth to give us more cap flexibility.

Gagne goes back into our lineup for Williamson with Houston in Cincinnati, and then we'll leave Orlando Cabrera benched since we like our current lineup and aren't overly convinced he'll excel against Millwood in one game.

The Umpire Hunter(13th lg; 327th overall)
Week 16a: July 14-July 17

C	Jorge Posada		1120
C	Toby Hall		460
1B	Todd Helton		1850
1B	Aubrey Huff		610
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1460
2B	Luis Castillo		1210 
3B	Aramis Ramirez		820
3B	Hank Blalock		500
SS	Alex Rodriguez		2010
SS	Nomar Garciaparra	1330
OF	Lance Berkman		1640
OF	Manny Ramirez		1610
OF	Preston Wilson		1220 
OF	Carl Everett		850
OF	Hideki Matsui		750
OF	Austin Kearns		650
DH	Aaron Boone		1010
DH	Erubiel Durazo		520

SP	Curt Schilling		1610
SP	Roy Halladay		890
SP	Kevin Millwood		1010
SP	Kerry Wood		990
SP	Mark Prior		750
SP	Kurt Ainsworth		430
RP	Eric Gagne		1430
RP	Mike MacDougal		750
RP	Tim Worrell		740
RP	Matt Mantei		700
Total Salary for Week 16a: 	28920

Fantasy Baseball & Budget Baseball
(Same rules = same rosters and moves for both teams)

SP(6)
Mike Mussina: Sun:CLE(???)
Pedro Martinez: Sun:TOR(J.Wasdin)
Curt Schilling: Thu:@SD()
Roy Oswalt: Thu:@CIN(???)
Kerry Wood: ???:@FLO()???
Kevin Millwood: Thu:MON()
Roy Halladay: Thu:@BOS(D.Lowe)
Jason Schmidt: Sat:COL(S.Chacon) OR Sun:COL(D.Neagle)
Kevin Brown: Sat:STL(???)
7 Mark Prior: ???:@FLO()???

Mussina, Pedro, Millwood, Halladay, and Schmidt all look fairly good here, and we'll go ahead and deploy Schilling since his start is far more intriguing than those of Oswalt, Wood, Brown, or Prior.

Offensively, our only moves involve deploying Vernon Wells and Pat Burrell instead of Larry Walker and Manny Ramirez, the former based on effectiveness and the latter for cap reasons.

The Umpire Chronicles(5th lg; 162nd overall)
& Umpire with a Soul(3rd lg; 372nd overall)
Week 16: July 14-July 20

C	Jason Varitek		1400
C	Toby Hall		1070
1B	Carlos Delgado		2850
1B	Frank Thomas		2030
2B	Alfonso Soriano		2570
2B	Orlando Hudson		1000
3B	Scott Rolen		2660
3B	Eric Hinske		1750
SS	Nomar Garciaparra	2300 
SS	Orlando Cabrera		1820
OF	Albert Pujols		3150
OF	Lance Berkman		2850
OF	Preston Wilson		2410
OF	Vernon Wells		1780
OF	Austin Kearns		1600
OF	Hideki Matsui		1500
DH	Pat Burrell		2420
DH	Joe Crede		1150	

SP	Curt Schilling		3600
SP	Mike Mussina		2920
SP	Pedro Martinez		2900
SP	Kevin Millwood		2400
SP	Jason Schmidt		1990
SP	Roy Halladay		2010 
RP	Eric Gagne		2560
RP	Keith Foulke		2330
RP	Mike MacDougal		1500
RP	Tim Worrell		1370

Total Salary for Week 16: 	59890

We've already registered our Mid-Season Fantasy Baseball team, and we will present our chosen players and initial lineup in Wednesday's article.

Today's Fantasy Rx: While we listed the above starts to the best of our knowledge when we posted this article, several teams usually reset their rotations over the break. In general, do not deploy your fifth starters this week, and exercise caution when deploying injured pitchers or questionable fourth starters.