Today's Fantasy Rx

Arizona: Curt Schilling, RH Starter
7-6 on a 146:26 K:BB in 127 IP over 18 GS
with 99 H, 10 HR, a 1.19 G-F, and a 2.48 ERA.

While Schilling owns excellent qualitative marks, his injury, coupled with the Diamondbacks' inconsistent offense, leaves him with barely half the wins and strikeouts we expected from him. His current bone bruise might be camouflaging a more serious problem, yet his current 5-start QA log of 55554 indicates he still possesses all-around superb skills. Unfortunately, the questions surrounding his health force me to recommend a deal if you can secure equivalent value for a top pick. Of course, Schilling can contribute in any league even while hurt, so although I'd rather exchange him for a safer player, I also don't see any obvious problem with keeping him, particularly in shallow leagues where stars are most valuable, if you can't find a good replacement.

July Underachiever: Randy Johnson, LH Starter
Old stats: 1-3 on a 37:7 K:BB in 29.1 IP over 5 GS
with 36 H, 4 HR, and a 1.95 G-F; 5.83 ERA.
Recommendation: acquire.
Stats since recommendation: 2-3 on a 36:8 K:BB in 38.2 IP over 6 GS
with 40 H, 7 HR, and a 4.19 ERA.

Previous underachievers: April: Mike Myers; May: Byung-Hyun Kim; June: Elmer Dessens.

Internet Challenge

Our 2 roster expansion choices are fairly simple given we want to conserve our last move and therefore need a back-up catcher and relief pitcher. While we wouldn't mind owning more than a dozen relatively healthy starters, we need to improve our offense and overall depth much more than our starting pitching. Javy Lopez looks like the logical choice at catcher despite occasional injury problems, particularly as Atlanta spends this weekend in Coors, although our reliever choice is more difficult.

Joe Borowski, Francisco Cordero, and Rocky Biddle all possess excellent value for their salaries and look to hold secure closer jobs. Cordero owns a significant edge in recent saves and overall performance, although Borowski owns the best skills from the beginning of the year. The deciding factor is that Texas plays all its remaining games, aside from two 3-game series versus Anaheim, against contenders Seattle, Oakland, Minnesota, and Kansas City. Montreal gets two series against the Mets and weekend in San Diego and Cincinnati, however they also spend the next two weeks against the Phillies and Marlins; the latter Florida series begins a 2-week "homestand" in Puerto Rico, which also includes the Cubs and Braves. After the Cubs spend a week in Arizona and St. Louis, and then play a homestand against Milwaukee and St. Louis, they close the year by playing the Brewers, Expos, Reds, Mets, Pirates, Reds, and Pirates. This superior schedule gives Borowski an obvious edge considering the Cubs' unimpressive performance and likelihood of securing at least a half-dozen more wins than the Rangers or Expos. Of course, as we don't need him this weekend as the Cubs face Arizona and Mantei, we're going to wait until Sunday to add him so we minimize our risk as much as possible.

SP(6)
Pedro Martinez???: Sat:SEA(F.Garcia)? or Sun:SEA(R.Franklin)?
Curt Schilling: Fri:CHC(C.Zambrano)
Matt Morris: Sat:PHI(A.Telemaco)
Mike Mussina: Sat:BAL(Rod.Lopez)
Kevin Millwood: Sun:@STL(B.Tomko)
Kevin Brown: Sun:NYM(T.Glavine)
Roy Halladay: Fri:OAK(B.Zito)

No starts: Randy, Oswalt, Wood, Schmidt, Prior, Loaiza, and Ainsworth.

As we have no idea when Pedro will return, Schilling, Mussina, Millwood, Brown, and Halladay are our only easy calls. While Morris might help, we can't afford a WHIP blowup when we need more offense; we'll set him in favor of Ainsworth for cap reasons.

Javy replaces Hall at catcher, and as Luis Castillo heads to PacBell this weekend, he'll join Orlando Cabrera, playing in San Diego, Aaron Boone, and Austin Kearns on our bench. The decision to take Ainsworth allows us to deploy all our top power hitters, including ARod, Vlad, Helton, Manny, and Berkman.

The Umpire Hunter(9th lg; 221st overall)
Week 21b: August 22-August 24

C	Jorge Posada		1120
C	Javier Lopez		750
1B	Aubrey Huff		610
1B	Erubiel Durazo		520
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1460
2B	Marcus Giles		400
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	Vernon Wells		750
OF	Hideki Matsui		750
DH	Vlad Guerrero		2010
DH	Todd Helton		1850

SP	Curt Schilling		1610 
SP	Mike Mussina		1210
SP	Kevin Millwood		1010
SP	Kevin Brown		990 
SP	Roy Halladay		890
SP	Kurt Ainsworth		430
RP	Eric Gagne		1430
RP	Mike MacDougal		750
RP	Tim Worrell		740
RP	Matt Mantei		700

Total Salary for Week 21b: 	29960

Today's Fantasy Rx: Roster expansion occurs this week in the CDM games, so you can improve your Internet Challenge team for tomorrow morning. Your primary goals, particularly if you're essentially out of moves like us, are to make sure you own a back-up at each position to protect against injury, and to roster as many starting pitchers as possible for flexibility down the stretch. The pitchers we most want to own for the balance of the season include Mark Prior, Kevin Brown, Esteban Loaiza, Pedro Martinez, and Mike Mussina. Solid buys at each position include Javier Lopez and Toby Hall at C, Frank Thomas and Aubrey Huff at 1B, D'Angelo Jimenez and Marcus Giles at 2B, Aramis Ramirez and Hank Blalock at 3B, Nomar Garciaparra and the red hot Alex Rodriguez at SS, and Vernon Wells and Hideki Matsui in the outfield. While we don't currently own Thomas or Jimenez on our IC team, and we're only adding Lopez this weekend, these players likely represent some of the best offensive bargains in the game over the final five weeks of the season.