Today's Fantasy Rx

Arizona: Matt Mantei, RH Closer
0-2 and 2 Saves on a 6:3 K:BB in 3.1 IP over 4 G
with 5 H, 2 HR, a 3-5 G-F, and a 13.50 ERA.

A disastrous blown save in San Diego on Sunday, where Mantei allowed four earned runs on a walk and three hits, including a home run, accounts for most of the damage here. Unfortunately, he also has walked a batter in two of his other three appearances, so although his qualitative stats should head downward, he might not secure a sub-4.00 ERA until after the All-Star break. Mantei is a risky closer even when healthy as control and homer problems effectively can negate his outstanding dominance. The only good news here for owners without a significant investment in Diamondbacks' pitching is that neither Jose Valverde nor any other Arizona reliever owns particularly good stats, so Mantei's job appears quite safe right now. Still, he isn't someone to invest in at the moment given the current team-wide difficulties, so only target Mantei if you can afford a qualitative hit in order to add a couple dozen saves

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Internet Challenge

SP(6)
Pedro Martinez: Sun:@NYY(A.Graman or J.Vazquez)
Roy Halladay: Sun:@BAL(S.Ponson)
Javier Vazquez: Sun:BOS(P.Martinez)?
Kerry Wood: Sat:NYM(T.Yates)
Kevin Brown: Sat:BOS(B.Arroyo)
Josh Beckett: Fri:ATL(Ru.Ortiz)
Jose Contreras: Fri:BOS (D.Lowe)
Shawn Chacon: 3 Home vs. HOU.

No starts: C.Schilling, R.Johnson, Mussina, T.Hudson, Oswalt.

If Vazquez starts, he's going on 3-days rest against Pedro, and since we have the cap room for Pedro, we'd rather run him anyway given his solid start to the season. The rest of these pitchers look fine, however even though he's at home against Houston, Chacon seems safer than Contreras right now.

Since most of our expensive pitchers are benched, we have room to run ARod on offense, however since Cintron looks much stronger than Kaz Matsui right now, we'll sit the Mets' shortstop. Teixeira and Crede stays benched, and then with one outfield slot for a speedster, we're deploying Ichiro in Texas rather than Pierre against Atlanta or the ice cold Carl Crawford against the White Sox.

The Umpire Hunter(20th lg; 702nd overall)
Week 3b: April 23-April 25

C	Mike Piazza		990
C	Jason Varitek		680
1B	Brad Fullmer		700
1B	Josh Phelps		580
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1930
2B	Marcus Giles		990
3B	Eric Hinske		990
3B	Hank Blalock		850
SS	Alex Rodriguez		2010
SS	Alex Cintron		450
OF	Carlos Beltran		1760
OF	Ichiro Suzuki		1560
OF	Vernon Wells		1150
OF	Scott Podsednik		980
OF	Adam Dunn		690
OF	Brad Wilkerson		690 
DH	Richard Hidalgo		970
DH	Miguel Cabrera		570

SP	Pedro Martinez		1800
SP	Roy Halladay		1350
SP	Kevin Brown		1180
SP	Kerry Wood		1190
SP	Josh Beckett		990
SP	Shawn Chacon		630
RP	Eric Gagne		1890
RP	David Riske		820
RP	Arthur Rhodes		800
RP	Matt Herges		670

Total Salary for Week 3b: 	29870

Today's Fantasy Rx: Only nine of the sixteen NL closers own four or more saves this year. John Smoltz and Shawn Chacon have three saves, Trevor Hoffman, Matt Mantei, Joe Borowski, and Jason Isringhausen have two saves, and Octavio Dotel only has managed a single save. I see no reason that the majority of these pitchers won't total 30 or more saves by the end of the year. Only Borowski particularly worries me since both his skills and scouting reports suggest a major problem with his control and overall effectiveness. If you own him, look to add LaTroy Hawkins as insurance if you didn't grab him during the draft. Dealing for another closer is a slightly safer move, but adding Hawkins at least will improve your qualitative marks while insuring you receive nearly all the Cubs' saves.