You can e-mail your Fantasy Baseball questions to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Dear Mr. Fantasy in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state. Be aware, due to the large volume of submissions received, we do not guarantee personal responses or answers to all questions.
Do you ever wonder what happens to those e-mails addressed to Michael Hurcomb when he hands off Dear Mr. Fantasy to me every week?
Well, I steal them for my own. I get a little kick out of it too.
And hopefully I give a little kick to the readers with no-brainer decisions, like the first one we have writing in this week ...
Looking to replace Corey Patterson. Willy Taveras and Carlos Quentin available. What do you think? -- Jon Gibbens, Midvale, Utah
SW: Quentin is still available!? OK, calm down. No need to get excited or make any sudden movements that will draw unnecessary attention. Just take a deep breath, slowly move your hand to the mouse -- STOP SHAKING! -- and click "add."
Whew, that was a close one.
Seriously, Quentin is good, with a capital "duh." His OPS of .990 and strikeout-to-walk rate of 17-to-15 suggest we might be looking at the next Lance Berkman. Remember, he was a huge prospect before last season's shoulder injury.
I'm in a 12-team keeper league with five bench spots. How much longer should I continue to use one for Francisco Liriano? -- Steve Hengel, King's Park, N.Y.
SW: Um ... forever. Think of Liriano this year kind of like you did Roger Clemens in 2006 and 2007. You didn't know exactly when he'd return, but you knew you wanted him when he did. Look, Liriano hurried back to the mound and struggled with his command. It happens all the time with patients of Tommy John surgery. The Twins say they won't rush him this time, so you can rest assured that when he does return, he'll be ready. And a "ready" Liriano has too much potential for you to leave for somebody else. If you didn't have a bench and had to leave him in your starting lineup, I could understand cutting him, but I can't justify it in your case.
What's up with Vladimir Guerrero and Jeff Francoeur? They were my first- and third-round picks, and they are performing like end-of-draft throw-ins. -- Brian Santos, Warren, Mass.
SW: Guerrero is fine. Few hitters have his assurance of hitting .315 with 25-35 homers and 100 RBI. He's done so for 10 straight seasons, and the one time he didn't (2003), he missed a couple months due to injury. Francoeur, on the other hand, is more hype than numbers at this point in his career. He hit only 19 home runs in 642 at-bats last year, and while he bulked up in the offseason and certainly had the potential to improve to 30 or 35, you apparently drafted him as if he definitely would. Bad move. Francoeur has upside and will probably develop into a perennial 30-homer guy someday, but he is only 24 and looks like he still has a ways to go. He deserves a spot on all Fantasy rosters, but don't expect him to give you any more production than he did last year.
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Can Josh Hamilton keep up his blistering pace over an entire season?
(US Presswire)
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HELP!!! Should I trade Lance Berkman for Josh Hamilton and Max Scherzer? -- Dan Haley SW: HANG ON, DAN! I'M COMING! This question is much easier to answer now, after Scherzer's first start Monday, than before it, but my answer hasn't changed. Look, Berkman is a proven stud on the road to having one of the best seasons of his career. Josh Hamilton, while he compares well to Berkman now and has a chance to maintain his .300, 30-homer pace, doesn't have the track record to assure us he definitely will. Don't trade one of your proven studs for a question mark and a young pitcher (Scherzer) who, as good as he is, might go back to the minors in two weeks when Doug Davis returns from cancer treatment.
Boof Bonser and Ian Snell are killing my pitching stats. I read a lot of promise for these two prior to the season, but I am running out of patience. Do you think I should hang on to these guys, and if not, do you think John Danks and Greg Smith are decent substitutions at this point? We don't have much else on our waiver wire. -- Brian Santos, Warren, Mass.
SW: Look at Brian Santos owning the mailbag, ladies and gentlemen. Of the four pitchers you name here, Brian, Snell strikes me as the one with easily the most talent. When he is on, he is dominant, and I think he'll one day emerge as a legitimate staff ace. His problem now, by his own admission, is an inability to keep the ball down. Bonser's problem, on the other hand, might just be a lack of talent. He has some strikeout potential, but tends to allow too many baserunners and projects as a middle-of-the-rotation type for the Twins and a back-of-the rotation type for Fantasy owners. I would discard him for either Smith (the obvious add) or Danks at this point.
I have Troy Tulowitzki, Yovani Gallardo and Rich Hill, all of whom were the bearers of bad news for me. I'm in a 15-team keeper league. I'm currently in 13th place, and we can keep a maximum of eight keepers. Should I turn tail and start planning for next year by trading my high-priced talent for lower-priced talent? Our free agent pool is very thin, so no help there. -- Neil Elsbury
SW: I never like to pull the plug on a Fantasy season because I think talent is too accessible for someone to fall out of the race and keepers too plentiful for him not to try to get back in it. No Fantasy team ever has the perfect season, and if you wait to compete only when everything goes right, you'll never have any fun. But 15 teams is awfully deep, and eight keepers is an awful lot. I still say it's too early, especially since Tulowitzki is the only high-dollar player you mentioned. You must still have some pretty good talent on that roster.
I have an odd-man-out situation for my final outfielder. Keeping in mind it's a points league where strikeouts count as minus-1, who should I sit between Nick Swisher, Justin Upton and Corey Hart? -- Owen Wyatt
SW: The more I see of Nick Swisher, the more he looks like a .260 hitter with 20-homer power. With his three home runs so far, his 35 in 2006 sandwiched between 21 in 2005 and 22 in 2007 looks more and more like an outlier, especially since he had a relatively low .493 slugging percentage that year. He seems like the obvious choice to bench right now, with Hart likely just off to a slow start power-wise and Upton looking like an emerging superstar. Don't hesitate to activate Swisher if he gets hot, though.
I am looking to pick up another pitcher or possibly two. Which of the following should I add: Ian Snell, Randy Wolf, Jeremy Bonderman, Scott Olsen, Carlos Silva or Greg Smith? -- Mike Wilson, Cleveland
SW: Again, Snell is the easy choice for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Of the other five, the second choice comes down to Wolf or Smith, and I'll take Wolf for his strikeout potential. He has 37 strikeouts in 35 1/3 innings so far and two nine-strikeout games already. Then again, Smith might have less injury risk and -- this sounds crazy, but -- a better chance of winning games for the Athletics. But you really can't go wrong either way. Both deserve roster spots in all leagues at this point.
I drafted Trevor Hoffman and Jason Isringhausen as my closers. Now, both of them look like they are in real trouble. I had two roster spots open up and picked up Brian Fuentes and George Sherrill. They are filling in for now, but I need to make a decision soon. Who do I keep, and who do I drop? -- Keith Wilkinson, San Francisco
SW: I still think Isringhausen and Hoffman are your best choices right now. The Cardinals are contenders, and through Wednesday, Isringhausen had 11 saves already. He hit a bump in the road last week but seems to have worked out his issues. Hoffman is 40 and no doubt losing a bit of his stuff, but he has at least 40 saves in four straight seasons -- a remarkable feat, when you think about it. The Padres probably won't contend for the division title, but when they struggle, they struggle with hitting, meaning you don't have to worry about them winning many blowouts. If you want a third choice, go with Fuentes. I know Sherrill has 11 saves already, but I don't think the Orioles can possibly keep winning at this pace, and, unlike the Padres, their decent middle of the order gives them a chance to win the occasional blowout.
It's no wonder why my team has sunk to the bottom of the standings when Ryan Zimmerman, Carlos Beltran and David Ortiz are all batting below .230, but my concern is with Zimmerman. I though he would be better in the smaller park and with another year of experience under his belt, but he really hasn't shown anything this year and, in fact, has been downright awful. Should I be worried about his potential this year? -- Brian O'Neil
SW:Yeah, you should worry about Zimmerman's potential to hit more than last year's .267 with 20 home runs, and hopefully you didn't draft him expecting him to top those numbers. Look, developing players are great and you can go crazy projecting whatever stats you want for them, but if they have to meet those projections in order to justify their draft position, you obviously drafted them too early. Zimmerman looked like a player getting way too much love on Draft Day, and now you understand why. Ortiz and Beltran are studs. Don't worry about them. But if you can find someone who still thinks Zimmerman will hit more than 20 home runs this year, swing a deal.
You can e-mail your Fantasy Baseball questions to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Dear Mr. Fantasy in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state. Be aware, due to the large volume of submissions received, we do not guarantee personal responses or answers to all questions.
