Week 6 Pitching Planner

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Week 6 Pitching Planner

May 7, 2006 Eric Mack Senior Fantasy Writer Tell Eric your opinion We take you around the staffs for the week in our Sunday Fantasy Baseball Pitching Planner. This week's matchups AL early NL early AL late NL late MIN@TEX COL@STL TEX@BOS COL@HOU OAK@TOR CHC@SF TOR@TB SD@CHC CLE@KC HOU@LAD KC@BAL WAS@ATL TB@SEA ARI@PIT SEA@LAA ARI@STL BOS@NYY NYM@PHI OAK@NYY NYM@MIL DET@BAL ATL@FLA DET@CLE FLA@PIT LAA@CHW WAS@CIN CHW@MIN PHI@CIN MIL@SD LAD@SF Teams with seven games: Chicago Cubs, Houston, L.A. Angels, San Diego, San Francisco and Toronto. Teams playing Monday to finish May 5-8 series: CHC@SD, LAA@TOR and HOU@SF. Two-start pitchers This week's two-start pitchers Must-start options Pedro Martinez at PHI (Myers) at MIL (Davis) Roy Oswalt at SF (Lowry) vs. COL (Cook) Randy Johnson vs. BOS (Beckett) vs. OAK (Haren) Roy Halladay vs. LAA (Weaver) at TB (Hendrickson) Jason Schmidt vs. CHC (Hill) vs. LAD (Seo) Greg Maddux at SD (Young) vs. SD (Young) Josh Beckett at NYY (Johnson) vs. TEX (Koronka) Andy Pettitte at LAD (Seo) vs. COL (Francis) Brett Myers vs. NYM (Martinez) at CIN (Claussen) Freddy Garcia vs. LAA (Gregg) at MIN (Radke) Advisable options Chris Young vs. CHC (Maddux) at CHC (Maddux) Dan Haren at TOR (Towers) at NYY (Johnson) Daniel Cabrera vs. DET (Robertson) vs. KC (Bautista) Jason Marquis vs. COL (Francis) vs. ARI (Batista) Doug Davis at SD (Hensley) vs. NYM (Martinez) Nate Robertson at BAL (Cabrera) at CLE (Byrd) John Thomson at FLA (Moehler) vs. WAS (Armas) Jeff Weaver at TOR (Halladay) vs. SEA (Washburn) Brandon Claussen vs. WAS (Armas) vs. PHI (Myers) Noah Lowry vs. HOU (Oswalt) vs. LAD (Sele) Questionable options Brad Radke at TEX (Koronka) vs. CHW (Garcia) John Koronka vs. MIN (Radke) at BOS (Beckett) Paul Byrd at KC (Bautista) vs. DET (Robertson) Miguel Batista at PIT (Snell) at STL (Marquis) Jae Seo vs. HOU (Pettitte) at SF (Schmidt) Tony Armas at CIN (Claussen) at ATL (Thomson) Jeff Francis at STL (Marquis) at HOU (Pettitte) Clay Hensley vs. MIL (Davis) at CHC (Hill) Denny Bautista vs. CLE (Byrd) at BAL (Cabrera) Gil Meche vs. TB (Fossum) at LAA (Gregg) High-risk options Ian Snell vs. ARI (Batista) vs. FLA (Moehler) Kevin Gregg at CHW (Garcia) vs. SEA (Meche) Casey Fossum at SEA (Meche) vs. TOR (Towers) Josh Towers vs. OAK (Haren) at TB (Fossum) Rich Hill at SF (Schmidt) vs. SD (Hensley) Brian Moehler vs. ATL (Thomson) at PIT (Snell) Staff reflections The D-Backs could choose to move Juan Cruz back, but he will still get a start in Fantasy Week 6 (May 8-14). Cruz his a risky NL-only starting pitcher option. Jorge Sosa pitched in relief Friday night and was skipped by the Braves on Sunday in favor of John Smoltz on three-day's rest. Horacio Ramirez (hamstring) was brought off the DL, but it was to pitch in relief until he builds arm strength back up, so Sosa will remain in the Braves' rotation, for now. Consider Sosa nothing more than a deeper NL-only option at this point. It's likely Ramirez forces Sosa back to the bullpen once healthy in a few weeks. The Orioles are skipping struggling Bruce Chen, which moves him back to start Saturday vs. Kansas City (Mark Redman). That's a decent matchup for Chen in deeper AL-only leagues -- even if Chen has been awful. The Red Sox are similarly moving Matt Clement back to set their rotation (Josh Beckett, Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield) vs. the Yankees early in the week. Clement will start Friday vs. Texas, while Lenny DiNardo is slated to go Saturday (Robinson Tejeda). Clement is viable in deeper mixed leagues, while DiNardo is high-risk in any format and might even be a candidate to be replaced by a minor-leaguer (Abe Alvarez?). The Reds are keeping Bronson Arroyo on regular rest, which will make him a two-start pitcher for Fantast Week 7 (May 15-21). The Marlins might consider moving Sergio Mitre back in order to keep Dontrelle Willis on regular rest. Mitre still figures to get a start, though -- one viable only in the deepest of NL-only leagues. Denny Bautista is coming off the DL on Monday to make the start over Joe Mays, who is getting sent to the minor leagues to straighten himself out. Bautista figures to be a two-start pitcher, too, unless the Royals choose to skip him later in the week to keep Jeremy Affeldt on regular rest. That's unlikely, so consider Bautista viable in AL-only leagues for Fantasy Week 6 (May 8-14). With Bartolo Colon (shoulder) not nearing a return, the Angels are going to give Kevin Gregg a ride in their rotation right now, keeping top prospect Jered Weaver in the minor leagues. Gregg is a viable AL-only two-start pitcher for Fantasy Week 6 (May 8-14). Meanwhile, Weaver will toil in the minors still. He could be an emergency replacement for Kelvim Escobar, who had battled a blister problem and tweaked his ankle Saturday. The Dodgers could choose to move back Jae Seo or Brett Tomko to keep aces Derek Lowe and Brad Penny on regular rest, but that hasn't been planned as of yet. Also, Aaron Sele could be skipped or removed altogether if Odalis Perez (bereavement) returns in time to start next weekend. Seo, Tomko and Sele should only be used in deeper NL-only leagues, while Perez should be avoided altogether. The Brewers are keeping Doug Davis and Chris Capuano on regular rest. Davis now becomes a two-start pitcher, one advisable for any Fantasy format. Bush will still start Friday or Saturday this week, keeping him an option for NL-only leagues. Ben Hendrickson will start the day Bush doesn't after he assumed the rotation spot for Tomo Ohka (shoulder), who could be out a majority of the season. The Twins could decide to skip Scott Baker, or move him back, to keep Johan Santana on regular rest. It's likely he just gets moved back at worst, because he has been pitching better than Brad Radke, Carlos Silva or Kyle Lohse. Santana is the only Twins pitcher worth using in most mixed leagues at this point. The Mets now have three starting pitchers on the DL: Brian Bannister (hamstring), John Maine (finger) and Victor Zambrano (elbow). Zambrano is now out for the year, so Jose Lima will see an extended stay in the rotation. Bannister figures to need a rehab start next week, making him unavailable for Fantasy leagues. Lima will now start Friday, while a No. 5 starter will be needed for Saturday at Milwaukee. That No. 5 starter will be Jeremi Gonzalez or Darren Oliver -- neither of which are recommended for any Fantasy league -- and not Aaron Heilman, according to the Mets. Heilman looks stuck in middle relief until the Mets can acquire another solid setup man. Jorge Julio's re-emergence is promising, but not yet enough to allow Heilman to start. Lima is a viable option in deeper NL-only leagues, while Heilman owners will have to continue to bite their lip. The Yankees didn't want to start Jaret Wright vs. Boston, so he has been moved back to Saturday of next week. Oakland is a much better matchup for Wright in AL-only leagues anyway. The A's are keeping Joe Blanton on his regular fifth day, moving Saarloos back just one day. Barry Zito could have been a candidate to move up, too, but the A's decided to have him open the series against the Yankees. The Pirates could elect to move Victor Santos back to keep Zach Duke on his regular fifth day, but Santos still figures to start this week. Only consider him in the deepest of NL-only leagues. With Shawn Estes (elbow) still a week or two away, Clay Hensley remains in the rotation and gets two starts this week. He's a sneaky-good option in NL-only leagues for those. Unlike Estes, the Giants' Noah Lowry (back) will be returning Monday and getting two starts. He's an advisable option this week in Fantasy leagues coming off a rehab stint. Brad Hennessey has been removed from the rotation and can be cut in all leagues. The Rangers could skip any one of Kameron Loe, Robinson Tejeda or John Koronka in order to keep Kevin Millwood on his regular fifth day. The only really viable candidate for skipping is Tejeda, who should only be considered in the deepest of AL-only leagues for that reason. Millwood is a solid option in all leagues, especially when you consider he could get a second start. Loe and Koronka should be fine for AL-only formats. Pitch a question Max Shipley, Bothell, Washington: Roger Clemens is available in my league, should I pick him up? Will he live up to his numbers in the past? I would have to drop someone in my reserves, meaning Rich Harden (who is hurt). Emack: Do not drop Harden for Clemens at this point. Both of them figure to be on the same time-table at this point -- no better than a June return. Even if Clemens signed today -- not going to happen -- he would need to build up arm strength. You can e-mail Emack your Fantasy Baseball pitching questions to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Attn: Bleacher Banter in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state. Be aware, due to the large volume of submissions received, we cannot guarantee personal responses or answers to all questions.