Pujols and Hariston Jr. Back Today

Albert Puljos and Jerry Hariston Jr. are going to be activated from the DL today. I continued to be sickened by the Cards and by my Reds. Both in different ways.

Chase Utley finally broke out of his slump last night and helped me in both my leagues. He went 4-5 with a triple and a double......YES! Carlos Guillen also had a big 4-5 night for the Tigers last night and hit his first homer in 15 games.

Nothing to do with Baseball

This has nothing to do with baseball, but I thought it was funny. John Daly and Kid Rock paired together at the Buick Pro Am. Daly hit a drive off the top of Kid Rock's tall boy beer can. Go to YouTube and check that out! Funny Crap.

Haters and the DL

Gary Sheffield was activated from the DL today, is this guy still relevant. I guess I am a little bias as I would probably draft Corey Patterson in front of him. Do I hate Sheff that much!!!!!!!! This move is just in time as I hate to have all the players I dislike on the DL at the same time.....that's right Carlos Zambrano is not a favorite of mine either and he just hit the DL. But aren't we supposed to be impartial when we write these blogs. The way I look at it, if the Jay's GM can hammer Adam Dunn the way he did then I can hammer a couple assholes here.

For real if you look at the players on the DL right now you could probably win a fantasy league if you owned them all in a healthy state. Just to name a few.....maybe the highest scoring catcher the last three years, Victor Martinez.....Although he is about to come back, Albert Pujols has been a top fantasy scorer the past five years.......Would you take either of these DH's, Travis Hafner or David Ortiz, both still on the DL.....get the picture a lot of big guns have hit the shelf for extended periods of time this year and my teams were not immune from this bad luck......Just hope this wasn't the year you were "lucky" enough to draft a few of these superstars

King Felix hurt

Felix Hernandez smoked an opposite field grand slam off of Johan Santana tonight and then left with an ankle injury after taking a cleat to the ankle at home from Carlos Beltran. Injury looked pretty bad. Felix was 1 strike away from being in line for the W tonight. That's got to sting fantasy owners a bit.

Two great arms may be done

Looks like fantasy baseball may have lost two great arms forever in Curt Schilling and John Smoltz. Both are having season ending surgeries that may also end their careers. Though, I hate Schilling's guts, he was a great fantasy pitcher. I've always liked Smoltz and his high strikeout numbers throughout his career. We'll probably be seeing both these guys in Cooperstown in 5 years.

Ryan Howard is heating up

It's about time, but Ryan Howard is finally heating up. Even though he's only batting an Adam Dunn like .224, he has 19 homers and 62 RBI. He's had multi homer game in 2 of the last 5 and 18 RBI in the last 10 games. He's a big fat turd who's starting to get it done.

Volquez vs. the Red Sox Saturday

Today, Edison Volquez takes his league leading strikeout totals against the Evil Empire. Check out the Red Sox vs. the Reds on Fox game of the week.

Injuries are back!

More injuries to big name players this week:

**Alfonso Soriano will be out at least 6 weeks with a broken hand.

**Victor Martinez underwent surgery today and will miss up to two months!

**Jake Peavy made a big return today from the DL going 6 and giving up no runs and 4 Ks.

Ken Griffey Jr. Hits # 600

Well the wait is finally over. After hitting # 599 on the last home stand one wondered if Griff would sit out a few games to hit this historic home run back in Cincinnati. Well he did wait to the last game on this road trip and the Reds front office was probably hoping he would wait another day to do it. Big attendance booster for sure.

Next player in front of Griffey is Slamin Sammy Sosa with 609 and when "The Kid" does over take Sosa he will be top five all time in HR's. What a career!!!!!!!!!!

Griffey is one of the few power hitters not to be connected to steroids in this "steroids era." I do believe he is as clean as they come. Most users mention how they help recover from injuries by taking steroids and look at Griffey's injury list and time spent on the DL......I would say this would for sure make Griffey a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee.

Hey and the Reds won tonight too, that was getting about as rare as someone hitting # 600.....Great job Jr.

Breaking News......Bonderman Out For The Season

Well it's just been reported from the Detroit Tigers webb site that Jeremy Bonderman has a blood clot in his axillary vein. They say that vein runs from the neck to the armpit. I could see that being a problem for anyone, much less a MLB pitcher. The Tigers are placing him on the 15 day DL but reports are saying this is season ending for Bonderman.

This is another blow to an already short handed pitching staff that I though would only have to "show up" to win games this season with the Tigers offense. Well maybe I should say the Tigers offense we thought they would have. Obviously this hasn't been the case. Yous truly did draft Bonderman's team mate, Justin Verlander way too early and he has let me down big time. I was in attendance the night Verlander threw his no hitter last season against the Brewers. There is a lesson to be learned here when drafting guys you like.....more head....less heart.....

Middle Infield Help

First I didn't think I would ever be writing this endorsement about this guy. I guess I am one of the last to get on board but if Jerry Hairston is available in your league, well it's past time to pick him up. I have to admit I didn't think he was this good. Jerry is a career .256 hitter and thought he might flirt with .300 for a couple of weeks, but we are now 37 games played for Jerry and that's a decent sample size so let's look at some of his numbers.

Can you say .325 batting average.....Hairston is sitting on 38 hits in 37 games, anytime you can average more than a hit a game that's pretty good, and has scored 18 runs and driven in 13 runs. Add these numbers to his 10 stolen bases, (caught twice) and you can tell these numbers are for real. I see only one down side to Hairston and that's his w/k ratio of 8 walks and 19 K's. I say if you need infield help this guy can do it for you. Only thing he is probably gone in your league as he is in ours, great pickup GMO. I have Jeff Keppinger on my squad and I do see a platoon in the future on Dusty's lineup card when Jeff returns from the DL. Jeff was putting up some great numbers before his DL stint so we will see what happens soon enough as he is about to start his rehab assignment. Either way I think Cincinnati is in good shape at SS. Now if they could put a road winning streak together!!!!!!!!!!!

John Smoltz and Pedro Martinez

Well I am sitting here listening to John Smoltz tell the world that he is having season ending surgery. Yes it's the shoulder. John is saying he hasn't slept well in months. He had stated before if he ever needed surgery again he would retire first. This afternoon he is singing a different tune. He is now saying he does want to again make a come back after he heals from this surgery.

If you own Smoltz and are not in a keeper league it's time to drop this future member of The Hall of Fame and find someone to fill his spot.

If Pedro Martinez is available in your league that might be a good place to start looking. Martinez did get the win last night giving up 3 runs and 7 hits to go with his 3 K's in six innings. After being out for over two months this is a fair start for Pedro.

All Star Game Notes

All right it's time to do your "Baseball Duties".....It's time to spend ten minutes to vote for your favorite all stars. I don't think it's any secret that we are Reds fans here and I want to make a case for you to get Griffey Jr. another shot at starting in another all star game. Jr is currently in third place among NL outfielders which would make him a starter again. He is about to become the sixth member of the 600 home run club and deserves this honor one more time.

I know this is a reach here but I also want you guys that feel it to give a little love to the young phenom Jay Bruce as a write in. I know he hasn't got a chance to get in but at least he will feel a little love for his awesome start.

Go to www.monster.com and vote Griffey in this all star game. You will also be registered to win tickets to the big game along with airfare and hotel and cash.
Don't forget to forward this info to everyone in your address book!!!!!!!!

VOTE VOTE VOTE

Homer Bailey

OK the four letter network is saying that the Cincinnati Reds will call up Homer Bailey from AAA Louisville on Thursday to face the Phillie's. Not the greatest assignment for Bailey but hey you gotta face the big bats sometime. The Phillies are just knocking the cover off the ball so again Bailey will have his work cut out for him. Homer didn't have a great May at Louisville but the potential is definitely there and well worth a spot in Nl leagues right now and also some deep mixed leagues. At least keep him on your watch list if he has a fair game against the Phillies, who knows.....I do know this the Reds are hoping they find magic in the bottle again after the week "Babe" Bruce uh I mean Jay Bruce just had.

If you haven't heard about Bruce as of yet....well just turn in your fantasy card and go back to watching the soaps again. After the week Bruce just had I think the biggest stat that jumped out at me was the K/W ratio. Bruce drew six walks while only striking out one time.......that shows maturity way beyond his experience. I have heard comparisons of him to Larry Walker in his hey day as a Rockie....not bad for just six games played.....

If you are a real Reds fan like the guys that write this blog then you know there hasn't been this much buss about the Reds in over twenty years. This might be a rather bold statement but I think this road trip the Reds embark on starting tonight is the biggest road trip sense their last World Series win in 1990. Yes with the way they are playing it's time to let the world know this team does have some life left in it......if they can take five of the next eight games from the Phillies and the Marlins it will be a giant step for them.

Injuries everywhere this week

Injuries are mounting up:

*Travis Hafner-Went on the 15 day DL this week.

*Big Papi-Heard a pop in his hand last night. MRI today.

*Eric Byrnes-MRI revealed two torn hamstrings. I'm guessing he'll be out past the all-star break.

*Jake Peavy-Elbow strain on the 15 day DL.

*Dice K Matsuzaka-went on the DL this week with a rotator cuff injury.

*Faustino Carmona-DL with a hip strain.

*Matt Holiday and Brad Hawpe-Rockies have tons on the DL. Both of these guys have hamstring problems.

*Gary Sheffield-he's getting old. Roids have ravaged his body.

*Andruw Jones-Can't hit anyway. Knee surgery will have him out for a while.

*Posada and Smoltz are due to come off the DL this week. Looks like Smoltz will be a reliever again.

Player of the Week Jay Bruce

Well, the Cincy management finally woke up and unleashed Jay Bruce on Major League Baseball. Bruce made the most of this first week be terrorizing the Pirates and Braves pitching staffs including a walk offf bomb yesterday. I recieved two phone calls in about 2 minutes after the blast. One isn't even a big baseball fan but he was pumped up. My father-n-law says that there hasn't been this much excitement around the Reds in 20 years. We've been saying it all year, this dude is the real deal. It's about time he's been let loose. First week totals going into today: .579, a game winning homer, 4 RBI, 8 runs, 5 walks, and a single K. Dare I say, Rookie of the Year and future MVP.