Kuzul

Justin Morneau made a successful return to the lineup on Friday with his fifth homer of the season.  Morneau had missed a couple of games with some back trouble but felt good enough to go tonight and made the most of it. 

It may have been his only hit, but as a Morneau owner, I will take it.  For the season, he is now batting a whopping .351 with those five homers and 17 RBI.  

Kosuke Fukudome continues his ridiculous start as he was on base four times today and hit his fifth homer of the year.  As we are set to close out April, Fukudome is not only right near the halfway point of the number of home runs he hit last season, but he is batting .344 as well. 

Now, for those of you who are excited about this, please think about these numbers.  In the past two seasons, Fukudome has hit .258 and has averaged 10.5 homers. 

So, do you really think all of a sudden he is going to turn into a Triple Crown candidate?  No way people, don’t buy into the hype, keep the dude in free agency where he belongs. 

Joel Pineiro got tattooed again for the Angels, and I would think that some owners of his are thinking of kicking him to the curb.  A start after allowing six earned runs, Pineiro gave up nine earned runs in less than four innings of work and struck out just one.  That is the one downfall of Pineiro is that he doesn’t get a lot of Ks. 

However, I am advising those of you who want to dump him to give him one or two more cracks at it before shipping him to the waiver wire. 

Pineiro is capable of putting up a bunch of zeros in the box score and could still be valuable even if he doesn’t light it up on the strikeouts.   

Fausto Carmona was rocked tonight and that brings to light the main problem with having him.   Carmona is another guy who doesn’t get many strikeouts.  In fact he makes Joel Pineiro look like Tim Lincecum. 

So, on a night where he completely doesn’t have it, he absolutely blows up your pitching categories.  I might give Carmona one more start to turn it around, but I have never been a fan, so I definitely have him on a fairly short leash. 

I hate to write about a guy too many times in a week, but Paul Konerko continues to bat the baseball into the people. Konerko connected on No. 11 on the year, and while I am very impressed, I also remind you that he isn’t going to hit 60, so you have to expect this to slow down and probably fairly soon.

Now, I am not saying to sell him on the cheap because he is not capable of this.   Konerko has multiple 40 home run seasons, but I would be cautious of how much to expect from old Paulie these days. 

If he hits 40 I wouldn’t be surprised, but I can’t say that I am expecting it.  Definitely keep him in there and ride the wave.  Expect a very solid season out of Konerko, I am just saying don’t be shocked if a slide comes.

Jonathan Niese is looking like he very well could be the real deal that the Mets were hoping he would as he had another great start, this time against the powerhouse Phillies.  This was his longest stint of the year and he has now allowed just two runs in his last three starts. 

I am not ready to say that he is a guy that you can count on yet, but I did pick him up in one league when I had Brett Anderson go on the DL. 

But I am not completely shocked by this because he did have a few good outings before he had that horrific leg injury last season.  Like I said he is definitely on my radar and should be on yours as well and in deeper leagues he should be scooped up. 

David Wright looks like he is back on track and while he might not be the 30-homer guy this year, he is playing like a guy that should be picked in the first few rounds again.  Wright hit his fourth home run of the year, which is pretty good considering he had only ten in 2009. 

He already has seven stolen bases and he is on pace to beat the 27 he had last season.  The one negative is he continues to strike out too much and his batting average is only .273.  Wright has been a consistent .300 hitter so I expect him to get that average up as well before too long. 

Alex Gonzalez is defying the odds as he keeps producing.  Gonzalez basically has one good year in his career, and that was 2004 when he hit 23 homers.  Outside of that, he only has broken double-digits in taters three other times in his career, and only one of them was since 2004. 

If you have him I cannot advise strongly enough to try to find someone in your league who believes in him and trade him as fast as you can for as much as you can. 

Brandon Morrow had his third straight very good start as he allowed just two runs over six innings and struck out nine.  It was the third straight start in which he allowed two runs or less and also struck out at least eight.  

I really liked Morrow coming into the season; my only concern is his durability.  That is an issue that probably won’t be answered until much deeper into the season, and after these three good starts, I believe that he is now in play and ownable in traditional 12-team leagues at the end of your pitching rotations.  He should give you a pretty decent ERA and a good number of strikeouts. 

I think you are all very aware of my man-crush on Evan Longoria , so since I love the guy I might as well talk about him when he is on fire.  Longoria connected on his fourth homer of the season on Friday (his second in three games), and now has six multi-hit efforts in his last seven games. 

The guy is a beast, ladies and gentlemen, and one of the elite talents in the majors at age 24.  He is keeper league gold, and even in seasonal leagues he is living up to his pre-season hype. 

Scott Olsen was better than solid again on Friday, and I know that some of you are thinking of adding him, but I still urge you not to do it.  He threw six shutout innings against the Marlins on Friday and struck out four. 

Olsen has a ton of potential but has been a colossal disappointment for years.  I don’t think that after two good starts, I am ready to forget four years of bad production, or no production is more like it. 

It was a very successful return for Cliff Lee to the mound in his Seattle debut as he shut down the Rangers over seven innings, scattered three hits and struck out eight. 

Unfortunately for him, Colby Lewis was equal to the challenge, so Lee got a no decision, but just to see him back had to be a huge sigh of relief for his owners.

Lee is still an elite fantasy pitcher and if you missed his start tonight, definitely get him back in for his next trip to the bump.  

A second triumphant return in the same game was by Ian Kinsler who returned to the Rangers lineup after missing the beginning of the year with a high ankle sprain. 

Kinsler had just one single and whiffed twice, but at least he played the whole game and was back in the lineup. 

In daily leagues get him back in there tomorrow, in weekly leagues, just a couple more days until you can get your first- or second-round pick ready for next week. 

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