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What good is talent to a fantasy owner who lacks timing?

Fantasy baseball—just like the real thing—is a game of skill, luck and timing. That last trait, in particular, comes in handy in regard to getting value in the trading game.

Knowing which player(s) to trade away and which to deal for—and knowing just the right time to do so—can make all the difference.

After all, it doesn’t get much better than making a move to unload a hot flavor-of-the-week type who’s about to cool off in exchange for a slumping stud who’s ready to take off.

Now, speaking of timing, let’s get to some players to sell high and buy low.

Statistics come from Baseball Reference and FanGraphs, except where otherwise noted.

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Just as Clayton Kershaw is coming off the disabled list, Hyun-Jin Ryu is heading onto the disabled list with a shoulder injury. The Los Angeles Dodgers swap their No. 3 pitcher for their No. 1, but their depth has already been tested by injuries, making any further time lost a tough proposition.

Ryu is headed to the DL with what the Dodgers are calling shoulder inflammation. They have been non-specific about the severity and location, but given that the Dodgers medical staff has not asked for an MRI, they must feel that they have a good handle on it. Team sources tell me that Ryu‘s shoulder is more tender than painful and that the push to the DL was precautionary.

Ryu has no significant history of shoulder problems, going 192 innings in his first MLB campaign. Ryu showed good stamina throughout the season, though the Dodgers were very cautious with his innings, especially early in the season. 

The Dodgers cleared Ryu to start a throwing program after some progress with the inflammation, and he should have a couple throwing sessions before getting up on a mound. If all goes well, he could come off the DL sometime late next week.

The Dodgers have a current rotation of Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Dan Haren and Josh Beckett, with Paul Maholm holding the five slot. With Chad Billingsley finishing up his Tommy John rehab and Zach Lee at Triple-A Albuquerque, the Dodgers have some flexibility even with Ryu out. Beckett, Haren and Maholm are essentially pitching for their slot each time out until Ryu and Billingsley are back.

Billingsley did have a mild setback, getting some tendinitis during his rehab. That pushes his return back until mid-June at the current pace, but he is expected to slot right into the rotation when he gets back.

Ryu remains a solid middle-rotation option in fantasy and should be able to put up solid numbers. Missing a couple starts will hold his innings down around the same mark he hit last season, which is a positive. Another big positive is that Ryu hasn’t shown any loss of velocity despite the shoulder issue. Fantasy players should get him back in their rotation once he returns.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Michael Bourn could be headed back to the disabled list after starting the season there. His repaired left hamstring is acting up again, a big problem so closely after surgery. The Cleveland Indians speedster is being evaluated by their medical staff, according to MLB‘s Jordan Bastian, and no decision has been made on a return.

Bourn‘s 2013 season ended with him headed for surgery after a severe Grade III strain was not going to heal on its own. Stitching muscle back together is very difficult. A surgeon once told me that it was like trying to cut your steak and then stitch it back together. (He told me this at a steakhouse. Yeah.) 

While Bourn was able to return without significant issue, the fact that he is having trouble is problematic. It’s not known where the new injury is. It could be at the repaired area, nearby or further up or down the muscle. Any is problematic as it further weakens the muscle that Bourn needs to play his kind of game.

Hamstring injuries do have a tendency to be recurrent. Because the muscle repairs itself with scar, it is never as strong. This exacerbates the normal strength deficit the hamstring has to the quad, it’s antagonist. Any imbalance leads to further movement disruption and usually only gets worse from there.

Terry Francona had a very interesting quote in the article above about the situation. “We just want to make him understand that he’s got to be honest, and then we’ll sit down with him and make decisions. That’s kind of how we always do things.” 

Francona‘s quote is intriguing in that he felt the need to articulate it. Lonnie Soloff and his medical staff are among the most respected in the game and have been there for years. Having to say that Bourn should be honest has to be a reflection that they’ve had issues with him somewhere along the line. 

The Indians should make a decision shortly on Bourn, retaining the retro move back to the weekend. They called up Nyjer Morgan, who had filled in for Bourn at the start of the season. Morgan is a streaky player, so he’s not a bad desperation play in fantasy.

Bourn‘s long-term value is tied up in his speed. With only two steals in five attempts and reduced range in the outfield, Bourn hasn’t demonstrated that at all. Further hamstring issues call into question whether it’s coming back at all. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Missing any time is frustrating to Matt Cain, but the San Francisco Giants are making good use of a little understood MLB rule in order to minimize that lost time. Cain’s finger laceration will only cost the minimum time due to the Giants’ use of the “retroactive” provision of the disabled list rules.

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle had the scoop that Cain cut himself when trying to cut sandwiches into “fancy little triangles.” He dropped the knife and (get this) tried to catch it. That didn’t work out well, leaving him with a nasty cut on his index finger.

The cut didn’t require stitches, but sources tell me that the Giants medical staff did use several techniques, including adhesives and protective coverings to help the cut heal quickly and properly. Things were looking good up to Monday, when, in the pregame warm-up, Cain felt like the cut was going to “pop open.”

The Giants decided to skip him and did so in part because they understood the retroactive provision. Essentially, the rule allows a team to backdate a DL stint to the day after the player’s last appearance. Cain was able to be backdated to April 25th, which makes his effective DL stint only a few days.

Cain is scheduled to pitch this weekend in Los Angeles and will be eligible to come off the DL on Friday. If the finger has healed up, he’ll come off the DL and make the start. The Giants will “shadow” him, meaning they’ll have a long man ready in the pen in case the finger becomes a problem. This does limit the pen slightly for a few days, but is the smart move.

Yusmeiro Petit took both starts in Cain’s absence and is likely to be the shadow. Petit‘s place as the de facto swingman is another smart usage of roster spots and skills by the Giants. The Giants also recalled Jake Dunning when placing Cain on the DL, giving them another arm that could be used as a long relief arm or as an emergency starter.

In the long term, the fancy little triangles won’t cost Matt Cain much time, and it shouldn’t cause any issues once the laceration is healed enough to pitch. On and off the field, the Giants have worked to minimize an injury, showing others just how this should work.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

What good is talent to a fantasy owner who lacks timing?

Fantasy baseball—just like the real thing—is a game of skill, luck and timing. That last trait, in particular, comes in handy in regards to getting value in the trading game.

Knowing which player(s) to trade away and which to deal for—and knowing just the right time to do so—can make all the difference.

After all, it doesn’t get much better than making a move to unload a hot flavor-of-the-week type who’s about to cool off in exchange for a slumping stud who’s ready to take off.

Now, speaking of timing, let’s get to some players to sell high and buy low.

Statistics come from Baseball Reference and FanGraphs, except where otherwise noted.

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The second full week of the fantasy baseball season is in full swing. You’ll want to keep an eye on the prize and finish the weekend strong, but there is nothing wrong with a peek ahead.

Here’s a breakdown of the two-start pitchers for the week of April 14-20. I used ESPN to generate the list. Starts are subject to change due to weather and injuries. Check for updates according to your league settings to avoid any surprises.

Begin Slideshow

What good is talent to a fantasy owner who lacks timing?

Fantasy baseball—just like the real thing—is a game of skill, luck and timing. That last trait, in particular, comes in handy in regards to getting value in the trading game.

Knowing which player(s) to trade away and which to deal for—and knowing just the right time to do so—can make all the difference.

After all, it doesn’t get much better than making a move to unload a hot flavor-of-the-week type who’s about to cool off in exchange for a slumping stud who’s ready to take off.

Now, speaking of timing, let’s get to some players to sell high and buy low.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

Begin Slideshow

The first full week of the fantasy baseball season is in full swing. You’ll want to keep an eye on the prize and finish the weekend strong, but there is nothing wrong with a peak ahead.

Here’s a breakdown of the two-start pitchers for the week of April 7-13. I used ESPN to generate the list. Starts are subject to change due to weather and injuries. Check for updates according to your league settings to avoid any surprises.

Begin Slideshow

With spring training finally over (yay!), the 2014 regular season is about to get under way in full (double-yay!!). And with your fantasy baseball draft in the rear-view mirror (triple-yay!!!), it’s time to update the Big Board again.

On the pages that follow is a ranking of—count ’em—the top 150 players for the 2014 fantasy baseball season. With some circumstances and opinions changing since the last iteration, including transactions and injuries, a refreshing of the board is in order.

Before getting to that, though, some housekeeping is needed, as this lengthy list of the top talents comes with a few key qualifications. First, everything is based on 10- or 12-team mixed leagues with standard 5×5 rotisserie scoring for hitters (BA, R, HR, RBI, SB) and pitchers (W, ERA, WHIP, K, SV).

Second, lineup construction accounts for 22 active roster positions consisting of: one each for catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, corner infield, middle infield and utility, along with five outfielders and nine pitchers.

And third, to be eligible at a particular position, players must have either played at least 20 games there in 2013 or be in line to start there in 2014.

With that out of the way, get ready to count down, starting with No. 150 and working all the way to No. 1.

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Yu Darvish has been great since joining the Texas Rangers, but a neck injury has forced the team to bench its ace, according to MLB.com. Darvish has a sore neck and is heading back to Dallas for more tests. It is very likely he will start the season on the disabled list.

More worrisome for Rangers fans is that Darvish hasn’t been able to shake what was initially described as simple neck stiffness. Darvish continues to describe the pain as minor and that it initiated when he “slept on it wrong.” 

Now, he’s headed to see Dr. Drew Dossett in Dallas. Dossett is one of the world’s top spinal surgeons, but don’t read too much into it. Dossett is a team physician for the Rangers as well as the Cowboys. Some might remember Dossett as the doctor who made the final call on Tony Romo’s late-season surgery.

There are many possibilities for this condition, with the most likely being some small herniation of a cervical disc. If so, the nerve would be irritated, causing the pain. The disc could be inflamed for many reasons. Trying to calm that aggravation can be handled with injections or, in an extreme case, surgically. If Darvish needs even minor spinal surgery, such as a microdiscectomy, he would miss two to three months. If it’s something minor, it’s more about how he responds to the treatment and when he can get his arm ready to come back.

There are several pitchers who have had similar injuries. The comparable that makes the most sense to me is Clay Buchholz, who missed much of the last half of the season with a similar-sounding neck injury. Buchholz’s is more serious, in that it moved into his shoulder due to nerve impingement. Other pitchers with similar cases are Shaun Marcum and Ted Lilly. The range of days lost to these goes from 16 to 84, according to my injury database.

There’s another sports comparable that NFL fans will note: Peyton Manning. While Manning eventually had to have a single-level fusion, where the disc was removed and two vertebrae were locked together with a titanium cage, he’d previously had two microdiscectomies, plus a number of other minor treatments, and was able to play at a high level for at least five years.

With Darvish out for the Opening Day game with the Philadelphia Phillies—which just sounds odd, doesn’t it?—the Rangers are left scrambling. They will already be without Derek Holland for the first half of the season after knee surgery, and without Matt Harrison for at least a few weeks, if not more, after his three surgeries with Dr. Dossett last year. 

That leaves Martin Perez as the likely Opening Day starter, with no clear favorite for the now-open No. 5 slot. The Rangers may be forced to convert another reliever to the rotation, with Tanner Scheppers now possibly the No. 2 starter and Robbie Ross in the lead for the No. 5 spot. That will leave the pen thin in front of as many as four starters who are coming off injuries or just converted to the rotation. Mike Maddux has his work cut out for him to be sure.

The Rangers do get a little help from the schedule. With two off days in the first two weeks, the team could elect to go with a four-man rotation for the first two times through, but that would leave them needing a fifth starter in an important divisional series with the Seattle Mariners. 

The Rangers start the season in a very tough spot. They’re down three of their expected five starters as well as Jurickson Profar and Geovany Soto. Elvis Andrus isn’t feeling so well, either. Ron Washington is going to have to rally a team that’s going to look very unfamiliar for the first few weeks of the season in order to not fall behind an improving AL West.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com