By JIMMY D / Brew a great crew of waiver wire pickups | Jimmy's archive

Milwaukee is baseball’s early-season darling, legging out a seven-game lead atop the NL Central.

And while the hot bats of 1B Prince Fielder and SS J.J. Hardy are making the noise and making headlines, there is lots of fantasy production to be found throughout the fine print of the lineup in Brew Town.

Take Claudio Vargas (which a lot of fantasy GMs have begun to do as his stats continue to improve). The righty has allowed more than one earned run in just two of his seven starts and his 37 Ks leads the surprising Brewers staff.

There are still leagues out there where Vargas is not owned. Make sure yours is not one of them. Go grab him.

Most everyone grabbed Chris Capuano on draft day and he has been superb with five victories. And most everyone caught on to Jeff Suppan’s early-season heroics and snapped him off waiver wires or in trades.

At 25-12, the Brewers have managed nicely even while they were losing four straight starts by ace Ben Sheets. Look out NL Central when they get him going well too (and they have won his last three starts).

Waiver Wire Watcher

More guys on the upswing or in solid situations to earn good fantasy numbers.
Dan Johnson, 1B – Oakland. Slow start, but he is ensconced in the No. 5 spot in the A’s order and hitting better again. He’s got four multi-hit games in his past 10 and was 4-for-4 with two HRs in a game last week vs. KC.
Because of the pre-season uncertainty over whether he would play much, he is available in plenty of online leagues and is worth a look in yours.

Jon Rauch, RP – Nationals. With Chad Cordero struggling (and currently on bereavement leave) and with the Nationals never winning, saves have been tough to come by in Washington. But Rauch got one Sunday and is a reliable option if Cordero continues to founder or if another team decides to take a flier and trade for Cordero.

Jack Cust, DH/OF – Athletics. OK, Jimmy couldn’t resist this one. A minor-league slugger who never got a chance to stick, gets promoted and hits his first big-league homer in four seasons on May 6. A week later, he has six dingers. We’ll say it another way. He has played in seven games and failed to homer in only two of them. He’s in Jimmy’s lineup this week.

Casey Blake, 3B/OF – Indians. Dual-position eligibility and five multi-hit games in his past eight have shoved Blake back onto the radar. His early-season struggles probably mean he is available on your waiver wire.

Prospect Watch

There are always plenty of minor-leaguers knocking on the door and an injury away from playing, but these two caught Jimmy’s eye this week.

Brandon Jones, OF – Braves. Worth a look in NL-only leagues as he is hammering the ball in Double A. Dynamite prospect with speed and power and could get into some action in the Braves outfield.

Homer Bailey, SP – Reds. C’mon, a pitcher named Homer? Too good to be true? There is more to like here than the name and many experts are projecting his arrival before summer.

Baseball vs. hockey

Baseball takes its lumps from Jimmy D taunting. And that doesn’t even count the steroid silliness, because juicing has happened or is happening in just about every sport from baseball to pro cycling to Lithuanian lawn darts.

Hell, Barry Bonds longevity and excellence stems more from standing on top of the plate with that big protective arm plate than from any pills or creams he took or didn’t take. Pitch him inside, you hit him. Pitch him outside, he can reach it and hammer it. Pitch him further outside, he walks.

Add the fact that half the pitchers – and other hitters – were also likely in on the act and steroids or flaxseed oils are not the keys to Bonds’ success. But that’s another story.

Today, baseball endures some taunting for its injury reporting.

In hockey, you see Sidney Crosby, broken bone in foot, questionable. Chris Pronger, separated shoulder, probable.

In baseball, you see Mark Redman, toenail, 15-day DL. Josh Beckett, scratched pinkie, doubtful.

So when Beckett just missed tying Babe Ruth’s Red Sox record for starting a season with eight straight wins because of a scratched finger, it was understandable but also a bit comical.

“My skin broke and it just ripped more and more each pitch,” Beckett told AP. “Hopefully, I can make my next start. But that is a big ‘hopefully’.”

Yes, hopefully the Dora the Explorer band-aid does its thing and makes that boo-boo all better.

Cup Final

Jimmy D