A weeklong hiatus and now somebody needs to stop the presses. We have breaking news. Mark Prior is... hurt! Again! Unfathomable. Barry Bonds is heading back to court with even more counts of perjury. Unbelievable. Enough of the obvious, on to the notes...

Huey Lewis and the News

Braun-y - The 2007 NL Rookie of the Year is starting to heat it up again. With a power surge over the last week of three doubles, a triple, four homers and six RBI, Braun has been rekindling the fire that sparked his ROY honors last year. After last year's 34 HR, 97 RBI explosion in just 450 AB, Braun is on pace to hit 40 HR and 120 RBI. The worst part about this is that it's not too far fetched.

While no one should expect Braun's average to be up near his .324 clip of last year, he should be right around .290-.300. The 40 HR plateau is easily reachable for Braun this season and if he can go on a prolonged power boost at some point we could be talking about 50. As long as the runners in front of Braun get on, the RBI will flow as well. It's tough to fathom a second year player at only 24 is doing this much damage, but he is. And even worse for the opposition, he will continue for a few more years barring injury due to his new 8-year deal.

Hu's on First - No, Hu's at short. With Rafael Furcal hitting the DL, Dodgers' prospect Chin-Lung Hu will take the majority of grounders at short. The 24-year-old will look to prove the Dodgers right for keeping him up with the team after spring training. While he's hitting a light .196, with a few more at bats and some consistency, he has nowhere to go but up. The most likely scenario for Hu will be something in the .260-.280 range with maybe 10 HR and 75 RBI to go with 15 or so SB in a full season. However, Rafael Furcal is expected back in a couple of weeks meaning that Hu will most likely return to his reserve role.

Nicks, Nerds and Notes

A-Rod may be making a return next weekend...Eric Chavez is expected to start a rehab assignment for AAA Sacramento Thursday. He'll start as a DH for the first 3 games to get his swing back and then start playing some 3B until he can do it everyday... Mark Prior may be making the flight to Birmingham to meet with everyone's favorite, Dr. Andrews... Here comes Jerry Hairston Jr. Jeff Keppinger will miss some significant time in Cincy after fracturing his kneecap on a foul ball...Eric Gagne is back in as closer for the Brewers; Jason Isringhausen not so much for the Cardinals... Scott Kazmir was extended for 3 years with the Rays for a reasonable 9.75 million a year... Jim Edmonds signed with the Cubs. It's like they knew they had a chance to win this year and are looking to make sure they have their fall guy set up now... Nick Johnson finds his way to the DL again. Here comes Dmitri Young... Clay Buchholz will leave a shaky Red Sox staff for the DL... Hank Blalock could be back within a week... Stephen Drew has been on a little tear of late and the power that he was praised for has started to show... The Nick Adenhart experiment ended quickly with Adnehart sent back down to AAA...Finally, Claudio Vargas was called up by the New York Mets and is expected to jump right into the rotation.

Selling the Farm

The major league season started, but we're still waiting on the minors to kick into gear. This week starts the Prospect of the Week and the Weekly Wrap-Up.

Luke Hughes , 2B, MIN

Jesus Flores, C, WAS

With Paul LoDuca and Johnny Estrada on the DL the Nationals called up Jesus Flores to fill the spot. While Flores' numbers early this year were not anything to write home about (.153 average, 1 HR, 7 RBI in 59 AB), his name should get some recognition. He's a solid-hitting, solid-defense guy that the Nationals wanted to give some extra time in the minors to. Instead, due to some injuries, Flores is up with big club and hitting a sweet song at .348 with 1 HR and 6 RBI in just 23 AB (as of Thursday AM). If he can continue to hit this way, the Nats will be in no rush to get their soft hitting duo back.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Adam Lind was sent back down to AAA Syracuse from Toronto after doing a whole lot of nothing for the big club... Speaking of guys sent down, Brandon Wood, Nick Adenhart, Jed Lowrie and Felix Pie... The buzz surrounding Clayton Kershaw is no joke. He's 0-3, but only because of no run support. His 2.21 ERA and 40 K in 36 IP should be more than enough to prove the point... Lance Broadway has been making a case for himself down in Charlotte. A 5-1 record with a 1.13 ERA will do that for you, I suppose...Knuckleballer Charlie Zink has been doing pretty well for AAA Pawtucket. If Wakefield goes down, can we expect him to fill the role of the staff artist? ... Giants' catching prospect Pablo Sandoval has been tearing the cover off the ball hitting .406 with 7 bombs and 35 RBI for class A San Jose...Reds prospect Jordan Smith is having himself a good start to a season down in Sarasota with a 6-1 record and a 1.45 ERA... Lastly, in AA Frisco, Rangers farmhand Max Ramirez is belting everything with 8 HR and 26 RBI to go with his .383 average.

Prospect of the Week

WAIT A MINUTE MR. POSTMAN

LaPorta and Wieters are flat out killing the ball, Kershaw and Porcello are stumping the bats. Aside from these studs, anybody tearing up the minors who gets a call up soon? - Lansdale, PA

As I had hinted towards in the Minor League Notes, Lance Broadway of Chicago (AL) could be getting a call up in the not-too-distant future. If Mark Buerhle can't straighten it out or has the always comical "undisclosed injury" that forces him to the DL for a while, Broadway would be the first pitcher called up. Nick Masset has proven that he is not the answer other than a possible emergency start, but Broadway could be putting on a show.
As almost anyone that pays attention knows, the Reds are looking to deal Ken Griffey Jr. away. I don't need to get into much detail as to what this means, but it starts with a Jay and ends with a Bruce.

Pittsburgh prospect Andrew McCutchen has been making some waves as well. Down in AAA Indianapolis everyone expected the big names to be Steven Pearce and Neil Walker, but the real story has been McCutchen and his 12 SB and 6 HR with 20 RBI. If Xavier Nady gets dealt or the Pirates need an extra outfielder at some point, don't be surprised to see McCutchen on the first plane in.

Another guy who, while not truly a prospect anymore, has been tearing up AAA for the Rangers is Nelson Cruz. The ex-top prospect has been killing the ball in Oklahoma City. With the Rangers team having some questions with the outfield and other aspects; it will not take long for GM John Daniels to get him on a bus to Arlington.
With the Cardinals starting to falter, there is a chance that players like Braden Looper, Joel Pineiro and especially Kyle Lohse could be traded. If the Cardinals fall out of the race and do decide trade players, one of the Memphis starters that could be on his way up is Mitchell Boggs. 4-1 with a 3.86 ERA, Boggs has been impressing coaches throughout his minor league tours.

Finally, if Detroit keeps having troubles or any of the starters goes down for an extended period of time, farmhand Eddie Bonine, a 6'5", 200 pounder from Nevada could step in. Dominating in the win-loss columns with a sparkling 8-0 record, Bonine has been effective thus far. While not overpowering, Bonine has kept opponents at bay by only walking 7 batters so far in 55 IP. Detroit should be looking for guys that can win a game because after going 0-6 against the Royals so far, they'll need all the wins they can get.

Keep the emails and PM's coming so you can avoid the likelihood that you'll be starting Paul LoDuca this year. To get your questions answered, PM TheSnake at FPM or email pick_six@hotmail.com.


Jake Gott is a writer for FantasyPlaymakers.com. A part-time journalist, Jake is an unfortunate die hard fan of the Arizona Cardinals and the NHL. A proclaimed "fantasy nerd," he has hoisted many a belt above his head in league championship glory. To reach Jake, email him at pick_six@hotmail.com or by sending him a message on the FPM site under the name of TheSnake.