FanHouse Eugenio Velez

For a number of major league teams Mondays and Thursdays are travel days. Every Wednesday and Sunday, Fantasy Fill-Ins finds guys who should be widely available on the waiver wire and can step in for the day, helping you gain ground or hold off the pack.

Monday is a big travel day as only ten teams are seeing action. It's time to dig deep to find fantasy baseball fill-in hitters as there isn't much time left to catch the front-runner in your league.

Erick Aybar, Angels - Over the last week Aybar is hitting .333. But, it's his career mark versus Andy Pettitte that makes Aybar a good fill-in on Monday. Against Pettitte, Aybar is 6-for-13 (.462) and is only owned in 24% of fantasy leagues.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

Eugenio Velez (pronounce the first name: ay-ooh-HEY-nee-o) is a relative unknown major league baseball player. He's currently gaining playing time for the San Francisco Giants without having an actual starting job. He fights for playing time at second base (against Freddy Sanchez), left field (against Nate Schierholtz and Fred Lewis) and right field (against Randy Winn). Lately, though, Velez has been playing pretty much everyday, and swinging a hot bat. The question is, can it continue?

I have a stock answer for the question I get each and every year; "When do you want to hold the draft?". Here it is, and I think everybody should repeat after me. The fantasy draft should be as close to Opening Day as possible. Let me say that again, the fantasy draft should be as close to Opening Day as possible.

Don't agree with me? Why don't you ask anyone out there who has already had their fantasy draft and took Alex Rodriguez in the first round. I bet they would agree with me.

There are many reasons to wait as long as possible to hold your fantasy baseball draft...

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Arizona Diamondbacks
Chad Tracy missed a good chunk of the 2008 season due to knee surgery, which held him to only 273 at-bats. Tracy says he's been healthy since mid-way through the off-season and manager Bob Melvin expects big things from him in 2009 saying he can see it as Tracy drives the ball.

When I see him drive the ball to left-center field, for me, his legs are under him," Melvin said. "Those are the ones he was having a little trouble getting out there and extending on, probably trying to pull a little too much. And when he did he hit the ball the opposite way, it (was) not with the force he had before. Now it looks like to me he's hitting it hard the either way.

Tracy's average draft position right now is a very low 387.75. If he can return to 2005 form where he hit 27 home runs and batted .308 or anywhere close to that, he'll be a steal.

Dave Roberts' career may be coming to an end. The man most famous for stealing the base against Mariano Rivera -- clearing the way for the Red Sox dramatic four-game comeback in the '04 ALCS -- has been released by the Giants. He turns 37 this season, and he's never received a full season's worth of at-bats.

Last season, Roberts fought through injuries and sporadic playing time, but still only managed five stolen bases -- due mostly to getting on base only 44 times. Heading into training camp this season, he was looking at being the Giants' fifth outfielder, but the Giants already have other ideas.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Team desperately needing a bat in the middle of the order. It's too bad money is so tight right now, because the Giants could certainly use a certain eccentric slugger in the middle of their order. They still aren't altogether out of the running for Manny Ramirez, but I believe he's staying put in Los Angeles. Too bad they wasted all that money on Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand.

San Francisco Giants outfielder Dave Roberts landed on the DL this week, with a torn meniscus and "additional debris" behind his kneecap. I'm no doctor, but that doesn't sound good.

And indeed, Roberts could miss at least a few months with this injury. So, why would Giants fans be happy about this?

It's not any hostility towards Roberts, one of the few talented veterans left on the team, and by all accounts a really good guy. Though he's 35, he still has wheels, swiping 31 bags last year to go with his solid defense.

But there you have it -- he's 35.

Despite the fact that the Giants have won three straight games, no rational San Francisco fan thinks this is anything but a lost season. And well run teams do one thing in those kind of years -- find young talent to help them rebuild. So it was particularly galling for these fans to watch the season begin with youngsters like Fred Lewis, Rajai Davis and Eugenio Velez struggling to find regular playing time.
That all changes with Roberts taken out of the mix -- Lewis and Davis have gotten starts in the last three games (all wins for the Giants) and while they haven't played at an All-Star level, that's really not the point. At the end of the year, manager Bruce Bochy and GM Brian Sabean need to know what they have on their hands to help plan for 2009.

In the meantime, all three of these guys -- Davis, Lewis and especially Velez (who can play both outfield and infield slots) are not only helpful to the Giants, but to fantasy owners as well. They're all fast (Velez might be one of the fastest kids in the league) and stolen bases are a hot commodity.

So, in a season that Giants fans most likely will want to forget, there are a few positives -- though Dave Roberts might not agree.