FanHouse JorgeCampillo

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.

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Biggest offseason losers. At least that's what pessimists will try and tell you, anyway. The Braves -- and new GM Frank Wren -- seemingly made blunder after blunder in 2009, losing Rafael Furcal at the last minute, whiffing on A.J. Burnett, letting John Smoltz walk and failing to land Jake Peavy. But the reality is that Wren actually did a pretty darn good job assembling a talented squad that can certainly compete in the NL East in 2009. Oh, and they'll provide some nice fantasy value as well.

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

The Nationals made it official Thursday, inking slugger Adam Dunn to a two-year, $20 million deal and introducing him in Washington. Dunn fills a glaring need for the Nats -- left-handed power -- but he also creates a roster crunch that general manager Jim Bowden will have to clear up before the team heads north for the start of the season.

Of course, Washington isn't the only club with a bit of a logjam heading into Spring Training. Here are a look at five rosters that will need to be un-cluttered in the coming six weeks, and how they might be.

July 31 is rapidly approaching. Buy or Sell lets each team know where they stand.

The Braves are stuck in one of the most interesting trade deadline conundrums I think I have seen in awhile. They have the talent to win this year, yet have gotten not just unlucky but also injured. The ability to win now is enhanced by a division that does not appear as strong as it did at the beginning of the season, what with the Braves only seven games back despite a 44-50 record.

We also don't know how new GM Frank Wren thinks, although if his trade deadline maneuvering is as aggressive as his early and midseason moves, I don't expect to see a whole lot. Wren has, for the most part, seemed content to let the roster play out as it stands, rather than attempt to make an early play to help out the pitching rotation.

What remains is a team that could be stacked on offense with Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira and Chipper Jones. But the reality is that a rotation of Tim Hudson, Jair Jurrjens, Jo-Jo Reyes and Jorge Campillo is not going to be effective enough to make a really deep run.

For that reason, I think the Braves are/should/need to become sellers. I hate giving up on a season at the All-Star break, but as noted by the link to SOSG above, the Braves had the potential to be an elite team this year and just haven't caught any breaks.

Spot Jobs gambles by picking five spot starters for the week and five usual starters to avoid. The success rate is usually around 50%, but the risk level is always through the roof. Obviously, though, you always start Brandon Webb (when healthy) and sit Dave Bush.

Five Up

Joba Chamberlain, Yanks -- He's ready now. Plus, the Padres -- despite a recent upswing -- don't exactly have an inspiring offensive attack.

Kevin Slowey, Twins -- He's coming off an eight inning gem against the Brew Crew, but he's been very inconsistent and the previous outing was a three inning-10 earned run clunker. I do, however, like him to string out a second consecutive quality start and victory this week against the light-hitting Nats.

Bronson Arroyo, Reds -- His opponent (Dodgers) has been an incredibly inconsistent offensive team, especially on the road. Sure, people like to call Arroyo's home the Great American Smallpark (it's clever, I know), but he handcuffed the Cards in it last outing.

Jorge Campillo, Braves -- The Bravos love playing at home. The Mariners have scored 20 runs in their last eight games (2.5 per game, mathematically challenged). I'm only a tad bit fazed by Erik Bedard being opposite Campillo, but the Braves should still be able to manage 2 runs. That should be enough.

Scott Baker, Twins -- Facing the Big Unit (see "Five Down"), and the DBacks loooooove to strike out.

Deep breaths are necessary to ensure the absence of obscenities. That's what the "serenity now" voice in my head keeps telling me as I scramble to withdraw fantasy league trade offers and to keep hitting refresh on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's webpage, hoping they screwed up and John Smoltz really isn't out for the season.

Obviously I know that's all delusion and the longest tenured Brave on the roster (and my favorite baseball player in the history of my reasonably short life, for whatever that's worth) is done for the season and maybe for his career.

The repercussions on this are varying, and while tacking on "vast" to that might be a stretch, for a Braves fan, it is pretty painful to come to the realization of how this season -- which still has a lot of promise -- could quickly be unfolding into a freefalling nightmare.

We are -- to play the schizophrenic optimist here -- just three and a half games back of the surging Phils in the NL East. We have the second best home record in the bigs (despite the worst road record). Our pitching staff has allowed, as Jon Bois points out, the least runs in the bigs, despite being classified, at best, as patchwork. (No offense to the guys who have stepped up this year. Acting like injuries haven't ravaged this staff would be denial though.)

But losing Smoltz changes everything. Maybe I'm insane, but he seems like the string that holds everything together through some combination of talent and leadership. And frankly, I'm blanking terrified that it's all going to really unravel now that he's gone.

Not a particularly strong two start pitcher group this week. However, there are some rather odd names. Rich Harden is odd, only because he is rarely healthy. When he is -- that being now -- he is a must start. Another interesting name is Joba Chamberlain, who is now a starter with the Yankees and gets two runs this week. Start him, but keep your expectations low; he is going to be limited per the Joba Rules.

In terms of nice sleeper options, Kevin Slowey has been pretty outstanding over his last 15 innings, winning both starts and going the distance against the Royals while only allowing one run and three walks with eight strikeouts in that span.

Justin Masterson is a long shot to get two starts but it's not inconceivable that the Sawx are careful with Dice-K, meaning he could be a nice option.

Jo-Jo Reyes and Jorge Campillo for the Braves both have good starts and are certainly usable in deeper leagues. Jonathan Sanchez is a high risk starter but personally, I like rolling the dice because of his K potential. Phil Dumatrait is a reasonable gamble if you feel like playing behind courtesy of the Pirates.

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Pitcher	Team	First Start	Second Start
Carlos Zambrano	CHC	at SD	at LAD
Roy Halladay	TOR	at NYY	v. BAL
Rich Harden	OAK	v. DET	v. LAA
Aaron Harang	CIN	at PHI	at FLA
Adam Wainwright	STL	v. PIT	at HOU

When Mike Hampton was the first (in-season anyway) pitcher to get hurt, my immediate thought was "Shock me, shock me, shock me with that deviant behavior". No wait, I don't quote Empire Records. Crap. Anyway, it was hardly surprising that Hampton got hurt. But looking back on things today, is the Atlanta mound, or maybe the Atlanta pitching staff just flat out cursed*?

John Smoltz' shoulder is so bad that he's forcing himself back into the closer role. That closer role is only available because Rafael Soriano and Peter Moylan were both disabled. (And because Mike Gonzalez is stuffed with barbeque. Kidding. He is hurt though.) Moylan is likely out for the season and Soriano returned after several delays.

Tom Glavine hit the disabled list for the first time in his 22 year career. Smoltz is coming back, but the rotation is suffering horribly right now (again) with Jair Jurrjens dealing with blisters and Tim Hudson leaving Sunday's game with a hamstring strain. Joining him on the Sunday injury list was Blaine Boyer, who left 13 pitches later with a knee injury.

And youngster Jorge Campillo is also dealing with blisters. Oh yeah. So is Jo-Jo Reyes. The long and short of it is that the Braves -- who have suffered enough bad luck this year, injuries aside -- are struggling to keep healthy bodies on the mound. So, if they call and ask you to pitch, you should probably say no.

*Curses obviously aren't real.