+/- (4/4 - 4/10)

Picking up where we more or less left the plot, as far as I can tell, in this edition we'll cover the moves made from 4/4-4/10.

Medford Crackers
+Xavier Nady, - Stephen Drew
+Scot Shields, - Ted Lilly
+George Sherrill, - Chad Cordero

Dropping Drew, the Crackers placed their faith in the rest of the lineup to produce RBI, SLG and HR, as his departure clears the way for Rafael Furcal and his R, OBP and SB. Complementary parts, for sure, although it appears the Crackers didn't want to go too long watching Drew HR's waste away on the bench (0 for 2 they were). Although it might appear that Nady is around to provide insurance for an out-of-position Nick Swisher, the chronically sore Carlos Beltran, or the question mark that Jason Bay became in 2007, all three are currently carrying the team with exceptional averages (Bay - .421/.400, Beltran - .417/.533, Swisher - .457/.539), so that's a good sign. It also might appear that Nady is around to provide a platoon with Travis Hafner at DH, but in each of the past 2 seasons, Pronk has OPS'd higher against lefties than righties, outperforming Nady's split advantage in the process. For whatever reason he's around that I'm not seeing, he'll at least serve as the X Factor for the Crackers until Furcal gets injured and they pick up David Eckstein to be their Ecks Factor.

Somerville Squires
+Stephen Drew, -Felipe Lopez

Although he's perceived as one of the most stats-friendly managers out there ("The message was clear: 'In a nutshell...it's: Don't give away outs.' That might sound simple enough, yet staggering to Acta is the number of managers and players and teams who don't adhere to that philosophy.") Manny Acta must stagger and/or dagger Felipe Lopez owners everywhere. This is the manager who not only benches Lopez for Cristian Guzman and Ronnie Belliard, but bats Guzman - he of the .301 career OBP in 3,954 AB - leadoff. Meanwhile, a fantasy sub-sleeper with 20 HR/40 SB potential, as well as being eligible at ss, 2b, AND OF rides the pine. Inconceivable!

Mookie Dribblers
+Mike Napoli, - Dioneer Navarro
+Micah Owings, - Daric Barton

Micah Owings was the 240th and final player picked in the draft. He was thereafter dropped for Jeff Keppinger, who supplanted JJ Hardy (220th pick/22nd round) at shortstop. Owings was then reacquired at the expense of Daric Barton, free agent pickup,who took the place of Elijah Dukes, another free agent picked up when Troy Percival (200th pick/20th round) was let go. Mike Napoli was signed to replace the injured Dioneer Navarro (221st pick/23rd round). The ineffective Eric Gagne (201st pick/21st round) was dropped for the likes of Kyle Lohse. [The 18th/19th round picks of the Dribbers, Randy Johnson and Jay Bruce, have not yet appeared in the big leagues this year and it's not guaranteed either will; 17th round pick Rich Harden has already hit the DL.] If they had such poor opinion of their drafting ability, the Dribblers should've just auto-drafted. At this pace, they'll have churned their way through their roster by the All-Star Break.

The Sal Buteras
+Jeremy Hermida, -Michael Bourn
+C.J. Wilson, -Joe Blanton

Although filled with potential and pedigree, the Butera's outfield situation has been nothing short of a hot mess thus far. Enter Jeremy Hermida, who's come on to the tune of a .357/.400/.929, 2 HR, 6 RBI performance in just 14 AB this year. (It never fails to annoy me when otherwise sensible and admirable writers will point to a line such as Hermida's and say, "While he's off to a fast start, you can't expect him to keep it up." Well, thanks for the tip, Mr. Analyst. I'm pretty sure a .929 slugging percentage - currently #1 is Bonds at .863 and #2 is Ruth at .849 - would be impossible to maintain for an entire year.) Anyhow, even when Hermida's averages come down to levels that he could reasonably expected to maintain (.296/.369/.501 in 2007), and with Hanley and Uggla ahead of him in the lineup, he should provide the production for the Buteras that they've been missing.

The Dummy Hoyas
+Carlos Gomez, -Nick Johnson
+Manny Parra, -Jon Rauch
+Mark Reynolds,-Edwin Encarnacion
+Joe Saunders, -Jeremy Accardo
+Dana Eveland,-Troy Percival

While waiting for Evan Longoria to make The Show, The Dummy Hoyas have tried shuffling through a number of choices and settled on Mark Reynolds for the moment. With a little plate discipline, it's possible that Reynolds could be a big star, as his average home run distance last season of 407.9 feet was second only to Prince Fielder's 408 feet average among players with 15 or more homers. Already in a potent young lineup and in a hitter-friendly park, if Reynolds was able to make contact with the ball on a more consistent basis, he'd definitely help anyone's HR category. But, as of this writing, young Longoria has apparently received enough seasoning in the minors (2 whole weeks) and is headed to the starting lineup of the Tampa Bay Rays, so what becomes of Reynolds is anyone's guess.

The Wookiee Squirts
+Randy Wolf, -Mark Prior
+Jair Jurrjens, -Jarrod Saltalamacchia
+Carlos Quentin, -Corey Patterson

In a lineup befouled by underperformance and injury earlier in the season, Carlos Quentin easily slots into the Squirts' lineup as the player with the 2nd-best OBP and the 3rd-best SLG, as well as the most RBI. Although 3 years older than Quentin, and with 6 more seasons in the majors, Patterson has pretty much shown what he's good for on a team, and the only clear advantage he has over the man who replaced him would be in the SB category, and possibly R also. Gaining in one, possibly 2, categories at the expense of 4 others is no way to get ahead, and this was clearly a wise swap for the Squirts.