Posted by Rob McQuown on Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 10:10 am

Season Moves:

- Rotowire.com suggests, “It’s time to turn Wieters-watch into the next gear”, and we couldn’t agree more.

- David Price is slated to pitch on Memorial Day (tomorrow). If he’s available, pick him up. If he gets hammered by the Indians and someone else cuts him, pick him up.

- Hiroki Kuroda is due back soon. He had a great season last year, in terms of preventing on-base and slugging (both rates were among the 15-best among qualifiers in all MLB last year), and if he’s fully recovered, he should be an impact SP this year, and has been shed in many leagues.

- Have we mentioned 1b Nick Johnson recently? He’s still available in over 70% of ESPN leagues.

- 3b Andy LaRoche has quietly started hitting a lot. He still has only 2 HR, but he’s up to .288, and even has a couple SB. The HR will come.

Starting Pitchers:

Chris Young at home against the Cubs. Expect the Cubs to try to run more to break out of their offensive slump, including playing Ryan Freel. But the Cubs aren’t the sort of team built to win in Petco, even when they can find their bats (which hasn’t happened in a while), and Young’s pitching style is much more effective there.

Three other pitchers should be “okay” if you need to take risks today: David Bush @MIN, Barry Zito @SEA (Seattle hits LHP much harder, and has their ace going, be careful here), and Scott Richmond @ATL.

Catchers: Go OLD today! A.J. Pierzynski is home against Karstens, Jason Varitek (who has 8 HR now, after 4 in the past 5 games) is home against Redding, and Pudge Rodriguez is home against McCarthy. Being a Sunday, it’s always likely a catcher will get the day off, so some other not-bad options are: Kurt Suzuki, John Baker, Chris Snyder.

CI (1b/3b): Normally, when a guy with 50 R+RBI and 9 HR who has a history of clobbering LHP is at home in his bandbox of a stadium against a struggling LHP, it’s a no-brainer, but 1b/of Nick Swisher hasn’t figured out the “jet stream” in New Yankee Bandbox yet. We’d probably still take the chance, but he’s just as likely to get a hat trick as a 3-run homer. 1b Nick Johnson (.338 – 28 – 4 – 25 – 1, in case you hadn’t looked recently). 3b Andy LaRoche is a decent play, even against a good pitcher like Buehle, because he has the park and platoon advantages.

MI (2b/ss): It’s a bad day for FA MI’s… Kaz Matsui against McCarthy may be good for a steal, Skip Schumaker against Bannister should help your batting average (and runs), and – um – after that it’s 2b/ss Clint Barmes against LHP Willis, or ss Yuniesky Betancourt against LHP Zito.

Outfielders: Melky Cabrera is a good pickup, and a decent play today. J.D. Drew is facing Redding at home, which could be good for fireworks. Both Dexter Fowler and Ryan Spilborghs are tempting against Willis. With his modified-but-still-high leg kick, Willis will be an easy mark for Fowler’s speed, if he can get on base. Meanwhile, Andruw Jones is a good play against Hampton, if he’s in the lineup.