Fish brooms

Update - 2:15 p.m.: The sweep is complete. Marlins win, 6-4.

The Florida Marlins look well on their way to the season's first sweep.

Emilio Bonifacio continues to look like the leadoff man manager Freddie Gonzalez envisioned. In the third, Bonifacio singled, stole second and forced an errant throw leaving him at third base. John Baker singled him home. Then Florida busted it open in the 5th with a three run double from Dan Uggla.

It's 5-2 Florida over Washington in the 6th. Jim Thome said yesterday that championships aren't won in April, but these feisty Marlins look primed to play ball in 2009.

Tigers go to bat for automaker

General Motors might not have the resources to back Major League Baseball teams, but the Detroit Tigers are doing their best to back GM.

This season, fans will see the General Motors name on the fountain along with logos for Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC. Underneath GM's name, a sign reads: "The Detroit Tigers support our automakers."

Intersting gesture. The Tigers probably didn't have anyone to fill the ad space around the ballpark anyway. It would be interesting to hear some comments from the the team and GM on this arrangement. Free advertising is likely unprecedented at the ballpark, except for special interests like fundraisers and grassroots benefits.
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Can't catch a break

Update - 1:20 p.m. 4/8/09: Redmond might be headed for the DL. His status will be updated sometime today.

4/7/09: As expected, Twins backup catcher Mike Redmond missed Tuesday night's game with a pulled groin. Third stringer Jose Morales started in a 6-5 come-from-behind walk-off Twins win. Morales struck out in all three of his at bats.

Fantasy Impact: Redmond and Morales are fairly productive for catchers. Redmond owns a career .292 average while Morales hit over .300 his last two seasons in Triple-A. Neither of them, however, has been tested on a full-time basis at the MLB level. Avoid Minnesota catchers until Mauer can return. His unknown status leaves us to believe it will be a while.

White Sox rotation question marks

Jose Contreras gets set to return as the White Sox fourth starter on Friday after rupturing his achilles ankle midway through last season. Bartolo Colon will be the White Sox fifth starter.

Contreras and Colon combined to shut out Arizona at Chase Field on Saturday afternoon, marking the final exhibition contest for the White Sox. Colon fanned six and gave up three hits over five innings, while Contreras started and allowed one hit in four innings.

Saturday's contest had a little bit more of a Major League atmosphere in comparison to Cactus League contests, where the tandem had been roughed up as recently as last Monday against the Angels. But their combined performance gave the White Sox confidence that this tandem would be productive as long as they were healthy.

"They've got to work, but I believe they're going to be healthy all year long," said Guillen, who doesn't plan to skip any starters, even if an off-day gives him the chance.

"Bartolo and Jose's last outing, I think they turned it up a notch. That was very encouraging," White Sox general manager Ken Williams said. "They are still in what would amount to their fourth week of Spring Training, so there are going to be a couple of starts where they are going to have to grow and get their pitch counts up and you may see Ozzie go out there a little earlier than normal. They are going to grow into a major force on this team. They are not the average four or five guys in a rotation."

That's true, most teams have much different-looking back-end-of-the-rotation guys. Often those slots get filled by younger guys trying to break into a rotation. The Sox went the other way, hoping veterans can round out the staff behind Mark Buehrle and two youngsters in Gavid Floyd and John Danks. It's an odd pairing at the back end, and if it works the Sox will look like geniuses.

Fantasy Impact: We're leaving these two on the waiver wire for now, but if one of them gets hot, he's likely gone before you can grab him. If you must indulge, Colon's the bigger injury risk at this point in his career. Pick up Contreras.

Peter who?

An interesting piece from Rick Maese in the Baltimore Sun regarding owner Peter Angelos's role with the team. The Orioles owner seems to be very aloof, to a major fault. Orioles star outfielder Nick Markakis barely has a relationship with the man.

Markakis had never met the Orioles owner before this week. In fact, neither had most players in the clubhouse.

"I'd never even seen a picture of him," reliever George Sherrill said.

The Orioles' exciting Opening Day win over the New York Yankees on Monday was packed with drama and at least a couple of onfield shockers. But there were two things that surprised me most, both revelations from the postgame clubhouse:

1. To players, Angelos has been little more than a signature on a paycheck.

2. They wish he was much more.

This is going to sound like heresy in some corners of the Orioles kingdom, but could it be possible Angelos plays too small a role in his empire?

No one's suggesting we revisit the days when important baseball decisions were made by people who learned the game from the backs of baseball cards. But there has been a push to get Angelos more involved with the players. One game into the season, in fact, it's already a successful movement.

That's beyond weird. This can't help team morale.

Fontenot starting vs. lefties

The Cubs started second baseman Mike Fontenot against Astros left-hander Wandy Rodriguez despite the presence of switch-hitting second baseman Aaron Miles on the bench.

We'll give him an opportunity here early in the season and see how he does," manager Lou Piniella said. "I like the idea of having some left-handed hitting against left-handed pitching. … I think it makes the pitcher work both sides of the plate. Maybe as the season goes on, we'll have a little more left-handed hitting from time to time against certain left-handers."

Fantasy Impact: This doesn't mean Fontenot will always be the lefty bat in the Cubs order against lefties, but it's a nice vote of confidence from Piniella in his pint-sized second baseman. Fontenot went 0-4 on the night in a 3-2, 10-inning Astros win. Expect him to continue to get the bulk of the time at second base, but against dynamic southpaws, he'll likely sit.

Cubs lose Soto for a few days

The Cubs may be without starting catcher Geovany Soto for a few days. He felt pain in his throwing shoulder while gunning down Kaz Matsui on a steal attempt in the third inning of the Astros 3-2 win over the Cubs Tuesday night.

"I kind of over-exposed my shoulder a little bit," Soto said. "There was a little discomfort in my shoulder. I felt some weakness in it, and I felt I didn't have a shot if somebody else [tried to steal]. I need to keep up my exercises, and we'll see how it is in a couple days."

Soto said he had the same problem in Spring Training and doesn't expect to miss much time.

"You never know," he said when asked how long he'd be sidelined. "I just have to stay on top of my exercises, and I'll be all right in a couple days. As long as I stay in good shape and do my exercises, it won't happen again all year."

Fantasy Impact: Koyie Hill is Soto's backup this year. He beat out Paul Bako for maybe one start each week to spell Soto. That means he's a true backup catcher unexpected to pay dividends in fantasy baseball. Hill did hit 17 homers at Triple-A Iowa last year, which is very impressive considering the accident that nearly ended his baseball career.

Ryan blows save; Downs up for Jays?

Toronto closer B.J. Ryan blew his first save opportunity of the season, coughing up a home run to the Tiger's Brandon Inge in the ninth. Fortunately for Ryan, the Blue Jays rallied for a run in the bottom of the inning to earn their closer a win.

Fantasy Impact: Cue Scott Downs? Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston says Downs is waiting in the wing if Ryan falters. He got that much closer tonight.