Zito shines

Barry Zito made the rare outstanding start, striking out five, walking nobody and yielding six hits over seven innings of shutout work. He didn't get a win, because Padres starter Chris Young matched him with seven shutout innings, but the Giants do win, 1-0 in ten.

Fantasy Impact: We don't trust Barry Zito until he mixes in more than one or two of these for every four or five duds. He's a back-of-the-fantasy-rotation type at best.

Sabathia scuffles, but no cause for concern

CC Sabathia continues to mix good and bad starts in 2009. The Yankees ace threw 112 pitches, just half of them for strikes, without getting through the seventh inning against the A's. He walked four, gave up six hits and a three-run homer to Kurt Suzuki. Sabathia's six earned runs in 6 2/3 innings is messy at best, although he avoided a loss as the Yankees rallied to tie and won the game in 14 innings, 9-7.

Fantasy Impact: This is not the first time Sabathia has struggled. While his ERA ballooned to 4.81, Sabathia has just a 3.65 lifetime ERA. Last season's incredible run with the Brewers, in which he won 11 times in 17 outings while posting a 1.65 ERA, was the best stretch of his career. Those stunning numbers probably had some to do with Sabathia facing a league of hitters that had rarely or never faced him before.

Now he's back in the A.L. with DHs and opponents who know him well. We're going to expect that ERA to return to the mid-threes this year. Sabathia is just one good start away from accomplishing that.

Haren needs some help

Dan Haren now has three runs of support through four starts in 2009. Tuesday he got two of those three, and it proved plenty as Haren shutout the Colorado Rockies for seven innings on the way to a 2-0 Diamondbacks win. Haren struck out nine and walked two while giving up just six hits. His ERA falls to 1.38.

Fantasy Impact: Last year we touted Haren as a fantasy ace who didn't get the respect he deserved. Now, like Matt Cain, he's not getting the run support. Haren improved his record to 1-3, so the Diamondbacks offense hurt Haren owners in two potential fantasy categories. It's not Haren's fault, although you're saddled with his support as long as he's in Arizona. We'll call him a frontline ace, but not an ideal number one like Tim Lincecum or Johan Santana.

Hard to hit Harden

Rich Harden continues to dominate this season, striking out eight over six innings in a 7-2 victory over Cincinnati. Baseball Musings points out that Harden has allowed just 30 of the 64 batters he's faced to put the ball in play. He walks too many batters and builds up a high pitch count rarely working into the seventh inning, as he failed to do again on Tuesday.

That puts a lot of pressure on the Cubs bullpen, which looks very mediocre at this point of the season.

Fantasy Impact: It's the same story for Harden: great pitcher with bad luck. He's a number three starter in fantasy with the upside of a number one and the downside of an injury-risk crash. We wouldn't invest too much in him, but we'd still like him on our roster.

Mulder interest

Oft-injured free agent pitcher Mark Mulder is getting interest from several MLB clubs, but not from the pitching-strapped Angels. The Dodgers, A's and Nationals seem most interested at this time.

Miguel Cabrera deal unlikely

Tom Fornelli over at Fanhouse points out that even if the Tigers want to trade Miguel Cabrera's huge salary away this season, dealing him might cost them even more money.

Cabrera is in the second year of a $153-million contract that pays him $15 million this year.

Putting up for Dukes

Elijah Dukes can't catch a break. Even when he does good, he gets in trouble. Somebody tell the Washington Nationals how to run a baseball team, please. Kudos to the little leaguers for the nice gesture to pay Dukes' fine.

Cuban Missle's slow start

Alexei Ramirez went 2-4 with a stolen basen Tuesday in Baltimore, raising his paltry average to .159 in 44 at bats. He's scuffling along, but some believe a night like Tuesday is the kind of performance that will get him started.

Fantasy Impact: Ramirez started woefully slow in 2008, leading some to believe the eventual A.L. Rookie of the Year runner-up was a mistake signing by the White Sox. Ramirez hit just .138 in 29 April at bats last year. After 90 at bats in 2008, Ramirez improved to .234. He batted .295 in May. We're forecasting gradual improvement as the weather heats up.

Bergesen strong in first start

Spitting Seeds' concerns regarding Orioles rookie starter Brad Bergesen waned a bit after seeing him pitch well Tuesday night for his first major league win. The 23-year-old commands incredible stuff, pitches that bend and dip violently on their way to home plate. Imagine whiffle balls darting and dodging White Sox bats and you get the picture.

Fantasy Impact: Bergesen worked into the sixth, going 5 2/3 innings and striking out four. He's not a strikeout pitcher, according to his minor league stats. He is, however, very poised on the mound as he worked through some difficult circumstances to beat Chicago, 10-3.

We'd recommend taking a flier on him. Actually, we believe a bit more in Baltimore's minor league pitcher of the year. We think Bergesen can stick in the majors. Add him to your pitching staff if you can, and reap the benefits of major league teams having never seen him before.

Broken bat injures ump

Umpire Kerwin Danley was struck on the right side of the head when Hank Blalock's bat shattered during a fifth-inning at bat. Danley would leave the game on a stretcher.

While maple bats have come under scrutiny in the past year due to their seemingly high rate of shattering, Blalock was using an ash bat.

Darn it, Doumit

Ryan Doumit's fractured wrist will keep him out at least eight weeks and up to ten.

Fantasy Impact: This is a bad time for a bad break. Doumit is one of the few major producers at catcher, and now that we're a couple of weeks into the season many of the solid waiver options are off the board.

Some suggestions on catchers you might be able to catch on waivers:

Kelly Shoppach - The Indians backstop is getting part-time at bats
Dioner Navarro - He hit .295 in 2008 and is availble in half of Yahoo! leagues
Nick Hundley - Off to a great start, but not a top prospect
Gerald Laird - Steady and boring
John Buck - Hot start but shares time with Miguel Olivo
Miguel Olivo - See John Buck