Top pitching matchups - 6/7/11

The most intriguing fantasy matchups tonight:

Best Battles:
7:05 PM EST
Red Sox - Lester
@ Yankees - Garcia
No surprise here - it's the Red Sox and Yankees, afterall. What wasn't anticipated before the year, however, was such a good year by Freddy Garcia. A tough matchup against the BoSox may help determine the extent of that resurgence.

8:05 PM EST
Diamondbacks - Hudson (6-5, 4.22)
@ Pirates - Correia (8-4, 3.40)
It's rare for a Diamondbacks-Pirates matchup to headline, but with two good pitchers on the hill this could be special. Hudson has had his ups and downs, but he's still potential ace material. Correia was the first pitcher to 8 wins this year.

8:05 PM EST
Mariners - Hernandez
@ White Sox - Humber
Phil Humber looks to prove he can compete with another high-end opponent.

Debuts:
6:05 PM EST
Dodgers - De La Rosa (1-0, 1.80)
@ Phillies - Oswalt (3-3, 2.70)
Rubby De La Rosa makes his first big league start. after a few good bullpens he has a legitimate shot to compete against Roy Oswalt. Oswalt has struggled recently, but he has the better offense backing him and therefore the advantage.

6:05 PM EST
Braves - Hanson (6-4, 2.28)
Marlins - Hand (0-0, NA)
Little known Brad Hand tries his arm at the big league level out of Double-A.. He's a pretty good prospect, so it's a shame he has such a tough draw the first time out. Still might be worth a desperate flier in fantasy play.

Upset:
9:05 PM EST
Rays - Cobb (0-0, 5.91)
@ Angels - Haren (5-3, 2.29)
With Haren battling a health issue and Cobb having reversed his luck in a second no decision in two starts, why not gamble on the young gun? It's not like the Angels offense sets the world on fire.
Sure Thing:

No brainer:
8:05 PM EST
Mets - Capuano (3-6, 5.19)
@ Brewers - Marcum (6-2, 2.78)
If Capuano is available on the waiver wire, you're better off without him. Marcum is the best bet off all starters to get a win tonight.

A tale of two pitching statlines

The oddest statline of the day might go to the strange duel between Roy Oswalt and Adam Wainwright. Oswalt needed 89 pitches to get through six innings, giving up six earned runs. Wainwright labored much more than his counterpart, requiring 102 pitches to get through the fifth. Wainwright, however, gave up no runs and just seven base runners to Oswalt's 11, winning the game comfortably, 11-2.

Fantasy Impact: Both pitchers struck out four batters, but Oswalt just left his stuff over the plate more than Wainwright did. The Cardinals ace fought off batter after batter, eventually earning outs instead of base runners. We expect these two to serve as good number two starters in fantasy play.

WBC - We Barely Care

World Baseball Classic rosters came out today. I'm finding it hard to care. My only real interest in the games are that players like Roy Oswalt and Jake Peavy do not get injured for fantasy baseball purposes. Call me jaded, but when rosters are hodgepodge consortia of stars and no-names there's no real interest. We're not watching the best of the best, the pitchers haven't had a chance to settle into spring ball and there's no connection to these games except that it's baseball on television.

I'll be watching, so I know whom not to draft when they end up getting injured.