Melancon, Sanchez/Salas, Kuo/Padilla

[deansdaddy]

Okay - let's take a quick look at these three closer situations.

Brandon Lyon blew his 4th save and is now sidelined with what is being described as shoulder weakness. Mark Melancon looks to be the guy at this point as Astros manager Brad Mills said Thursday that Mark Melancon will handle save chances while Brandon Lyon is sidelined. Lyon is going to be examined today so there is a chance that Melancon could take this job and keep it all year.


Tony LaRussa is at it again. Much like Mike Shanahan in football, LaRussa doesn't care about your fantasy team. Right now it is anyone's guess who is going to come out of the Cardinal bullpen to get the save chance. Eduardo Sanchez, Fernando Salas, Mitchell Boggs, Jason Motte, Trevor Miller, Miguel Batista, Ryan Franklin. Salas got a couple of saves late last week. Then Sanchez got the last two save chances before entering a tie game yesterday and coughing up the lead with a two run homer to Mike Stanton. Boggs then came in to relieve him. Ironically, the guy that many fantasy owners (myself included) speculated on, Jason Motte has been pitching pretty well but can't seem to sniff a save chance. If you are desperate for saves, I think you take a chance on Sanchez at this point. If you have Motte and aren't really hurting for saves, then I think perhaps you hold on for one more week, since Motte looks like he will have to be given HIS shot at some point the way LaRussa keeps going.

In LA, Jon Broxton has been out, back in and now out again as he has been shut down with pain in his throwing elbow. He may or may not be headed to the DL. HC Kou and Vincente Padilla are the likely first candidates to take over, but Kuo just came back from his own injury and hasn't been sharp at all. Also, no way they can rely on him on back-to-back nights. Padilla looks like the best bet for those searching for saves. The darkhorse of course would be Kenley Jansen, but he just got demoted to AAA to work on his control. It might make sense to make a move on him this week if you have room, since he will likely be called back up if Broxton goes on the DL and I think Mattingly will be very temtped to throw the fireballer into the fire and see if he can do the job. He to me is the most exciting option of the bunch for the long run.

Anybody else have any thoughts about these situations???

[deansdaddy]

Lyon has a partially torn rotator cuff. Melancon is now a must own now as he could conceivably get saves for the rest of the year. In any case he will get first crack while Lyon is out.

Also, Eduardo Sanchez came out of LaRussa's pen today to get his third save. He walked two batters in the process, but I think this moves him to the head of the class for now.