A.L. TWO-START STUDS   

Cliff Lee (Tor, @Cin) – Lee’s amazing resurgence has been driven by an otherworldly 39/2 K/BB in 44.7 innings. He’s obviously not that good, and he’s getting lucky on his hits allowed, but he’s made me a believer.

Ervin Santana (@TB, LAD) – Appears to be “back” after an off-year. His K/BB is great and his K/IP is better than in his breakout 2006 season.

Chien-Ming Wang (@TB, NYM) – Kind of a boring guy to recommend, but I can’t argue with his success. Here, I’ll try to spice thing up: his name is an anagram for “Mini Wench Gang”, which presents an interesting visual. So there’s that.

A.L. TWO-START SCRUBS

Nick Adenhart (ChW, LAD) – His minor league peripherals don’t back up the hype created by his 0.89 AAA ERA, and his first two Major League starts were atrocious.

Gavin Floyd (@Sea, @SF) – Okay, two near-no-hitters must mean this former first-rounder is finally breaking out, right? Wrong. His K/BB is terrible at 19/18, and his BABIP is a ridiculously unsustainable .140. Reality may be temporarily staved off by facing the hapless Giants, but it’s building up a big head of steam and Floyd’s fantasy owners are standing square on the tracks.

Sidney Ponson (Oak, Hou) – You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in with Sidney Ponson when your fantasy league title is on the line!

A.L. TWO-START WILDCARD

Rich Harden (@Tex, @Atl) – Not really a question of how well he’ll do, but whether he’ll do anything at all. Don’t be surprised if he gets stuck in a drainpipe and the fire department is unable to rescue him in time to make his second start of the week.

N.L. TWO-START STUDS

Aaron Harang (Flo, Cle) – An easy pick; quietly quite dominant.

Adam Wainwright (@Mil, TB) – Wainwright is the valedictorian of the Cardinals’ converted-reliever academy. He might hit a home run against the Brewers too, just for fun.

Carlos Zambrano (Ari, Pit) – Strikeouts are down a bit and the walks have started creeping back up, but he can get significantly worse and still be very good.

N.L. TWO-START SCRUBS

Dave Bush (StL, Bos) – Bush has been uniformly awful, but lucky for him, the Brewers don’t have any better options at the moment. Over/under on home runs he gives up to the Red Sox is three.

Greg Reynolds  (@SD, Min) – #2 overall pick making his Major League debut! Everyone scramble for the waiver wire, right? Oh wait, it’s just Greg Reynolds, he of the 4.86 ERA, 45 hits allowed, and only 16 strikeouts in 33.3 AAA innings. Players picked in the first round after Reynolds: Evan Longoria (#3), Clayton Kershaw (#7), Tim Lincecum (#10), Max Scherzer (#11), Ian Kennedy (#21), Joba Chamberlain (#41). Pooped ‘em.

Barry Zito (Hou, ChW) – He pitched not-awfully in his first start back in the rotation but still got the loss. The Giants have no offense and Zito has no stuff. That combination, especially against two good offenses adds up to no hope.

N.L. TWO-START WILDCARD

Burke Badenhop (@Cin, KC) – Groundballer struggled initially after his promotion, but he’s found success in his last two starts, striking out 13 while walking only 3. Doesn’t have enough of a track record to make me confident in any particular prediction, but he looks pretty good, especially against the Royals.

QUICK HITS

Despite two wins in his last three starts, Andrew Miller has not had an epiphany. The co-crown jewel of the Miguel Cabrera haul for the Marlins, Miller is still giving up tons of hits and posting terrible K/BB numbers.

The party line is that the Cardinals are going with a closer-by-committee following Jason Isringhausen’s, “temporary” demotion from the role, but Ryan Franklin was Isringhausen’s primary set-up man and got the first post-Izzy save opportunity on Saturday night against the Brewers, so he looks well-positioned to get a majority of the chances.

Speaking of terrible closers, Eric Gagne, who is tied for the league lead in blown saves with Isringhausen and is determined to make me regret recommending him in this space recently, was quoted as saying he didn’t deserve the closer’s role. I don’t know whether that means he’ll actually stop getting used as the closer, but with the big deal baseball people make over the so-called “closer’s mentality”, it wouldn’t be surprising to see another guy get a shot. Guillermo Mota is currently being used as the set-up man, but Salomon Torres might be a safer long-term bet, as Mota has proven over the last few seasons to be rather flammable.