Video notes for the Week 20 Pitching Planner
-- Joba Chamberlain to the DL ... Ian Kennedy up ... what are the Yankees to do to get back in the race? Phil Hughes, Carl Pavano????
-- John Maine was Joba a week ago ... can we trust him in Fantasy Week 20 (Aug. 11-17)? Jonathan Niese? El Duque? Bueller?
-- Also with the Mets... what are they going to do at closer?
-- Gio Gonzalez, Anthony Reyes, Jeff Karstens, Chris Waters ... can we trust these guys?

Must-start, two-start pitcher
Justin Verlander DET
(08/11) vs. TOR Shaun Marcum
(08/16) vs. BAL Chris Waters
97 percent owned 75 percent starting

A two-start pitcher to sit
Shaun Marcum TOR
(08/11) @ DET Justin Verlander
(08/16) @ BOS Josh Beckett
86 percent owned 43 percent starting

Two-start pitching sleepers
Anibal Sanchez FLA
(08/11) vs. STL Joel Pineiro 
(08/16) vs. CHC Ryan Dempster
50 percent owned 29 percent starting

Jeff Karstens PIT
(08/12) vs. CIN Homer Bailey 
(08/17) vs. NYM Johan Santana
6 percent owned 4 percent starting

Emack.

-- There are no two-start pitchers. What do we do to set our lineups for the short Fantasy Week 16 (July 17-20)
 

-- Rich Harden dealt to Cubs, CC Sabathia dealt to Brewers ... which pitcher will have a bigger impact in the second half?
-- What are the A's going to do to replace Rich Harden? Sean Gallagher for now -- with red-hot Dallas Braden waiting in long relief -- but what about prospects Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson?
-- Who are the next big starting pitchers to go? A.J. Burnett and Erik Bedard ... it looks like it could be more AL to NL

-- Red Sox reshuffle with Justin Masterson moving to relief. Do we jump on Clay Buchholz or is he merely holding the spot for Bartolo Colon (back)?
-- The Marlins are reworking their rotation, slotting Josh Johnson and Chris Volstad and perhaps getting Anibal Sanchez back July 28.
-- Some other second-half returnees: Adam Wainwright, Brad Penny, Fausto Carmona, Chris R. Young, Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Jason Schmidt, Mike Hampton, Carl Pavano, Chris Carpenter, Sergio Mitre, Orlando Hernandez, Kelvim Escobar

Emack.

FORT LAUDERDALE -- This could be the last game for the Orioles here and not just for the year -- ever. With the Dodgers leaving Florida for the desert, Dodgertown figures to become O-town.

-- Daniel Cabrera vs. Orlando Hernandez. El Duque was supposed to have scrapped his high-leg kick, but in the windup it doesn't look any different. He does a quick slide-step from the stretch, though. And it looks he gets nothing on the ball in terms of velocity.

-- The Mets have most of their regulars here today, including Carlos Delgado who hasn't aged gracefully, Fantasy-wise. He has one of the biggest hitter weaknesses in baseball now -- the inside fastball. Bust him on the hands, which required surgery a couple of winters ago, and you can get him out. I wanted to see him turn on an inside pitch vs. the hard-throwing Cabrera. Late once and then went down swinging on a hard one inside. Ew. It was far too easy to get him out. That has to be scary for his Fantasy owners. Everyone knows Delgado's bat speed is down and he cannot get around on the inside heat. Watch that early this season to see if it comes around.

-- Brady Clark almost took off third-base coach Juan Samuel's head on a foul liner into the O's bench area. Then Cabrera buzzed Clark up and in on the next pitch. No correlation of events, but Mets fans have to still have a distaste in their mouths for the Mets deal to get Samuel back in the late '80s. The Mets gave up Lenny Dykstra and got a washed up ex-Phillie.

-- It will be interesting if El Duque decides to protect Triple-A outfielder Clark by buzzing an O's player. Getting hit by an 80 mph El Duque fastball is quite different than a 95 mph Cabrera offering.

-- OUCH! Reyes got one right in the back of the shoulder from Cabrera. This is going to get interesting.

-- Cabrera has no idea where it's going. That has to be discomforting in the batter's box.

-- Reyes got up and went to first. The Mets organization had its breath held for 45 seconds there. Reyes is the most valuable Met. Without him down the stretch last year -- September was his worst month in his career -- the Mets fizzled. Without Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran matter much less.

-- El Duque most certainly will have to plunk an Oriole now. They might wait until Nick Markakis comes up. You can buzz Clark, but popping Reyes in the back of the throwing arm was just uncalled for. If it wasn't the always wild Cabrera, you would figure that was clearly on purpose.

-- No HBP in a second scoreless inning of work by El Duque. He was aided by a nice-looking double play by Luis Castillo and Jose Reyes. The Mets are built real, real strong up the middle defensively. Reyes, Castillo, Schneider and Beltran could all win Gold Gloves. David Wright already won one last year at third, despite 20-plus errors. Mets pitchers are intriguing enough, but that is some defense and a pitchers park to back them. Schneider is also an elite game-caller, too, and pitching coach Rick Peterson and his .230 line/blind bullpen sessions approach is one of the best of the business.

-- Wright, who singled in the third but was erased by a Beltran DP grounder, came to the bench and sat down next to hitting coach Howard Johnson. The Mets' two best third basemen in franchise history shared their thoughts on hitting. Oh, to be a fly on their cap during that conversation.

-- Ryan Church, who was had an awful spring, lost control of the bat (two different bats, actually) on consecutive pitches from Cabrera. Those were painful souvenirs for the fans behind the O's first-base dugout. The bats wound up almost exactly the same spot. Church has pop but his bad spring has to be a concern for the Mets who gave up the immensely talent Lastings Milledge to get him and Schneider. Church will have a lot of pressure to at least perform on Milledge's level the next three years.

-- Adam Jones ripped a good-looking double to left off El Duque in the third. A streaky talent who could be a Fantasy star by the second half.

-- Wow, Reyes is amazing. He caught an overhead bloop, spun and fired to Castillo for a 6-4 DP on Jones. El Duque had second and third and no outs but that defense up the middle could have bailed him out again. Roberts slashed an opposite-field double to left to score a run.

-- Haha. I almost called that one. Markakis' first at-bat since the Reyes beaning, El Duque spun him around on an inside pitch. Could have been trying to nail him. Second pitch, same thing. He wound up leveling the count at 2-2. Markakis hit a potential three-run homer just foul. Had El Duque been able to throw more than low-80s, Markakis would have hit that one fair. El Duque is crafty. He got Markakis to pop out to center to end the inning.

-- Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose. He stole second with his trademark head first slide. He is hard on his body, but a bigger, stronger physique could help him stay healthy and strong through the whole year. Oh, and there goes Reyes again. Stole third without a throw. Amazin' Met.

-- Luke Scott has played left field like a DH this spring. Friday he dropped two easy fly balls. The second he didn't get an error on because he threw to third for a 7-5 force out. Scott drops flies and hasn't showed much of an arm. Good thing he has a nice OPS bat and 20-homer potential because he is playing like a Triple-A guy.

-- Cabrera had bases loaded and no outs and got another chance to work on his "damage control." He allowed just the one run on Scott's dropped fly. Reyes might not have tried to score on that short popup and Cabrera had a shot at getting out of it altogether.

-- El Duque's work is done after five effective innings. He scattered four hits and was aided by the two double plays. He looks ready to open the season as the Mets' No. 5 starter, albeit an unspectacular one you should not trust. He will be a five-inning pitcher to start the season. Manager Willie Randolph said the Mets will open the first week with a No. 5 starter, but I will wait until his speaks after the game before updating our Probable Pitchers report. El Duque working in Week 1 against the Braves means Pedro Martinez won't be a two-start pitcher now.

-- Mike Pelfrey, with the No. 5 starter's spot lost, came on in the sixth and walked Brian Roberts and Melvin Mora. Randolph had to come out of the dugout to talk to him. Bad news. Consider Pelfrey nothing more than a Triple-A starter at this point, albeit a promising one who could wind up getting starts for a top contender by year's end -- or whenever El Duque or Pedro Martinez need a DL stint.

Emack.