The fantasy focus of this deal is of course that Lee is going to a better team with infinitely better run support.  Even with very little help from his offense, Lee has been as dominant as expected, going 8-3 with a 2.34 earned run average and now he has the added bonus of not having to pitch a shutout every time he takes to the mound.  There might be a slight upswing in Lee’s ERA now that his home games will take place in what is considered a hitter’s park but Lee did pretty well in Philadelphia which is basically a bandbox.

As far as how much this effects Lee’s value considering he was almost a Yankee?  Both the Yankees and Rangers are in first place and both have a pretty good offense.  From a purely fantasy numbers wise approach, this move is pretty much identical to being traded to the Yanks.

The move isn’t official as of yet, but when the pitcher who is being traded, says his general manager told him he was traded, that’s about as close to official as you can get.

Hitting Heads Up:

I can almost guarantee you that Clint Barmes is available in your league, unless you are in the deepest of deep leagues.  Despite hitting .407 with 2 homers and 7 RBI over the last week coming into last night, the Rockies’ middle infielder raised his average to .252 and has a season total of 6 home runs.  Barmes continues to be red hot going going 2-4 with an RBI on Thursday night.  Barmes can be a nice fill in player for someone looking for a boost and he has added benefit because he can play either short or second.  This is not a guy you should consider a long time buy, but if you need a quick boost, you could do worse

Corey Patterson played in just 16 games last year for two teams,  but this year he seems to be showing he still has value both to real teams and fantasy teams.  Over the last week, Patterson has been hitting .476 with 1 home run and 2 RBI.  Patterson’s real value is that he can also steal a base.  On Thursday night Patterson continued to impress, going 2-4 with a run scored and his 13^th stolen base on the season.

Pitching Pulse:

Saying Trevor Cahill’s season came out of nowhere is even a bit of an understatement.  In 2009, Cahill went 10-13 with a 4.63 earned run average.  After Thursday night, in which he pitched seven innings and allowed just one run he improved to 8-2 and lowered his ERA to 2.74.  Despite not really being a strikeout pitcher he’s even been K’ing batters at a prodigious rate, having 21 strikeouts over his last 20.1 innings.  Because he’s an Oakland Athletic and because of his incredibly mediocre season last year you’ll have a better than average chance at still being able to snag Cahill off the waiver wire.

The Cincinnati Reds are going to want all their pitchers to begin their careers against the Chicago Cubs.  Already rookie hurler Mike Leake was able to open his big league career by beating the Cubs and yesterday Travis Wood was able to shut Lou Pineilla’s boys down for seven innings.  Wood finally tired after six innings of one hit ball and wasn’t able to get the victory but he kept the Cubs team down enough that his squad was eventually able to win the game in extras.  Wood’s record in AAA this season wasn’t all that impressive at 5-6, but he posted a very respectable 3.12 ERA and if the Reds give him a shot this is a kid fantasy owners should take a look at.