When Cincinnati starting pitcher Joey Hamilton, having to run full speed for the first time in his nine-year career, pulled his left hamstring covering first base on a grounder, oodles of weekly transaction fantasy owners cringed.

Why would they wince over this? Better yet, why would they own Hamilton in the first place? To answer the second question first, Hamilton had two favorable starts this week. Meanwhile, the wince was caused by something I like to call "Monday Malice."

That's a term that refers to a Monday injury that takes a player out of his owner's fantasy lineup for most or all of the remaining week. It's agonizing -- especially in points leagues -- to know your stud outfielder is putting goose eggs across the board while you have productive players sitting on your bench.

Monday Malice already has struck many times this season. Texas starter Chan Ho Park went on the DL after his opening day start because of a sore hammy. Just when he was gaining owners' trust, catcher Geromino Gil reported groin and hamstring soreness following last Monday's game and missed the rest of the week. Andy Pettitte left a Monday start after three innings. And there's catcher Ivan Rodriguez, who finally reported back pain only after missing a Monday game because of it.

Most owners follow the news/injuries more closely late in the week. That makes all the sense in the world -- relieved owners let their teams loose for a few days following a weekly deadline.

But not a savvy owner, who realizes the most meaningful moves often are made at unexpected times. If you had caught Pettitte's injury on a light Monday, you could have grabbed hot replacement Ted Lilly. Meanwhile, Pudge's replacement, Bill Haselman, has batted .407 in his last eight games. Checking those injury notes on a quiet day could help you keep making noise in your league.

FORTUNES RISING

Garret Anderson, OF, Angels. Every year at this time, an Anderson owner or three will complain that he just isn't playing up to snuff. But a closer examination shows that he will. In his seven seasons as a full-time big leaguer, Anderson's worst season average was a .285 mark. Also remember that he is a notorious slow starter -- he hit .256 in April over the last three years -- and has batted 35 points better after the All-Star break the last three seasons. Combined that with good health -- an average of 157.4 games over the last five seasons -- and this guy is among the safest of the lot.

Danny Bautista, OF, Diamondbacks. Bautista has always had a nice swing, but the free swinger lacked plate coverage and struggled against lefties. Maybe a full-time gig was all he needed to put it together. Scouts now say he can hit any pitch in any part of the zone, and he's batting .381 vs. lefties. To answer the question on everybody's minds: Yes, he is the real deal.

Johnny Damon, OF, Red Sox. Damon is setting the fantasy world afire, boasting a .350 mark. A surprise? Yes and no. Yes, because Damon is normally a second-half hitter -- .268 before the break and .331 afterward in his last three seasons. No, because he has high-average abilities and has hit .318 at Fenway Park in his career. Put all that together, and you have a guy you want to hang on to for dear life.

Manny Ramirez, OF, Red Sox. You know what we haven't heard about in a while? Manny's hamstrings. After missing 64 games the last two seasons because of hammy troubles, he has played in all 30 games in 2002. The Red Sox are taking good care of him, giving him a start at DH now and then, and the warmer weather will only help.

FORTUNES FALLING

Eric Chavez, 3B, A's. His average dipped to a season-low .218 earlier this week, but don't give up on him. For one, his power numbers (10 homers) are still there. Also, he was batting .243 just before the break last season and went on a tear in the second half. He is simply too good to be floundering below .250, and is exactly the guy you want to have right now.

Jacque Jones, OF, Twins. His hot start is a little misleading. He still has struggled against lefties, batting .135, and could be headed back to a platoon if he doesn't turn it around.

Shannon Stewart, OF, Blue Jays. Hamstring troubles have put him on the DL again. That's the bad news. Here's worse: This will be a season-long problem. Stewart recently told reporters that the artificial turf at SkyDome is the culprit. Uh, that's not good, considering the Jays play a majority of their games at home in the second half.

Larry Walker, OF, Rockies. Remember the 2000 season, when Walker batted .309 and hit only nine homers in 87 games for the Rox? Well, we might be looking at a redux. Just like two years ago, Walker is bothered by a troublesome elbow and said he's playing in pain each day. Not only will he miss games now and then, but we won't see the same stellar numbers (.350-35-120) we're accustomed to from him.

PICKS TO CLICK

AL

Mike Cameron, OF, Mariners. Since joining the M's, he has batted .307 on the road and just .219 at home. Good news: Seattle has six road games next week. Bobby Higginson, OF, Tigers. Since Comerica Park opened in 2000, Higgy has batted .323 at home and .255 on the road. Detroit has six games at home this week.

Vernon Wells, OF, Blue Jays. Has the outfield job all to himself now that Stewart has been shelved.

NL

Vinny Castilla, 3B, Braves. Has struggled at home (.152 average) but hit well on the road (.288). Braves have seven road games, including three at Vinny's old stomping grounds (Coors Field).

Phil Nevin, 3B, Padres. Among the reasons he signed an extension this offseason to stay put: He hits well at Qualcomm (.411 there this season).

Fernando Vina, 2B, Cardinals. Cards play six games at home, where 'Nando is batting .357 this season.

COMING SOON ...

Jack Cust, OF, Rockies. The left field job in the Mile High City has become a black hole for fantasy outfielders. Alex Ochoa flopped last season. This season, Todd Hollandsworth and Benny Agbayani are doing the dishonors. That might force the call-up of Cust, a big-time power prospect. He has a terrible defensive reputation and strikes out too much, but what do we care, as long as he's crackin' homers?

5x5 WATCH: Average

Juan Uribe, SS, Rockies. Though they can frustrate points-league owners, free swingers with good bats can delight 5x5 leaguers. Witness Uribe, who walked 20 times in 567 professional plate appearances last season. Granted, he has been more selective this season, but he still is on pace for 653 at-bats. A player with a high average in 650 at-bats obviously helps your team's average category more than a player who gives away 100 at-bats to walks.

POSITION WATCH

Brad Fullmer, DH, Angels. Yes, that was Fullmer donning the leather earlier this week, playing first base for the fourth time this season. He didn't look too bad for a guy who had played just two games there in the last two years. A few more, and you won't be forced to plug him into that coveted utility spot any longer.

FAVORABLE SCHEDULES

Note: All evaluations based on each team's Monday-through-Sunday schedule.

Baltimore Orioles. Six games vs. two of the major's five worst pitching staffs (Cleveland, Tampa Bay). Chicago White Sox. Six games vs. mediocre pitching (Anaheim, Texas) at home, where the Sox are batting .323. Cleveland Indians. Six games at the favorable Jake. Colorado Rockies. Seven games at Coors Field. Florida Marlins. Four of seven games at Coors Field. Houston Astros. Yahtzee! of the week: Seven games at Astros Field vs. mediocre pitching (Philly, Pittsburgh). Milwaukee Brewers. Seven games at favorable Miller Park. Philadelphia Phillies. Seven games at favorable parks (three at Astros Field, four at the BOB).

UNFAVORABLE SCHEDULES

Los Angeles Dodgers. All games at their unfavorable home park vs. two of the majors' top 10 staffs (New York Mets, Montreal). Montreal Expos. All games at unfavorable parks (Dodger Stadium, Qualcomm), including a series vs. Los Angeles (2.93 team ERA). New York Mets. Same as Montreal. San Diego Padres. Same as L.A. San Francisco Giants. Seven games at Pac Bell, where the team is batting just .233 this season -- including four vs. Braves. Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Six games on the road, including three vs. the Yanks, who own a 42-17 all-time mark against the Rays.

The Air Up There This whole humidor thing in Colorado is getting out of control. For those that are late to the controversy, you'll need a quick primer. So here's a briefing to get you up to speed. Major League baseball's are made in St. Louis, Missouri, by Rawlings. ML teams order baseballs from the company. Most teams order in bulk amounts and keep a large supply on hand so that they have enough to last well into the season. The Colorado Rockies noticed that, because the air is so dry in Denver, the baseballs that had been sitting around for a while dried out due to the lack of moisture in the air and became hard and shriveled. They believe that the hardened, shrunken, lighter ball became tougher (slippery) for a pitcher to grip and a missile for hitters that made contact with it. In an attempt to mirror the conditions that the ball is designed for in the Rawlings' Missouri plant, the Rockies installed a large humidor in their Coors Field facility and started storing baseballs in it on March 31. The humidor looks like a big walk-in refrigerator that you might see at a grocery store. The Rockies keep the balls stored in the humidor at 90-degrees Fahrenheit with 40 percent humidity. This allows the leather of the ball to expand and absorb moisture. They also have started ordering their baseballs monthly in an attempt to provide the freshest ball possible. The end result is a baseball that is easier for a pitcher to grip and make curve and a heavier, softer ball for batters to hit. MLB has, thus far, approved of Colorado's experiment because the ball that they produce is right in line with the official specs that come out of the Rawlings plant -- after all they are only trying to match the same ball that everyone else plays with outside Colorado.

But is the humidor the cause of the decreased run scoring at Coors Field, which is down 4.69 runs per game and 1.42 HR per game compared to the numbers at Coors from '98-'01? It is assumed that a couple environmental factors play a role in making Coors Field a hitter's paradise. The first factor I've already discussed: dried out baseballs. Second is the Mile High air, which is thinner and therefore provides less resistance to an object in flight, allowing it to travel further. A scientific study in the early-1990's revealed that a batted ball travels, on average, 9 percent farther at Coors altitude (5,280 feet above sea level) than a similarly struck ball would at sea level. While the Rockies will never be able to do anything about the air, unless they build a dome, it is conceivable that they've cut the environmental effect down by (legally) doctoring the baseball.

Former Rockies' pitcher Jerry DiPoto supports the argument. He says: "I was called in to talk to Keli (McGregor, Rockies' President) and Dan (O'Dowd, Rockies GM) last year about the elements at Coors Field. I told them that the gaps are huge and because of the altitude, the park plays smaller, but that the greatest difficulty for a pitcher in Colorado is you can't grip the ball and you can't create a break because of the arid air and the lack of resistance."

One argument I've seen against the dry baseball theory is that Arizona plays in a similar dry climate, yet they won the World Series last season. But upon closer examination, nearly every pitcher on the D'backs had a higher ERA at home than on the road last season, in many cases the discrepancy was dramatic. It appears that they may be experiencing a similar problem. As for how they won the World Series, you only have to look as far as Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, who would dominate even if they were pitching in the Himalayas.

So, assuming the grip problems are taken care of, the only factor remaining is the altitude. Which, of course, is still a problem. Simply put, Colorado is likely always going to produce runs above the ML average because balls travel further in higher altitude. ESPN's MLB Insider Jim Baker states in his column from May 8: "If, in fact, the humidified baseballs are the cause of this down turn (runs scored at Coors Field this April are down 35 percent), it must be especially maddening to fantasy players who stocked up on Rockies position players and avoided their pitchers, as has been custom these last few years."

That statement was the catalyst for me delving deeper into this subject because, while Baker is in the employ of ESPN, he does not work in the fantasy games group. And I believe that any kind of fantasy comments doled out by someone at our offices, but not in our group, deserves to be backed or refuted by those within the Games group.

So let's take a closer look at what Baker is saying.

Based upon the early splits, it appears that Colorado is still providing a significant boost for Rockies' hitters. Only Larry Walker, among Colorado's eight regular position players, has hit for a lower average at home than on the road. Of the other seven players, six of the players are hitting at least 65 points higher at home. The group has hit 15 home runs at home, compared to 10 on the road. They have 61 RBI at home compared to 50 on the road. And they have scored 71 runs at home compared to 54 on the road.

Yes, the sample is small, but the split is large enough that I'm comfortable drawing the conclusion that, while humidified baseball's may be curbing offensive production, it hasn't been enough to warrant considering bailing on your Rockies' players in fantasy leagues.

Nor should you suddenly be courting Rockies pitchers. After all, what would you have to choose from? Mike Hampton, their supposed ace, is allowing the most base runners per nine innings (19) in the majors. None of their starters has an ERA below 4.50 and none come even close to striking out a batter per inning.

So, essentially, it's business as usual for fantasy owners in regards to Colorado players. Avoid the pitchers, enjoy the hitters.

I Guess That's Why They Call Him "The Kid"

Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to vent on the subject of Ken Griffey, Jr. Let me start by stating the obvious. He's a whiner, a prima dona. He's lived the sheltered, pampered life of a ballplayer's son, blessed with the genetics that makes hitting and catching a baseball easy and natural. He is not rooted in our reality. He's late on maturity because, when it came to learning life lessons through hardship, Griffey was excused from class.

When people like Junior finally do encounter some karmic payback, it's only natural that the masses cheer his misfortune. After all, nobody should be allowed to have their cake and eat it, too. Right? And not only was Griffey having and eating whatever he wanted, getting his wish to go home and be a Cincinnati Red was, for some, tantamount to going back for seconds.

No doubt, up until he arrived in Cincy, he was living the most charmed of lives. As a kid, he got to hang out in the dugout with major league baseball players. He was placed on a pedestal as one of the greatest prospects ever to to be selected in a MLB amateur draft. He was playing everyday for a major league team before he was 20. He got to play side-by-side with his father. And then he got to go home again and wear the same uniform of the team he grew up rooting for.

Griffey complains about being misunderstood, and he's probably right. After all, how many of us can claim to comprehend what it must be like to be born into a family of wealth, blessed with world-class ability, to boot. It is a small support group, to be sure. No one is going to empathize with him when he complains about lack of respect or mistreatment. In fact, the backlash is going to be twice as strong because no one wants to hear a peep of a complaint from the kid who has it all.

Is there a fantasy point here? Absolutely. It seems everyone outside Griffey's family is wishing the worst for Griffey. We readily support the theory that he's cursed since giving Seattle the stiff arm. We vote in polls saying that Griffey should be benched in favor of Juan Encarnacion when he comes back. We become Pokey Reese's and Dmitri Young's biggest fans because they publicly called out Griffey as a clubhouse cancer. Well, I for one, am not going to embrace the negativity. Griffey's returning in a week and, if he's healthy, there is no way he's going to ride the pine. He's one of the greatest baseball players of all-time and he's still in his prime. Heck, for the truly great players like Griffey, prime years can extend into the late-30's. Barry Bonds is proof of that.

ESPN fantasy leagues have illustrated perfectly how much we want to disregard Griffey these days. In the past week, Griffey has been traded in one-for-one deals for the likes of Robin Ventura, John Olerud and Paul LoDuca. If you think that getting anyone of those players for Griffey represents rational thought, I can pretty much guess where you currently sit in your league standings. Consider this: Griffey has five more 100-run seasons, seven more 30-HR seasons, 2 more 100-RBI seasons, 10 more 10-SB seasons and 2 more .300-BA seasons than Olerud, Ventura and LoDuca combined! And Griffey's still only 32 years old.

That was then this is now, you say? Look at how bad he's been in Cincy, you say? Well, Griffey has averaged 31 HR, 91 RBI and 15 SB in his two seasons with the Reds, and that's despite missing a total of 68 games during that stretch. Simply put, when he's healthy and on the field, he's producing. Granted, health has been his key issue in the last year and a quarter. But I wouldn't be the one to label him as injury prone. After all, he's played 140 games or more in nine of 13 ML seasons. Coming into this season, he'd played in 88 percent of all regular season games during his 13-year career.

Once he returns, he'll be back in the middle of what is turning out to be a fairly potent Reds' lineup, and he'll return with the same sweet swing he's always had. The fantasy point is: Now's the time grab Griffey in a deal because, when he's playing, I wouldn't trade Griffey for Olerud, Ventura and LoDuca combined, let alone one-for-one.

Games This Week

Week of 05/12 - 05/18

WFAN Champs vs.
VegasVultures -

Bama Boys vs.
n.W.o. Baseball -

Bud's Cardinals vs.
Jebly Counselors III -

Fastball Express vs.
Tennessee Yankees -