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Today’s pitch count is 10.

1. For the second straight time Rich Harden walked more hitters then he struck out Wednesday night. In those two games he’s given up nine earned runs in 10.1 innings. In related news, Harden hasn’t won a game sine May 12th.
2. David Ortiz hit another home run on Wednesday night. He has three over his last seven games and is batting .363 over that same time period.
3. The Phillies bullpen screwed Joe Blanton big time on Wednesday.  Blanton struck out ten and walked two over seven innings and only gave up two earned runs. On the other hand J.C. Romero and Chan Ho Park combined to give up five earned runs in the final two innings. Blanton has pitched well as of late. Over his last seven starts he’s 3-1 with a 3.42 ERA and 44 strikeouts with ten walks.

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Today’s pitch count is 15.

1. Closer by committee situations are never good in terms of fantasy baseball. That’s not stopping Tampa Bay from utilizing the strategy while Troy Percival is injured. Last night J.P. Howell got his second save of the year and R.J. Anderson wrote a post yesterday stating that Howell has some pretty exciting numbers. Better numbers in some regards then Papelbon and Rivera, to name a few.
2. You don’t see this very often. Both pitchers in last night’s Cincinnati versus St. Louis game pitched a complete game. Aaron Harang took the loss giving up three earned and striking out four. Chris Carpenter won his fourth game and has an ERA of 0.71 in six starts this season. He’s struck out 31 batters in 38 innings of work and only walked five.
3. David Wright stole his 13th base yesterday and is looking like he’s going wild on the base paths like he did in 2007 when he swiped 34. Unfortunately, he’s only jacked three home runs in the Mets’ new Grand Canyon like ballpark. Wright’s HR/F ratio of 5.8% is miserably low and show rise bringing his home run total up soon. But don’t look for him to approach 30 homers this season. With a hit rate of 44.4% I’m not even sure that his .326 batting average is safe. When his hit rate normalizes back towards his normal 34.7% we might see a huge drop in his average. Consider yourself warned.
4. Andrew McCutchen had a nice major league debut yesterday. He went 2-for-4 scoring three times and stealing a base. He’s owned in 13% of Yahoo! leagues right now but that number is sure to rise shortly. He’s NL-only worthy right now and you may consider taking a mixed-league flier on him too, especially in keeper leagues.

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Today’s pitch count is 6.

1. Seattle starter Jarrod Washburn pitched seven strong innings last night giving up only one earned run and six hits. He still took the loss as Mariners’ hitters failed to score him any runs and only managed two hits. Washburn hasn’t won a game since April 21st and his last two starts have been successful in the fact that he’s pitched 13 innings and only given up one run. But the lack of run support is killing him. Even though Washburn’s season ERA is 3.22 he’s not a great fantasy option. He’s going to get knocked around at times and when he’s on, his team just isn’t scoring runs.
2. Ouch. J.J. Putz gave up four hits and three earned runs last night without recording an out. Over his last two appearances he’s given up five earned runs in 0.1 innings of work. If he’s reverted back to the reliever who lost his job in Seattle, the Mets may look for other 8th inning options.
3. He’s only owned in 7% of Yahoo! fantasy leagues but he’s batting .304 on the season and over the last month he’s .359/.427/.511 with two home runs and 15 RBI. His name is Andy LaRoche, and you might consider taking a look at him in your fantasy league.

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Today’s pitch count is 4.

1. If this is news to you, you need to climb out from under that rock and start paying attention. Baltimore Orioles prospect Matt Wieters is set to make his major league debut tomorrow night. The 23-year-old catcher is batting .305/.387/.504 with five home runs in his second year as a professional. Combining last years numbers with 2009, Wieters has accumulated 578 pro at-bats and is hitting .342 with 32 home runs and 121 RBI. He’s already owned in 69% of Yahoo! leagues without a big league at-bat. That number will skyrocket this weekend.
2. Jake Fox was called up this week and got a base hit in his first big league at-bat this season. Before his call up by the Cubs he was batting .423 with 17 home runs in 149 at-bats. Wow! He’s likely not to get a huge amount of playing time in Chicago, but if he does,and continues with those Triple-A numbers in the bigs, watch out.

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I love a “Cinderella “ story as much as anyone. But, even I have to face the facts that sometimes, particularly when it comes to mediocre pitchers having phenomenal starts, that it may be time to sell high. Call it dumb luck, or whatever, these three pitchers’ fifteen minutes of fame is over. If you have any of these players on your roster I would highly suggest unloading them ASAP.

1. Kevin Millwood | Texas Rangers - Millwood is off to a hot start with an ERA of 2.78 and three wins. But in his last outing he gave up five runs in 7 1/3 Innings. He is probably coming back to Earth now, considering he hasn’t had an ERA below 4.50 since 2005. He isn’t a big strikeout pitcher either; he currently has 25 K’s in 45 Innings. The only saving grace is he figures to pick up some wins this season courtesy of the Rangers run support, but not enough to keep him on your team all season.
2. Doug Davis | Arizona Diamondbacks - Davis started the season strong. Through the first five games he had and ERA of 2.91 with two wins for the Diamondbacks. That fell apart in his last start however. He gave up four runs on five hits in 4 1/3 innings, issuing four walks along the way. He has never been more that two games over .500 in his career and his ERA hasn’t been below 4.00 since 2005. In addition, three times in his career he has issued more than 90 walks in a season.
3. Kyle Lohse | St. Louis Cardinals - Lohse has started red hot after coming off of a career year where he finished with 15 wins and a 3.78 ERA. He started off 3-0 with a 1.97 ERA. But, his last start may also be an ominous sign of things to come. Against the Phillies he allowed six earned runs in just 4 1/3 innings. Also troublesome was the fact that he was hit by a pitch in the third inning and said after the game his arm felt “numb”. Lohse has a history of declining production, last year her went 4-4 with a 4.35 ERA after the All-Star break versus 11-2 and a 3.39 ERA before the break.

These players are probably at their peak of value right now. While hot pitchers are great to come by, history dictates you should proceed cautiously with this group of pitchers.

Pitchers and catchers are reporting this week. That makes this the perfect time to start working on the rankings for starting pitchers.

Today, let’s look at the top ten:

1. Tim Lincecum | San Francisco Giants - The real question at the top of the starting pitcher rankings is who to rank #1 between Lincecum and Santana. I like Lincecum to win strikeouts and ERA and Santana to get more wins and have a better WHIP. I’m giving Lincecum the nod here as I think he crushed Santana in strikeouts and the other three categories are relatively similar.
2. Johan Santana | New York Mets - I must be crazy to rank a guy #2 when I feel he’ll lead the league in wins, strike out 200+ and lead all starting pitchers in WHIP. Call me crazy, I just think Lincecum is a little more special.
3. C.C. Sabathia | New York Yankees - I like Sabathia to be a top three starting pitcher in wins and to keep his WHIP under 1.20 and strike out close to 200. I do worry about his return to the American League though.
4. Cole Hamels | Philadelphia Phillies - Hamels will finish just behind Sabathis in wins, strikeouts and ERA but actually might have more upside. His fabulous post-season performance last season should give him a huge shot of confidence going into ‘09.
5. Roy Halladay | Toronto Blue Jays - Halladay’s K/9 spiked dramatically last season; a trend that will probably normalize in ‘09. He won’t win 20 again, his numbers will still be very ace-like.
6. Brandon Webb | Arizona Diamondbacks - Webb is the model of consistency here. He’s gone five years in a row with over 200 innings pitched and 30 starts. You know exactly what you’re going ot get when you grab Webb.
7. Jake Peavy | San Diego Padres - If there was a dropoff point among the starting pitchers (read: tier) this would be the first one. Peavy isn’t the same pitcher he used to be (which is hard to say about a 27-year-old), but you can still count on a sub 3.50 ERA, double digit wins and almost 200 strikeouts.
8. Dan Haren | Arizona Diamondbacks - Haren gives the Diamondbacks what might be the best one-two punch in baseball on the mound. He’s been trending wonderfully with his strikeout totals, WHIP and win totals. He may not even be done improving.
9. Roy Oswalt | Houston Astros - It seemed like everything that was hit in the air against Oswalt in the first half of last season left the ballpark. He corrected that in the second half and returned to the premium pitcher we all knew he could be. Don’t pay for second half numbers, but realize that he’s a 15-win guy who will stay well below the 4.00 ERA mark.
10. James Shields | Tampa Bay Rays - Shields has grown as a pitcher in each of the last two seasons and does just about everything well. At age 27, expect another growth year in ‘09.

I’m playing around with a new toy over on twitter. I asked all my tweeps yesterday who should be the first starting pitcher taken in fantasy drafts. The results of the poll are below. Check in every day at @crookedpitch for a new poll.