Crooked Pitch

It took nine games to happen, but Mike Stanton finally hit his first big league home run on Friday, going 2-for-4 with four RBI. It will be his first of many home runs to come.

While you’re waiting for his home runs to come, however, you’ll deal with a lot of strikeouts and zero-hit nights. In the three games prior to Stanton’s home run he was 0-for-12 with six strikeouts. In fact, looking at his nine games in the majors thus far, it’s been either feast or famine. He has four multi-hit games where he’s gone 9-for-16 (.563) and five game where he hasn’t gotten a hit, going 0-for-19 with nine strikeouts. Be prepared for ups and downs like this for the duration of the season.

If you would like see my projection for Stanton in 2010 — and I made this on the day he was called up — you can find it at FanHouse.

It irks me that Tim Hudson is still only owned in 80 percent of fantasy leagues. Are people not watching what he’s doing?

Hudson’s 7-2 with a 2.34 ERA, and he should have more wins that that. He’s been bad luck’d by rain and lack of run support, and if you look at his starts this year you’ll see that he hasn’t given up more than three earned runs in any of his 14 starts.

If you’re hesitant because of the injury that kept him out for the majority of the season in 2009, don’t be. It’s safe to sign Hudson right now. And it’s highly recommended.