http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/baseball/...page=ootb090428

 

The Nationals and Phillies combined to swat seven home runs Monday night, including two grand slams. Three American League hurlers went seven or more innings without allowing a run. Numerous closers got lit up and a National League rookie outfielder stole five bases! And still, none of this is potentially the biggest story in a crazy night of baseball.

Fantasy monster Hanley Ramirez was hit in his right wrist by a John Maine fastball traveling near 95 mph in the first inning at Citi Field, sending someone in every league into a state of panic. The area between Ramirez's hand and wrist began to swell immediately, and after being examined by the Marlins' trainer the shortstop was removed from the game. X-rays were negative; Ramirez is listed as day-to-day. On a night of fantastic offensive and pitching performances, even the threat of Ramirez missing playing time rates as major fantasy news. Let's just say that is one very crucial right wrist to a lot of people.

 

A few days off for Ramirez won't be a tragedy in fantasy, but any lingering problem to the wrist would obviously affect Ramirez's stats. As it is, he's off to a bit of a slow start for him; at the plate, with two home runs, 12 RBIs, three stolen bases, nine runs scored and a .289 batting average. It's dangerous to look at a player's pace before one month of the season is complete, but Ramirez has seen a decline in everything but RBIs. We expected more run production moving from the leadoff spot to No. 3 in the batting order, but not a general dropoff in natural power and speed. Remember, we're not evaluating Brendan Ryan here. This is the first pick in most every draft.

 

Ramirez, 25, comes off his first 30/30 season, and has a career .307 batting average, so expectations are obviously sky-high. He has three stolen bases, but has also been caught stealing the same number of times. It's still early, but if you used the first pick on the guy, you expected he'd be among the leaders on ESPN's Player Rater. Currently Ramirez is No. 93, and not in the top five among shortstops (behind Jason Bartlett, Michael Young, Derek Jeter, Marco Scutaro and Asdrubal Cabrera). The last thing the slumping Marlins, and fantasy owners, need is an injury.

 

With no apparent broken bones, Ramirez might miss a few games, and this potentially large story shouldn't be a big deal. Then again, we've seen what wrist injuries have done to power hitters in the recent past, notably the production of Hideki Matsui and Derrek Lee. Ramirez is much younger and more talented -- he was, after all, the first player taken in most drafts -- but any decrease in power is going to affect a whole lot of fantasy owners. As it is, Ramirez is someone who was being watched to start with, and an injury can't help.

I hope he gets back from the injury and on track quickly!

I hope he gets back from the injury and on track quickly!

 

Me to. Not only is he my favorite MLB player, but I took him first and my draft over Pujols. Right now that isn't looking like a wise decision.

Since the first game in Pittsburgh, Hanley hit .391/.462/.565.

 

Someone please find me how he's not on track yet.

Since the first game in Pittsburgh, Hanley hit .391/.462/.565.

 

Someone please find me how he's not on track yet.

 

I think it has less to do with his numbers themselves and more to do with how many players are playing better than he is.

Since the first game in Pittsburgh, Hanley hit .391/.462/.565.

 

Someone please find me how he's not on track yet.

 

I think it has less to do with his numbers themselves and more to do with how many players are playing better than he is.

No player played better than him over that skid on our team. Not a single one.

Since the first game in Pittsburgh, Hanley hit .391/.462/.565.

 

Someone please find me how he's not on track yet.

 

I think it has less to do with his numbers themselves and more to do with how many players are playing better than he is.

No player played better than him over that skid on our team. Not a single one.

 

I'm not talking about just our respective team, but across the league entirely. He's supposed to be one of the best 1-3 best players in the game and he's 93rd on the player rater and dropping. Is he playing terrible? No, but he isn't playing to his skill level neither.

Since the first game in Pittsburgh, Hanley hit .391/.462/.565.

 

Someone please find me how he's not on track yet.

 

It's a fantasy article (I hate how basically any baseball article is fantasy related now a days), and his season line isn't good for fantasy baseball.

Since the first game in Pittsburgh, Hanley hit .391/.462/.565.

 

Someone please find me how he's not on track yet.

 

I think it has less to do with his numbers themselves and more to do with how many players are playing better than he is.

No player played better than him over that skid on our team. Not a single one.

 

I'm not talking about just our respective team, but across the league entirely. He's supposed to be one of the best 1-3 best players in the game and he's 93rd on the player rater and dropping. Is he playing terrible? No, but he isn't playing to his skill level neither.

Not many people played better in the last 7 games in the entire league. Pujols maybe.

 

Yes, he started off slow, but the slide is DONE. Completely done. This article is almost 2 weeks too late.

 

Now he has to come back from injury.

Since the first game in Pittsburgh, Hanley hit .391/.462/.565.

 

Someone please find me how he's not on track yet.

 

I think it has less to do with his numbers themselves and more to do with how many players are playing better than he is.

No player played better than him over that skid on our team. Not a single one.

 

I'm not talking about just our respective team, but across the league entirely. He's supposed to be one of the best 1-3 best players in the game and he's 93rd on the player rater and dropping. Is he playing terrible? No, but he isn't playing to his skill level neither.

 

Jeez man, if he had an OPS over 1.0 the rest of the season I think we'd all be fine and dandy.

Yeah, I think Hanley had been playing better of late. Unfortunately, his rise was parallel to our BP mini-implosion, so it may have gotten lost.

Hopefully when Hanley comes back he starts hitting the number of HRs that we expect of him.

As someone who picked Hanley #1, the concern isn't just that his rank isn't in the top ten... or twenty... or fifty... I can be patient with the numbers alone. The concern is that you have a young guy who displayed some poor judgment in Spring with the way he handled the haircut situation, his website, in my opinion, reflects cockiness and immaturity and when you put that stuff together with the numbers, i think one can be legitimately concerned. Sports are filled with guys who make it big when they are young and suddenly feel a sense of entitlement and stop working as hard as they once did. I'm not saying there's nearly enough evidence to draw that conclusion, but he brought extra scrutiny on himself by not handling the haircut stuff in a mature way and now he's going to have to produce on the field to overcome the doubts that were raised.

I hope he gets back from the injury and on track quickly!

 

Me to. Not only is he my favorite MLB player, but I took him first and my draft over Pujols. Right now that isn't looking like a wise decision.

 

Same here, hopefully he is back sooner than later!

He's supposed to be back in the lineup today. At this point it's 80-20 that he plays. If he does play, I don't expect much production. Hopefully though, he'll turn it on and show up big this series.