It’s truly incredible how often people state that baseball isn’t a dangerous sport, and that you don’t have to be anywhere as tough to play the game as you do football. For crying out loud, even football players undergo “Tommy John” surgery…a surgery that was first used on San Diego Padre’s pitcher Thomas Edward John Jr. (a.k.a Tommy John) in the late 1980s. Sure bruised and strained muscles don’t sound as bad as  torn muscles, or even broken bones, but they can cause the sufferer just as much (if not more) pain.

That’s why I always feel bad for baseball players when they do down with a strained muscle, especially in the legs…those suck. And I especially feel bad for the baseball players on my fantasy squad when that happens, because that often means I will have to make a difficult roster decision.

During the past week in fantasy baseball, I had to do make a tough decision regarding my roster when 3B Adrian Beltre was officially put on the 15-day disabled list.

In the end, I ended up dropping my third relief pitcher to clear up bench space for Beltre and his replacement Mark Reynolds.

Roster

C         Matt Wieters, Bal
1B       Eric Hosmer, KC
2B       Robinson Cano, Sea
3B       Mark Reynolds, MIL, 1B/3B/DH
SS        Asdrubal Cabrera, Cle SS
LF       Matt Holliday, StL
CF       Adam Jones, Bal
RF       Giancarlo Stanton, Mia
UTIL  Nick Swisher, Cle 1B/RF

SP        Stephen Strasburg, Wsh
SP       Dan Haren, LAD
SP        Hyun-Jin Ryu, LAD
SP        CC Sabathia, NYY
SP        Matt Garza, Mil
RP       John Axford, Cle
RP       Fernando Rodney, Sea
BE       Doug Fister, Wsh SP (15-day DL)
BE       Adrian Beltre, Tex 3B (15-day DL)
BE       Brad Miller, Sea SS

Roster Moves

Release RP Jim Henderson from BE

Move Adrian Beltre from 3B to BE

Move Brad Miller from SS to BE, and Asdrubal Cabrera from BE to SS

Transaction

Released Jim Henderson RP and acquired Mark Reynolds 1B/3B/DH from Waiver Wire

Standings

1. WILLIE MCCOVEY STRETCH-506.5
2. STEAMER ROLLS-501.5
3. TEAM THOMPSON- 501
4. ADAM’S IAMDYNAMITE-481.5
5. WAZZU COUGARS-479.5
6. LAKE STEVENS MOTTLEY CREW-476
7. TEAM GREEN-463.5
8. ZBEST BALLER-456
9. PIE IN THE SKY-455.5
10. LOST IN TRANSLATION-443

As you can tell, no one is really gathering any separation yet — on either end. The first six weeks of the season are the ones that are usually the most interesting, due to the fact that everyone is still paying attention to their squads (for the most part). Once my fellow players start to feel like they are falling out of the race and start neglecting their teams, then there will be some major separation from the top to the bottom of the league.

[twitter-follow screen_name=’sportswithneil’] [twitter-follow screen_name=’nvr93′]

[gigya allowScriptAccess=”always” src=”http://funds.gofundme.com/Widgetflex.swf” quality=”high” flashVars=”page=5ppcb0&template=4″ wmode=”transparent” width=”258″ height=”338″]