Fantasy Flings: National League East

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Atlanta Braves
There are a number of story lines buzzing in Braves camp. You have a battle between Jordan Schafer and Josh Anderson for the right to patrol center field. You also have five of Baseball America's top 100 prospects in camp, including the fifth ranked prospect who's been turning heads, Jason Heyward. But the king of the hill in to this point for the Braves is the fourth ranked prospect on that Baseball America list, Tommy Hanson. Hanson is fighting for a chance to grab the final rotation spot after he tore up the Arizona Fall League. In his first start he struck out two in two innings of work, walked one and allowed two runs. More buzzworthy was the fact that he touched 99 MPH on the radar gun and plunked Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada in retaliation to his shortstop Yunel Escobar being plunked earlier. Hanson pitches again today in an exhibition against the WBC team from Panama.

Florida Marlins
Cody Ross and Jeremy Hermida swapped corner outfield positions. Ross is adjusting fine, even displaying a superb arm in right field while Hermida is having problems, drawing boos from the crowd in left field. Neither player, however, is receiving the amount of attention that rookie center fielder Cameron Maybin is getting. It started with the uproar of Maybin taking the leadoff role away from Hanley Ramirez. And it's continued with Ramirez already proclaiming Maybin the 2009 Rookie of the Year and some fantasy blogs predicting a top 30 finish in the outfield rankings for Maybin. The center fielder of the future is leading the team with 12 at-bats and has four hits.

New York Mets
A huge scare went through Mets camp as Johan Santana was scratched from his first exhibition start. He was shortly scratched from a second spring start and then news became worse as rumors began flying around that he would not be able to make his first regular season start. He scheduled a trip to New York to get an MRI, then canceled it saying he was fine. After a bullpen session on Sunday where he threw 35 pitches Santana still feels good and might see action as soon as March 13th. The health of Johan Santana is of vital importance to the Mets and to every fantasy GM who has selected him. What a waste of a second round pick it would be if Santana did miss considerable time in 2009.

Philadelphia Phillies
Going into the fantasy baseball draft season a popular topic has been whether or not you should pass on Corey Hart in the 5th round of drafts to take a very similar Jayson Werth in the 12th round. They are both 20/20 guys. They both have similar batting averages. It just seemed to make sense to do something else with that 5th round pick and wait on Werth. Well Jayson Werth hasn't played much this spring. In fact, he's yet to see regular action. The only action he has seen is in a B game where he came up to bat twice but never swung, claiming he only wanted to track pitches. Werth is nursing a hurting shoulder and isn't sure when he'll be ready. Maybe it's time to reconsider the wait for Werth strategy.

Washington Nationals
The Braves aren't the only NL East team with a huge starting pitching prospect. The Nationals have one too in Jordan Zimmerman. He threw two perfect innings last week against a Detroit Tigers team and struck out three batters. Zimmerman fared well in minor league action last season going 10-3 with a 2.89 ERA in combined Single-A and Advanced-A action. Most feel the 22-year-old needs a bit more seasoning in the minors, but a 2009 Major League arrival date is expected. He has an outside shot at making this rotation out of camp this spring. If he does, the waiver wire's will be buzzing.