Sliders: Big Hurt could be a big help

Did I write a Sliders column or a hit list?

I can't help but wonder after two of the men I featured last week immediately succumbed to injury. Did I somehow tempt fate?

Brad Hawpe -- hanging slider -- strained hamstring, 15 days, finished. Clint Barmes -- upward slider -- sprained knee, DL, done.

And since both happen to play for the Rockies, you know Aaron Cook is looking over his shoulder right now (or maybe at his shoulder?), especially since his complete game near-shutout Sunday went against everything I said about him.

But I didn't do it -- I swear. I don't believe in voodoo, hexes or curses. And unless I'm Jose Reyes or an expert shape-shifter -- which are both fictional and highly illogical creatures -- I didn't go sliding into Barmes' knee or tugging on Hawpe's hamstring.

Sorry for that last image.

So don't blame me for any hand I have in destiny. Don't say I didn't warn you. And when you read over this week's Fantasy Sliders and my recommendations of adding, dropping or trading players, consider preemptively stashing them in your DL slot instead.

Let's give it a go.

Sliders

Frank Thomas, DH, Athletics

Need Big Help? The Big Hurt is Big Hot. But it's not just his four home runs this past week that lands him on this list. It's what they represent.

Through May 18 this season, he was hitting .220 with three home runs. In six games since then, he's hitting .455 with four home runs. Those numbers might not mean anything if they didn't correlate so closely to his 2006 season, his last in Oakland. Through May 18 then, he was hitting .188 with seven home runs. He ended up hitting .295 with 32 home runs the rest of the way, finishing one short of 40 for the season.

"He said they're starting to come," A's manager Bob Geren said after the slugger, who turns 40 on Tuesday, bopped one off Tim Wakefield on Friday. "He knows."

And the perceptive Fantasy owner knew also if he paid attention to Thomas' history. Even at his advanced age, he still has big power and a terrific approach at the plate. And though he took half a step back in 2007, hitting 26 home runs for the Blue Jays, something tells me the Athletics once again showing him undying loyalty will propel him to new heights.

Thomas is playing angry. He didn't like the Blue Jays making him a part-time player, prompting his release in April. He wants to drive a stake into their collective heart with every home run he hits. And that's a dangerous incentive to give a player who generally thrives on emotion.

You can still claim Thomas on waivers in most leagues, and in most cases, you want to.

Alex Rios, OF, Blue Jays

Age 27 represents a special time for some people. It marks a physiological peak, a transition from young adulthood, and in some distant cultures -- most of them on the small island nation of Emackia (located a few paces from me in this very office) -- the day a boy becomes a man.

But for Rios, age 27 has brought misery and misfortune. The native of Coffee, Ala., is batting .259 with three home runs, putting him on pace for nine in 638 at-bats. He doesn't look like the same guy who broke out for 24 home runs last year after hitting 17 the year before.

And only now do we see it: Exposure to Coffee at such a young age seriously stunted his growth.

Surely, he'll rebound some. He has too much power potential in his 6-foot-5 frame to finish with nine home runs, and only once in his career has he batted below .286. But thinking he'd break out for 30 bombs this season probably presumed too much. After all, he hit only seven in the second half last year.

If you start thinking of Rios as a shorter version of Bobby Abreu, you probably have the right idea.

Jose Contreras, SP, White Sox

The ambiguously aged Contreras looked more like 46 than his claimed 36 last season, losing 17 games with a 5.57 ERA. And his 1.56 WHIP represented an especially big jump from his 1.27 mark the year before, mostly a result of his 232 hits allowed in only 189 innings.

I don't know if he altered his delivery, pitch sequence or just ate a whole bunch of Wheaties, but he's somehow found the fountain if youth.

He couldn't look any more different this season, going from unmissable to unhittable. Opponents batted .264 off him April and .180 off him in May. And if you want to point to his 3.54 last September as a sign of him righting the ship -- a worthy point, no doubt -- even then, he allowed a batting average of .300.

And my praise of him now doesn't come strictly on the heels of his 10-strikeout game against the Angels, when he allowed two runs in eight innings. That start actually represented the first time in four he allowed more than one earned run.

Coming over from Cuba, Contreras never emerged as the Fantasy ace many thought he would. But he's proven effective, usually winning between 12 and 15 games with an ERA between 3.50 and 4.50, so don't hesitate to add him to fill out your Fantasy staff. Based on what he's shown so far this season, I have no reason not to write off 2007 as the fluke.

Jeff Kent, 2B, Dodgers

Nothing against Kent, who consistently hit home runs at a position where, for a time, Fantasy owners hoped for nothing more than a few stolen bases, but age 40 has come rather abruptly for him, running him face-first into the brick wall of reality.

It's not so much his .228 batting average that has me sticking a fork in him -- he has his slumps like anyone else. But a power hitter slugging .362 two months into the season? He hasn't done that before -- not in recent years, anyway. And you see the domino effect. His walks have nosedived, putting him on pace for 29, his fewest since he was a free-swinging nobody. Pitchers don't fear him anymore, and why should they? His .637 OPS would make David Eckstein blush.

Even in his current state, Kent could still hit a dozen or so home runs, so if you play Rotisserie or any league format that requires extra middle infielders, you might want to hold on to him. But you can't honestly call him a run producer anymore, not unless you're trying to swindle somebody in trade.

Jason Bergmann, SP, Nationals

Just when you thought he was finished, his 1.23 WHIP and 6.7 strikeouts per nine innings last season a fluke, just when you kicked him aside, thinking he'd never make another contribution relevant to Fantasy, he proved you wrong.

Yes, Bergmann is back, baby, and better than before.

Something happened to the late-blooming 26-year-old at Triple-A Columbus, and it goes beyond mechanics and miles per hour. That 11.68 ERA in his first three appearances sent him to a place he knew he didn't belong, and three starts into that banishment, he made whatever adjustment he needed to make, allowing three earned runs over his final three starts -- a span of 21 innings.

Back in the majors, the trend hasn't changed. After his eight strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings Monday, he has 22 strikeouts in three starts -- 19 1/3 innings -- and has yet to allow an earned run -- numbers that have even the most hair-brained of Bergmann supporters dropping their jaws in amazement.

And you know where I stand, steadfastly holding to the belief that Bergmann bucks the prospect reports, armed with an at times unhittable array of pitches (last year, he allowed four hits or fewer in six innings or more in more than a third of his starts), including a sinker that Braves manager Bobby Cox once compared to Brandon Webb's.

You know, Brandon Webb ... that non-prospect who emerged as a perennial Cy Young contender once he got his shot in the bigs.

Of course, I in no way mean to declare Bergmann's Cy Young candidacy. He won't win many games for the Nationals, and he'll likely struggle to keep his ERA on the right side of 4.00. But he should post a low WHIP with a decent strikeout rate and deserves a look in all mixed leagues.

Hanging Sliders

Paul Konerko, 1B, White Sox

Some things in baseball you can anticipate every year -- an injury for J.D. Drew, an outburst for Milton Bradley, a rotation spot for Mark Redman until he blows up in early May.

And Paul Konerko has his own measure of consistency. He will hit 30 home runs -- write it down, bury it in the backyard, dig it up four months later.

He's done it four straight seasons, and if you worry about his .212 batting average and five home runs so far, keep in mind he hit .229 with seven home runs in the first two months last season.

I realize at age 32 he might start showing signs of decline, but you shouldn't worry about him just yet, particularly in light of his recent history. If you give up on him now, you risk giving all those home runs to someone else.

David Murphy, OF, Rangers

Murphy -- who, as one reader pointed out, looks curiously like actor Alan Ruck in Ferris Bueller's Day Off -- has yet to take a day off himself this season, putting him on the Fantasy radar after beginning the year as a somewhat laughable starter for the Rangers.

And the e-mails over him have trickled in of late, wondering if he's for real. I came into this column all geared up to say "no" until I looked at his stats and came away rather disappointed.

To a degree, he is for real because he hasn't done all that much. Even with his hot start and recent spike in homers, his OPS is only .818 -- not a disgrace, no, but not all that useable in Fantasy for a non-speedster. And like I said, that's if he maintains his 19-home run pace, and considering the 26-year-old minor-league journeyman never hit more than 14 in the minors, I have a hard time believing he will.

And as for his 111-RBI pace, some cleanup hitters don't even get that many. Expect him to finish in the 75-80 range at best -- still a good total for a hitter of his stature.

And what stature is that? Borderline rosterable. He's Frank Catalanotto, only he gets at-bats, and before the end of the season, he'll end up on waivers again in most leagues.

Change-up

Brian Wilson, RP, Giants

Remember the Chad Cordero Theory from a few weeks back -- the one that said closers on bad teams with good pitching can still record plenty of saves? Yeah, scratch that for Wilson. It doesn't apply.

This latest conclusion has nothing to do with the Giants or the long-term prospects of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez. It has everything to do with Wilson, who allowed six earned runs over two consecutive appearances this past week. And in a separate appearance Sunday, he allowed the winning run to score, giving up one hit and two walks in two-thirds of an inning.

He has a 5.31 ERA and a 1.72 WHIP, and neither figure has shown improvement over the past few weeks, as I thought both would. So I have no reason to retain optimism anymore -- this is Wilson, a Ryan Dempster of a closer.

And closers in the mold of Dempster don't save 40-45 games. They save 30, maybe 35, with peripherals not good enough to make them even No. 2 options in Fantasy, assuming they keep their jobs. If you have Wilson as anything more, don't get too comfortable.

You can e-mail Scott your Fantasy Baseball questions to dmfantasybaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Attn: Sliders in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state.We'll answer as many as we can.