Welcome to the return of The Check Swing, our review of the week in FBLG. It's like the old show "This Week in Baseball," except there's no video, no cool 1980s graphics and no Mel Allen voiceovers. This week's edition is "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."
1. Fresh Fish (221 points, 1-0): Good — Giancarlo Stanton scored 36 points with a monster week for the Marlins; Yovani Gallardo pitched like an ace in two outings. Bad — Ryan Zimmerman's ability to throw the ball across the diamond is in doubt again. Ugly — Clayton Kershaw is on the disabled list, and his return date is unknown.
2. Pitch You Blockhead (216 points, 1-0): Good — Zack Greinke and Hanley Ramirez combined for 51 points to lead the way. Bad — The Cardinals' slow start means few save opportunities for Trevor Rosenthal. Ugly — Amid a terrible start for the San Diego offense, Will Venable scored only 5 points this week.
3. Arbitration Losers (201 points, 1-0): Good — Wade Miley scored 31 points and Michael Cuddyer had 30 to lead the defending playoff champs to a win against the defending regular-season champs. Bad — Cliff Lee got hammered by Texas in the opener but recovered against the Cubs. Ugly — Jedd Gyorko's 2-point week was disappointing.
4. Danger Zaun (194 points, 0-1): Jose Fernandez posted 40 points in two starts and looks like a Cy Young candidate. Bad — Jim Henderson lost his job as Milwaukee's closer before the season started and looked terrible in a 1-point week in middle relief. Ugly — Billy Hamilton did absolutely nothing and managed to get hurt in the process. Nice minus-1 there, Billy.
5. Ryan's Rangers (186 points, 1-0): Good — We're sure Bill expected to get 40 points from Angel Pagan and Anthony Rendon in the opening week. Right, Bill? Bad — Starting catcher Wilson Ramos got hurt, and backup catcher Devin Mesoraco is still hurt. Get Jeff Mathis' agent on the phone! Ugly — Ryan Braun's thumb is still causing him problems. Will Bill get burned by Braun two years in a row?
6. Rocky Mountain High (185 points, 1-0): Good — Carlos Gonzalez scored 32 points. That could be a weekly occurrence as long as he's healthy. Bad — Pedro Alvarez scored 11 points with days of 0, -1, 0, 11, 0 and 1. Ugly — Yasiel Puig started the week injured, then got benched for showing up late, then got hurt. We hope Jon is ready for adventure.
7. Tanana in the Tailpipe (168 points, 0-1): Good — Mark Trumbo has 5 homers and scored 29 points for the Tailpipers. Bad — Starlin Castro's rebound season isn't looking like much of one yet, as the shortstop scored only 5 points. Ugly — Homer Bailey, Bryce Harper and Travis d'Arnaud each scored 1 point, and the d'Arnaud experiment might not last long for Matt. Get Jeff Mathis' agent on the phone!
8. E-3 (160 points, 0-1): Good — Craig Kimbrel was his usual self, and Johnny Cueto looks like he'll be an ace if he stays healthy. And Ryan Howard wasn't terrible! Bad — The vaunted outfield of Andrew McCutchen, Allen Craig and Curtis Granderson is off to a sluggish start. Ugly — With 6 points this week and 3 errors on the season, Miguel Montero is looking a lot like last year's version. Get Jeff Mathis' agent on the phone!
9. Misfits (153 points, 0-1): Good — Matt Kemp is showing a power stroke, and the Bumgarner-Wacha rotation duo looks like it'll be one of the best in FBLG. Bad — High picks Joey Votto and Hunter Pence combined for only 24 points. Ugly — Daniel Murphy missed time because his wife was having a baby, and he returned to make 3 errors and post a minus-1. That's called a "Billy Hamilton."
10. Rookies (115 points, 0-1): Good — Paul Goldschmidt did his usual thing, powering his way to a 24-point week. Bad — With Ervin Santana being held back and no opening-day pitchers on the roster, Henry got only 3 starts this week. Ugly — The all-Braves outfield combined for a paltry 19 points, and catcher Evan Gattis added only 3.
