Friday, May 22, 2009

Welcome Mat Gamel

It's interleague time, which means a bunch of lineup shakeups. Some NL teams will be using a DH this weekend in American League parks. How can we, as fantasy players, take advantage? Here's one way: Pick up Mat Gamel.

Gamel is a Milwaukee Brewers rookie who's so cool, he only needs one T in his name. He's also one of the game's top prospects, a superb young left-handed hitter who led the Double-A Southern League last year in RBIs, total bases and extra base hits and was second in average.

It seems like his only flaw is he's not very handy with a glove, but don't let that scare you off. The Brewers will likely use him as a DH a bit in this weekend's series at Minnesota and then continue trying to find him at-bats as he shares some time at third with Bill Hall. Gamel had already blasted eight homers and was batting .336 in Triple-A this year before last week's call-up, and he hit his first major league homer in his first career start Monday against St. Louis.

Gamel's got an opportunity to really shine this weekend, and then again next month on the road against Cleveland and Detroit. Add the kid and give him a shot in those games. If he fails, he goes back to the minors until next season; if he lives up to expectations, he'll stick around the rest of the year, and you just grabbed yourself the next Ryan Braun.

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