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.

Talkin' trades

I get asked what I think about fantasy trades all the time. I always have to start my answer with the same preface: "Well, without knowing your whole roster or your team needs, here's what I think ...."

That being said, my pal Sean asked me today what I thought of this deal: Ryan Braun and Troy Tulowitzki for Hanley Ramirez. My response was this: If you can spare the steals, do it in a heartbeat.

Turns out he'd be the guy giving up Braun and Tulo, so it was a no-go. But if I was the guy dealing Hanley, I'd be all over it. Sure, he's a beast at shortstop, and you'd be parting with a huge pile of stolen bases in the deal. But even if Ramirez hit 40 homers this year, you're looking at a minimum of 60 from the other two guys. Tulowitzki's probably a bit undervalued, but with him recovering nicely from last year's injury-plagued season, I can foresee him returning to his 2007 form - which would make him a top-5 fantasy shortstop, just a peg below the elite guys like Ramirez and Jose Reyes. Then add in the hefty average and minimum of 30 homers you're bound to get from Braun, and the deal's a winner.

Anyway, I pulled off a deal of my own the other day: I shipped Bobby Abreu for Scott Kazmir. I had a serious lack of pitching with Brandon Webb on the DL and Francisco Liriano and Max Scherzer not meeting my expectations. I was in a pretty good place with stolen bases and have a decent crop of outfielders (Alex Rios, Jason Bay, Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron), so I decided to part with Abreu. With eight steals already I figure he's probably already coming up on a third of his season total (30-25-22 the past three years); he's hitting .375 and hasn't topped .300 in a season since 2004; and he hasn't hit a homer yet, which is a little disconcerting. I belive Abreu will have a fine season, just not THAT fine a season at age 35.

I've always been a Kazmir fan, and while he does have his flaws (way too many pitches per start), he's another guy who's a bit undervalued because of some slight injury problems last year. If Kaz can stay healthy for 35 starts, the potential's there for a sub-4.00 ERA, 200 Ks and 15 W's. And that's exactly what my team could use.