MLB Picks for Friday

 C- Rod Barajas PIT- Barajas should get the start tonight as he caught yesterday, but was off the day before. Tonight they are playing a night game, and we think his matchup versus Maholm is a good one. He has hits in 9 of his last 10 games, and is hitting .389 in the last two weeks.

1B- Albert Pujols LAA- Pujols' matchup tonight against King Felix doesn't scare us one bit. He has been hitting a lot better (.288 with 5 HRs in last two weeks), and Felix has not been pitching like himself (5.67 ERA in last two weeks).

2B- Robinson Cano NYY- After a slow start, Cano is really coming around in May. He is hitting over .300 in the last two weeks with 3 home runs. He is facing Bartolo Colon tonight that was hot to start the season, probably due to his starts versus the Mariners, and has cooled off as of late.

3B- Aramis Ramirez MIL- Aram is a part of a matchup tonight that we don't like at all for Wade Miley, the Diamondbacks starter tonight. He is facing a lefty and the three best hitters on the Brew Crew are righties (Hart, Aram, Braun). Ramirez has been hitting .280 in the last two weeks with only 1 home run.

SS- Ian Desmond WAS- Desmond has been hitting very well lately hitting to a tune of .322 with 4 HRs and double digits RBI and runs scored. He is facing a lefty in Minor that has struggled mightily in the last two weeks with an ERA of 10. We like him to continue to struggle against this Nationals offense.

OF- Melky Cabrera SF- Cabrera put up big time fantasy points the other night, and we like him to do it again right handed. His batting average over the last two weeks is .460 with 13 RBI and 15 runs scored. Those are just ridiculous numbers.

OF- Quintin Berry DET- Berry is hitting at the top of the order for the Tigers. They put up 10 runs last night against the Twins and we are expecting another high scoring game for them. Expect Berry to score 1 to 2 times tonight.

OF- Nelson Cruz TEX- Amazingly Cruz is only 5K tonight as he is coming off an 8 RBI game last night. He is a MUST PICK tonight as he is facing Alvarez the righty from the Blue Jays. In the last two weeks he is hitting .340.

SP- Derek Lowe CLE- Lowe is a solid pick for us today at the SP position. He is priced at under 10K and is facing a White Sox team that hasn't consistently been a great hitting team. They hit well yesterday, but we think Lowe's 1.20 ERA over the last two weeks will prove to be more true than a great job of hitting by the White Sox last night.

SP- Jaime Garcia STL- We can almost guarantee a large percentage of ownership with this pick. Last time he had 70% ownership in a 10 team league and performed well. He has 21Ks in the last 19.3 innings which are some great K numbers. His matchup against the Phillies is also favorable for him.

RP- Jason Motte STL- Motte is the obvious choice if you like the Cardinals to win. We don't expect Garcia to be perfect, so 2 runs over 7 innings isn't unlikely. Kendrick, for Philly, has pitched pretty well in the last two weeks (2.08 ERA), so we aren't seeing more than 5 runs scored for the Cardinals.