Los Angeles Dodgers

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports Anyone that has seen Los Angeles Dodgers SP Zack Greinke pitch recently can plainly see that the hurler is throwing hurt. He is grimacing after almost every throw and has pitched miserably ever since coming off the disabled list last month. Fantasy baseball owners were counting on Greinke to be an ace upon his return, but he has since become just another mid-level starter. Greinke was originally placed on the DL on April 11th. Greinke pegged San Diego Padres OF Carlos Quentin will the ball during a game and due to their history, Quentin charged the mound. Greinke broke his collarbone in the altercation and it was one of the most devastating injuries during the early part of the fantasy season. Well, since his return from the shelf, the right-hander has been unable to get into a groove. In his last six games, Greinke has seen his ERA jump from 1.62 all the way up to 4.22. He has allowed 20 earned runs over that span and seems to always have the bases full. Recovering from a broken collarbone is an extremely painful injury, especially for a starting pitcher. The shoulder is constantly grinding on the bone and it leaves a permanent knot over the collarbone. Needless to say, it is something that isn’t going away and will bug him every time he throws the ball. It may only be a matter of time until Greinke lands back the DL with shoulder inflammation or shoulder soreness. He doesn’t appear ready to carry the load for the remainder of the season, so fantasy owners shouldn’t put too much faith in the 2009 AL Cy Young Winner. Adam McGill is the Senior Fantasy Sports Writer at Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @adammcgill83, like him on Facebook, or add him to you networks on Google here or here.

Remember that great post we ran on Monday, regarding a long-time Sons of Steve Garvey reader whose fifth-grade son, and ardent Dodger fan, did both his mom and dad but ALL Dodger fans proud at his graduation ceremony? Well, others caught it, too. Late yesterday, Yahoo! Sports' Big League Stew (who usually is pretty good at crediting and collaborating, but not this time) caught wind: The speech shows a lot of character for young Casey. He's not afraid to express against-the-grain opinions and possibly be mocked by his peers. He'll go places with a headstrong attitude like that. Who knows, he might grow up to be the next Skip Bayless. Shoot, don't insult the kid, "Mike Oz". Anyway, moving on. Deadspin picked it up this morning: We don't have much background info to go with this video, but it looks like young Casey was asked to share his favorite memory from the past year during his fifth-grade graduation ceremony. Casey flips the script, though, and chooses to talk about his least-favorite memory: the day the Giants won the World Series. Casey talks about how he went to school the next day in his Dodgers gear, and endured an entire class of fifth-grade Giants fans chanting "Beat L.A.!" at him. The kid's a true fan. And guess who was just called by the Dodgers to throw out the first pitch at Tuesday night's game? Against the Giants, no less? You guessed it. Go get 'em, Casey! We want to see a strike right through all the hearts of those Giants bandwagon jumpers. Here's the video again, for those who missed it:

The Dodgers and Yankees were rained out on Tuesday in New York, which affects not only Wednesday (a day-night doubleheader) but Sunday as well, when the Dodgers will need another starter.

via @Dodgers Mercifully, this game got called off quickly, rather than making everyone — like me! — sit through an interminable delay. Tonight’s Hyun-jin Ryu vs Phil Hughes matchup will be made up as part of a day-night double header at 1pm ET tomorrow (sort of, since Hiroki Kuroda will now pitch the day game) and that presents a few problems for the Dodgers. No one needed a third day off in six days, and now they have to play three games on two coasts in something like 36 hours, considering they head to San Diego on Thursday night. Have fun with that, bullpen. So there’s that, and also the issue that they’ll now need a starter in San Diego on Sunday, since you wouldn’t want either Ryu or Chris Capuano, starting the nightcap, on three days rest. Is that Matt Magill? Maybe, but he’s been awful. Is it Zach Lee? I tend to doubt it, but he is scheduled to go for Chattanooga tomorrow, so we’ll be sure to all panic when he inevitably gets scratched only to protect him while Magill gets the ball instead.

The Dodgers and Yankees are playing in New York for the first time since 1981, but the two teams have faced off twice in Los Angeles during interleague play.

The Yankees placed their first baseman on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday and announced their third baseman would be out 10-12 weeks after back surgery.

After visiting the MLB Fan Cave yesterday, {linked here} Yasiel Puig attended the 10-year anniversary of Jay-Z's 40/40 Club. And he's on Twitter! Follow him. @YasielPuig I'm there too. Follow me. @rbaly79 Looking good Yasiel. Puig and CC Sabathia Puig and Jay-Z Puig and Robinson Cano.

Since the Dodgers are in an American League park today, the designated hitter is in play, and they’ve taken the bonus of not having the pitcher hit — sort of, since Hyun-jin Ryu has shown to be pretty adept at the plate — by taking the weakest hitter in the lineup out of the ninth spot and putting him first. Over the last month, Nick Punto is hitting .207/.270/.244 as that BABIP continues to fall, as we all knew it would… so of course you’d want him setting the table for Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez, & Andre Ethier. That is somewhat brushing aside the point that Ramirez is even in the lineup, which is far from a given these days, though I must admit I’m more than a little surprised to see that he is playing short rather than taking advantage of the designated hitter, given how gimpy Ramirez is these days and the fact that he’s not much of a shortstop even when he’s healthy. Rather than have Punto play short, he’s at third with Jerry Hairston playing DH. Any combination that ends without Luis Cruz on the field is fine by me, I suppose. Dodgers Yankees 3B Punto CF Gardner RF Puig SS Nix 1B Gonzalez 2B Cano SS Ramirez LF Wells CF Ethier DH Neal DH Hairston RF Suzuki LF Schumaker 3B Adams C A.Ellis 1B Overbay 2B M.Ellis C Stewart On the other side, the injury problems aren’t over for the Yankees, who returned first baseman Mark Teixeira to the disabled list and recalled someone named Zoilo Almonte, who is apparently not a 1960s Minnesota Twins shortstop. Kevin Youkilis is probably finished as a Yankee thanks to the back surgery that was announced today, and.. well, I’m pretty sure that their DH, hitting fifth, is literally named “Neal”. By that I mean, they may very well have just grabbed some guy named Neal off the Columbia varsity team and suited him up. This entire conversation may be academic, anyway, because the weather forecast for the New York area looks pretty atrocious right now and batting practice has already been canceled. I’m not ready to discuss what happens if it gets rained out — I’m headed up to the Bronx tonight to sit behind home plate, by which I mean “seven miles above home plate,” so fingers crossed — but this does seem as good a time as any to point out once again how unbelievably stupid it is to have had off-days on either side of the Pittsburgh series, yet no day off between a mere two-game set in New York and a game in San Diego on Thursday. Because hey, why would you want to have one of the most anticipated interleague series of the year on anything other than a two-game midweek schedule? Tues 6/11Wed 6/12Thurs 6/13Fri 6/15Sat 6/15Sun 6/16Mon 6/17 RR. Belisario26-14- RM. Guerrier10-425- LJ.P. Howell814-25- RK. Jansen1011-16- RB. League15-16- RP. Moylan-23- LP. Rodriguez18-144- RC. Withrow25-19-

Ramirez has started four of 12 games since returning from the disabled list, not including Tuesday night, and is 3-for-20 (.150) during that span.

Hyun-Jin Ryu (6-2, 2.85) vs. Phil Hughes (3-5, 4.89). All of the pre-game talk has been about Don Mattingly returning to Yankee Stadium, the setting (if not the actual stadium anymore) of his 14-year player career. But the reason why that narrative has dominated the story has a lot to do with the Dodgers' last-place insignificance, or maybe even that some fans might want to leave Donnie Baseball in the Bronx following this crazy series: "Donnie is one of the greatest Yankees that has ever played and one of the greatest teammates that has ever put on that uniform," [Yankee manager Joe] Girardi told reporters in Anaheim. "I know that I've always loved him and appreciated what he's done, and the fans have seen a lot more than I have. I think it will be a great day for him." With the Dodgers in last place [Ed: where we have sat since May 5], Mattingly hasn't had many great days this season. The low point came last month, when he was hit with the first major media firestorm of his managerial career. There was rampant speculation that he would be fired. "Fairly rough," Mattingly acknowledged. Well, let's see if things can get any easier for Donnie and the Dodgers today, after a day of rest preceding this two-game series. Ryu has given up two runs or fewer in nine of this 13 starts, but had a bad outing last time vs. Arizona (11 H, 3 ER, 6.0 IP). However, Ryu leads the team in wins (with six; I know, how pathetic!) and is second only to Clayton Kershaw in starter ERA. Hughes went 4.1 IP in his last start vs. Oakland, giving up 4 H and 3 ER in the loss. His ERA has hovered around 5 all season long (which is not all that far off from his career ERA average of 4.44; Hughes hasn't had a positive ERA+ since going 18-8 in 2010). Speaking of which, do you remember Hughes Markets? There used to be one right where I grew up. Anyway, I hope we can bag Hughes today. Get it? Oh man, that might be the only laugh I get from this game. Dodgers tickets