Rafael Soriano to the DL, Randy Johnson off the DL: FANTASY IMPACT

Soriano to the DL

The Atlanta Braves placed closer Rafael Soriano on the DL on Wednesday, with a sore elbow. Soriano and the Braves want to nip this thing early before it becomes a big deal later on. The fact that he has been battling this essentially since the start of spring training is a bit disconcerting.

FANTASY IMPACT

I have predicted DL stint for Soriano at some point this season, so this comes as no surprise. Hopefully you Soriano owners took my advice and handcuffed him with Peter Moylan, who will probably be the first option out of the pen to collect saves. Another potential name to collect saves could be Manny Acosta, but we think Moylan is the safer bet.

Unit Back

ESPNNEWS is reporting tha Diamondbacks starter and future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson will return from the DL on Monday April, 14 against the San Francisco Giants.

FANTASY IMPACT

Unit will go from pitching in AAA to pitching in AAAA when he faces the Giants. This helps Johnson and really takes the pressure off of him to be perfect with his pitches against his Monday opponent. Most of the Giants roster are either retreads or over matched rookies. That being said, you might want to wait before automatically reinserting him into your starting lineup to see how he fends. For those of you out there who are a little braver go ahead and throw him back out there. But remember this isn't the Randy Johnson of old. The Unit is old and shriveled. He no longer has dominant stuff so don't expect 7ip with 10K and 1ER. Something along the lines of 6ip, with 4Ks and 3ER is probably a bit more realistic.