Mat Gamel, short term fantasy rental

[admin]

No, these Mat Gamel call-ups aren't quite as exciting as they used to be. But they still happen, and the player is still worthy of discussion. The Brewers have promoted Gamel in advance of interleague match-ups at New York and Minnesota, with the DH in play. He's a reasonable short-term power option for the deep league crowd ... or at least I hope he is, because he's now a member of two of my fake squads.

The soon-to-be 26-year-old Gamel is having a nice enough year at Triple-A Nashville, hitting .321/.380/.577 with 21 doubles and 18 home runs. He's cleared the fence in four of his last five games, too, going 8-for-19 with 10 RBIs. Gamel hasn't had much success against lefties this year (.225/.296/.382), so you can exclude him from your Thursday and Friday plans (Sabathia, Liriano). Just consider him for spot-start duty against the four right-handers coming up on Milwaukee's schedule (Garcia, Burnett, Pavano, Blackburn).

Gamel has transitioned to first base this season, in anticipation of a Fielder-less Brewers lineup in 2012, but he still retains his 3B eligibility in Yahoo! leagues. Take advantage where you can, kick him to the curb whenever he's returned to the minors. Simple enough. And let's just hope this year's cameo goes better than prior cameos.

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