Since the Rangers rank in the top eight among among major-league offenses in home runs (second), total bases (second), slugging percentage (second), RBI (fifth) and runs scored (eighth), you would think replacing an injured Josh Hamilton might be as simple as glancing at Texas' depth chart.

You would be wrong (but if you want to waste your time, as I did, here it is).

Hamilton, a second-round pick in many leagues after a monstrous 2008 (.304, 32 homers, 130 RBI, .901 OPS), will miss four to six weeks with a partially torn abdominal muscle. He's played in only 35 games and has been one of fantasy's bigger disappointments with a .240 average, six homers and 24 RBI.

His extended absence will mean more time for David Murphy and Andruw Jones, but not enough to warrant fantasy consideration.

With Hamilton out, Murphy has been starting against right-handers. He batted .275 with 15 homers and 74 RBI as a rookie last season, but he hasn't lived up to that billing in 2009 (.259, two homers, 12 RBI). He has improved this month (.368 and two RBI), but you'd have to really need outfield help to consider him.

And you'd have to be playing in a 16-team AL-only league to consider Jones, who has decent numbers (.269, five homers, 15 RBI in 92 at-bats), but usually only starts against lefties and has only seven at-bats in June.

The playing time of the Rangers' starting center fielder (Marlon Byrd) and right fielder (Nelson Cruz) shouldn't be affected much by Hamilton being on the DL. The impressive Cruz (.291, 17 homers, 42 RBI, nine steals) is a fantasy starter, and Byrd (.299, four homers, 26 RBI, two steals) is useful strictly in AL-only leagues. Even then, he's only going to help you in batting average and possibly RBI.

If you own Hamilton and need outfield depth, the four who follow are all owned in fewer than 50 percent of the leagues on ESPN.com (ranked in order of projected effectiveness the rest of the season): 1. Jose Guillen, Royals (.255, six homers, 25 RBI, 9.5 percent ownership); 2. Jason Kubel, Twins (.304, seven homers, 31 RBI, 45.1 percent); 3. Melky Cabrera, Yankees (.304, six homers, 23 RBI, four steals, 25.9 percent); 4. Aaron Rowand, Giants (.309, six homers, 27 RBI, four steals, 22.5 percent).

Looming ...

-- John Smoltz will make his fifth (and last) minor-league rehabilitation start for the Red Sox on Thursday. Smoltz, who is coming back from 2008 shoulder surgery, is 42 and hasn't pitched in the big leagues in more than a year.

Then there's this: Smoltz has the following career numbers: 210 wins, a 3.26 ERA and 3,011 strikeouts in 3,395 innings. He was also effective before the injury ended his 2008 season in Atlanta (3-2, 2.57 ERA, 36 strikeouts in 28 innings).

Clearly, the latter paragraph is beating out the concerns from the prior graph. When Smoltz is ready to join Boston's starting rotation (warning: scoop to follow), someone has to go, and that pitcher could be Brad Penny, who's won five games.

If Smoltz is available and you play in a 10- or 12-team league, he's worth a look. Don't expect huge results -- WEEI reported Monday that the Red Sox might occasionally skip his starts to keep him healthy -- but if he gets the call twice in a week, he should be an effective play.

Penny, who is owned in 12.2 percent of ESPN leagues, has too high of an ERA (5.85) and too few strikeouts (39 in 60 innings) to be a regular fantasy starter. He is an asset, however, and a return to the National League likely would boost the fantasy value of the 31-year-old who won 16 games with the Dodgers in both 2006 and '07.

If Boston doesn't trade Penny, there's a chance Tim Wakefield (7-3, 4.50 ERA) could be moved to the bullpen, which would wreck his fantasy status faster than you can say "Spencer Pratt."

Penny or Wakefield would have to be the odd man out when Smoltz returns, since Josh Beckett and Jon Lester certainly aren't going anywhere, and Daisuke Matsuzaka's hefty contract does for him what his results do not (1-4, 7.33 ERA).

-- Brandon Webb, who has started all of one game since he was selected as one of the top two or three pitchers in almost every draft, is targeting Friday for his first throwing session on the mound. Webb expects to return from a shoulder injury before the All-Star break, which would mean you wouldn't get Arizona's ace back in your lineup until about Week 15 (July 6-12).

Webb's ownership percentage in ESPN leagues is 98.8, meaning some guys and gals out there are getting sick of holding his roster spot. If someone in your league is so foolish, take the gift and hope you get a pitcher who at least slightly resembles the player who won a combined 40 games and struck out 377 batters the previous two seasons.

Not so fast

Matt Wieters' big-league debut was hyped as the catcher's version of a young Alex Rodriguez or Ken Griffey Jr. with the Mariners.

Thus far, the Oriole has more closely resembled Kelly Shoppach. Wieters is 4-for-28 with zero RBI in eight games.

That will change. Wieters, after all, became one of MLB's top prospects because he tore up the minor leagues (.343, 32 homers, 121 RBI, 67 extra-base hits and a 1.014 OPS in 578 at-bats), and he eventually will hit in the majors.

Already, he's owned in 84.2 percent of the ESPN leagues -- a surprisingly high number when you consider Jim Thome is owned in only 81.1 and Todd Helton 74.6 -- which means he's probably starting in most leagues.

I wouldn't make that move in mixed leagues. Until Wieters has a good week, I'd play someone else -- unless your alternative is Shoppach.

Tomorrow, we'll be back with a Pick Three for the week, and Saturday we'll break down what's sure to be a very difficult decision in football drafts late this summer: Who should be drafted No. 2, after Adrian Peterson? That story will be published in print editions and on the N-H's online sports section.

Until then, good luck and remember it's OK to hope Joe Buck's new HBO show fails.

If you drafted Cliff Lee, you have issues. But it could be worse: You, like me, could have drafted Lee, Roy Oswalt and Francisco Liriano on the same team.

Let's take a spin around the horn with some news and notes from the first week of the season.

It's time to start worrying about Lee. The frustrating part is we can't do anything but bench him (his trade value couldn't be lower). It's way too soon to panic, but if your starting rotation is deep, I would consider sitting Lee next week, when he'll likely face CC Sabathia and the Yankees in the debut of their new stadium on Thursday.

Lee is 0-2 with a 9.90 ERA in his first two starts. Worse, he's allowed 17 hits (good for an opponents' batting average of .423) and walked five. His 2.20 WHIP is almost double his 2008 norm of 1.11.

More troubling stats: Lee didn't allow 11 runs in a two-game span all last season (it took him a week to accomplish the feat this April), he is coming off a terrible spring that has carried over to the regular season, and he didn't exactly close 2008 on the best of terms (Lee was 1-1 with a 4.98 ERA and 30 hits allowed in 21 2/3 innings in his final three starts).

Again, we have to wait this out. But you could say I'm not as optimistic about the Indians lefty as I was a week ago.

Keep Brandon Webb in your lineup. Yes, he was terrible in his first start (six runs allowed in four innings) Monday. Yes, he has a sore shoulder. But Webb expects to make his next start Friday at San Francisco, and an MRI of the shoulder concluded the problem is muscular, not structural, which is encouraging.

If you have a deep rotation and can afford to sit Webb, go for it. If you don't have much of a bench, keep him in your lineup.

Give Pronk a look. Tribe designated hitter Travis Hafner has two home runs and four RBI in four games. Pronk is batting .313 and seems to have some pop back in his bat after an injury-ruined 2008. Considering he had five homers in 198 at-bats last season, his early power surge would be enough for me to at least hope he was reverting to past form and insert him into my Week 2 lineup. The Indians play seven games next week, and three are against the Royals.

Free-agent fliers of the week: Marco Scutaro and Hank Blalock. The former is a one-time Tribe minor-leaguer who has never hit more than nine homers or driven in 61 runs. The latter is a former All-Star who has gone the way of Pronk the last two seasons.

Of the two, I would target Blalock first. The Rangers' designated hitter is eligible at both first and third base in ESPN leagues, and he's hit two homers and driven in five runs in his first 14 at-bats this season. Blalock was limited to 208 and 258 at-bats in 2007 and 2008, respectively, but he did total 22 homers and 71 RBI in the limited duty.

Blalock is only 28, and his numbers from 2003-05 (a combined 86 homers and 292 RBI, including a 32-homer, 110-RBI 2004 season) might at least fool us into believing he can mash again. He's owned in just 31 percent of the leagues on ESPN.com, but he's worthy of a starting spot in deeper leagues.

Scutaro, meanwhile, is an intriguing choice strictly because of his versatility (he's eligible at second base, shortstop and third base in ESPN leagues) and his surprising start. The 33-year-old is a career .263 hitter who has never reached double figures in homers, has only 21 stolen bases in 702 career games and tallied a career-high 60 RBI with the Blue Jays last season.

Call me optimist, but Scutaro's production (nine runs scored, two homers and five RBI in six games) is at least worth a look. In deeper leagues in which you need help in the middle of the infield, put in a waiver claim.

The opening day of the baseball season brings with it a special feeling. It's a sign of spring, a reminder that sunshine will be here soon enough (except here), and it's so soon in the season the Washington Nationals have a chance and we've yet to be annoyed by Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

It's also the beginning of a less-than-cheery ritual -- fantasy owners panicking because of one bad day by their ace. Or, in the case of Monday, one very bad day by seven aces (OK, six if you deduct Justin Verlander).

Verlander, Roy Oswalt, Cliff Lee, CC Sabathia, Brandon Webb, Francisco Liriano and Jake Peavy combined to go 0-6 with an 8.76 ERA on Monday. The only one to get a no-decision was Webb, who allowed six runs on six hits, lasted only four innings and complained of shoulder stiffness after the game. Other than that, it was a great day.

The seven pitchers threw only 38 innings, with just Oswalt, Liriano and Peavy lasting more than five innings. The only ones who were halfway decent were Oswalt (three runs in seven innings), Liriano (four runs on four hits in seven) and Peavy (four runs on seven hits in seven). Lee, Sabathia, Webb and Verlander allowed a combined 27 runs in 17 innings.

Before you contemplate trading one of the seven, consider the following:

-- Last season, Liriano was 0-3 with an 11.32 ERA in April, was banished to the minor leagues until August, then finished the season by winning six of seven decisions and compiling a 2.74 ERA in his last 11 starts.

-- Sabathia was 1-4 with a 7.76 ERA with the Tribe in April 2008, then won 16 of his last 22 decisions. After the All-Star break, the big lefty was 9-2 with a 1.56 ERA in 15 starts.

-- Oswalt was a combined 4-4 with a 5.48 ERA in April and May last season, then went 13-6 with a 2.54 ERA in the next four months.

Again, it's one game. The only one you should worry about at this point is Verlander, who was awful last season (11-17, 4.84 ERA).

The 2006 and 2007 fantasy standout (a combined 35-15 record) struck out 20 fewer batters last season than he did the year before, despite pitching only two fewer outs. He had only one month with more than two wins in 2008.

Still, he's 26 and you won't be able to get much for him if you were to try and make a deal.

All you can do is -- begin Eric Wedge impersonation -- stay the course. And watch the snow fall.