The Lineup is here to dish out fantasy insight on all things baseball. Here are five storylines you should be following this week:

After beginning the season with seventeen shutout innings and 18 strikeouts in his first two games, Seattle Mariners stating pitcher Felix Hernandez was looking like an early favorite to battle Minnesota Twins starter Johan Santana for the AL Cy Young Award. But after suffering a strained muscle in his left elbow in just his third game of the season, fantasy owners everywhere held their collective breath. The 20-year-old ace seems to be doing alright now as MLB.com is revealing that Hernandez, "is penciled in to start the middle game of a three-game series against the Tigers on May 9." King Felix was originally supposed to come off the DL this past Friday against the New York Yankees, but the Mariners are taking no chances with their young superstar and are therefore giving him the extra few days of rest. Hernandez owners are having a hard time deciding what to do with the guy. Do you trade away a potential Cy Young winner and strikeout champ hoping to not get stuck with a season-ending injury or surgery? Or do you hold out hope that Hernandez comes back strong as before and leads your team to a fantasy championship? At this point, both possibilities seem to have even odds. See how Hernandez holds up this week against Detroit.

Those of you in the fantasy baseball world that took Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard early in the first round of your draft are probably kicking yourselves right now (particularly if you passed on New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez). But have no fear, San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds has come to Howard's rescue. According to The Philly News, "Bonds took Ryan Howard aside during the Giants' batting practice, while the Phillies prepared to stretch, and chatted about Howard's early-season struggles." All jokes aside, Bonds is tearing up the league right now and is a hitting legend, so it is not like his advice is going to hurt. But even without Barry's pearls of wisdom, fantasy owners should not be too worried about Howard's bat. Statistically, Howard is getting better as the season progresses. His career pre-All Star break average is just .261. After the All-Star festivities, Howard has hit at a stout .324 clip. Don't even think about benching the power-slugger this week; the bat will come around.

Just when it looked like Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Brett Myers had nothing left for his owners to look forward to, a key injury has just breathed new life into Myers' fantasy value. Current Phillies closer Tom Gordon has gone down with a shoulder injury and Myers will now take over ninth inning duties. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that, "Myers said he feels great in the bullpen, so he is confident he can handle the pressure and the workload [of being the closer]." The Lineup had just gone off on Myers just two weeks ago, declaring that the former starter had little fantasy value for 2007 as Gordon was firmly entrenched in the role. In fact, just last week manager Charlie Manuel had given Gordon the vote of confidence to remain the team's closer amid reports that Myers may take over the role. Of course, neither The Lineup nor Manuel had factored in a troublesome shoulder problem into consideration. At any rate, Myers has now earned the right to be on fantasy rosters everywhere as he has been stellar in the bullpen.

The Atlanta Braves are a shrewd bunch. They recognized their bullpen in 2006 was a major weakness, so they went out and acquired relievers. However, they didn't just go out and get arms, they went and acquired two exceptional players who could easily close for a number of Major League clubs in lefty Mike Gonzalez and righty Rafael Soriano. Now that incumbent closer Bob Wickman has gone down with a bad back, MLB.com is reporting that, "While Wickman is out, Braves manager Bobby Cox says that he'll use both Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez in the closer's role." This makes sense as Soriano and Gonzalez both have the makeup to pitch in the ninth. Fantasy owners everywhere should have already tried to land both of these players. Soriano may have a slight edge since he's been the most impressive of the two so far this season — you can attribute that to the elbow issues Gonzalez was having earlier in the year. Whoever ends up getting the lion's share of saves should have considerable fantasy value as the Braves are playing very well this season.

To say the 2006 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals stumbled out of the gate in April would be an understatement. The Cards have been downright terrible thus far in 2007, but they may be able to turn a corner this coming week with favorable matchups against the lowly Colorado Rockies at home and on the road versus the San Diego Padres — whom they ran over in the playoffs last year. Outfielder Jim Edmonds should be a nice start against the Padres. He has a career .345 average against them along with 13 HRs and 42 RBI in 50 games. Similarly, shortstop David Eckstein is a great start at San Diego as he hit a robust .417 against the Padres last season. First baseman Albert Pujols is a no-brainer must-start as is starting pitcher Chris Carpenter. It is still unclear if Carpenter will return this week, but if he does, fantasy owners should have no reservations about starting the gifted ace. It should be interesting to see if St. Louis can step it up this week and get on track.