In my recent travels across the Internets, I have came upon a few articles referencing James McDonald's new slider. If you are unaware of such articles, just do a Google search for "James McDonald slider" and an abundance of articles will pop up. According to the pitchf/x data on James McDonald's FanGraphs page, McDonald is using a slider for the first time in his career -- 17.8% of the time so far in 2012 -- though Baseball Info Solutions' pitch type data says he did use it sparingly in 2011. McDonald currently sits with a 3.51 xFIP after seven starts and his strikeout rate is up to 22.8%, the highest it has been in any year of his career. The utilization of a new pitch, especially one that typically generates a lot of swings and misses, is usually a good enough reason to believe a K% surge could be real or at least sustainable on some level. My only question might sound like a silly one, but has James McDonald really added a slider to his repertoire?

Prior to being hit on the wrist by a 96 mph Lendy Castillo fastball on Friday night, Rickie Weeks wasn't doing much at all at the plate. The circumstances with which he left Friday's game won't please the Brewers, but perhaps a few days off will help the struggling second baseman -- currently hitting .158/.308/.292 -- clear his head. The X-Rays came back clean and the Brewers have not indicated any timetable for Weeks' return, but anything more than a few days would be surprising. When he does return, there are some obvious adjustments he needs to make.

Here is a full schedule of week 6 matchups.

Studs

Clayton Kershaw – Although he isn't facing the easiest opponents, or pitching in the friendliest ballparks, Clayton Kershaw is still Numero Uno on this list. Why? Well, he's Clayton Kershaw and he's making two starts this week. On Monday (5/14), he'll be squaring off against Ian Kennedy of the Diamondbacks in Dodger Stadium. The Diamondbacks are 14th in the majors in both Team Batting Average, and Runs Scored. Then on Saturday (5/19) he'll make another home start against Jake Westbrook and the Cardinals, who are the best hitting team in the National League so far in this young season, sporting a Team BA of .284 with 183 runs scored, both 2nd in baseball. Start him anyway.

Plenty of people had high hopes for Eric Hosmer entering his first full major league season, but after a promising first three games in which he went 4-for-14 with two home runs, he has been one of the coldest hitters in baseball, as his dismal .181/.252/.353 line depicts. The fact that he is young -- just 22 years old -- and that he is entering his second season will naturally invoke the "sophomore slump" labels, but on the other hand, many will be declaring him a buy-low candidate too. While he is, of course, a "buy-low" if you can get him for the price of his current numbers, that doesn't mean his owner will give him away that cheaply. Taking a deeper look into his numbers should help to shed light on whether or not he is a good player to target, or if his struggles, at least to some extent, should be expected to continue.

(Rankings are from this point forward; stats accumulated prior to the publishing of these rankings are for reference only and do not factor into the ranking directly. Rankings are for standard 5x5 leagues using runs, home runs, RBI, stolen bases, batting average, wins, strikeouts, saves, ERA and WHIP)

Up

Taijuan Walker – RHP, Seattle Mariners: Although Dylan Bundy has received most of the early season hype as far as pitching prospects go, one could argue that Walker’s performance thus far is equally impressive, if not more so. While Bundy is dominating Low-A hitters and putting up ridiculous numbers -- 48% K rate, 3.9% BB rate, 3 base runners in 17 innings -- Walker has made the jump from Low-A to AA and hasn’t seen the slightest drop off in performance from his impressive 2011. Through his first 4 starts, Walker has thrown 22 innings, struck out 26 batters, walked 6 and opposing batters are hitting only .203 against him. Not only did Walker bypass High-A, but he’s also the youngest pitcher at the AA level, not turning 20 years old until August. In fact, Walker is only 3 months older than Dylan Bundy, which should really put his season into perspective. Additionally, compared to Bundy, Walker is routinely facing roughly twice as many batters per start because of the innings limit mandated by the Orioles. With the graduation of Matt Moore the title of top pitching prospect is up for grabs and Walker belongs firmly implanted in that conversation.

After yet another dominant start last night in which he tossed 7.2 innings of one run ball against the Reds, Jeff Samardzija continues to look like the real deal. He struck out 7 and garnered 16 swinging strikes, bringing his ERA down to a respectable 3.41 in the process. With an unfortunate 4.12 ERA entering last night's game, many fantasy owners were hesitant to add the newly promoted starter -- as evidenced by his 18.7% ownership rate in ESPN leagues. Most owners grab hold of any two and three-start overachievers in the early going in the ill-guided hopes that they will be this year's breakout performer, but since Samardzija's ascent has been disguised by ordinary ratios, he has been left untouched in an overwhelming majority of leagues.

When a player that has a career 33.3% strikeout rate adds some swing and miss to his game, it is obviously concerning. Unfortunately Mark Reynolds, he appears to be doing just that. Reynolds had always sacrificed contact for power, resulting in slightly above average offensive production at third base. So far in 2012 Reynolds has again sacrificed contact, this time to a more extreme extent, but the reward of power has yet to arrive. It has reached a point where Reynolds is being benched in favor of Wilson Betemit and his 3.3 wins above replacement since 2004. Though Betemit certainly isn't an answer for the Orioles and Reynolds will likely be given ample opportunities to earn everyday at bats again, should we, as fantasy owners, wait around for a bounce back -- or buy-low via trade for that matter -- or is Reynolds dismissible at this point?

Just a couple weeks prior to the beginning of the season there was an uncertainty to whether Yoenis Cespedes would begin the year in the minors or in Oakland. Cespedes hadn't seen much live pitching since the end of the 2010-2011 Cuban season and many thought he would need a bit of seasoning in the minors to sharpen his timing. This wasn't the case, though. Cespedes joined the Athletics during their Japan series against Seattle in late March to begin the 2012 year. Being that he had never faced major league quality pitching, scouts thought there could be an adjustment period as he learns how to deal with major league pitching, and in particular, lay off big league quality breaking balls.

Brandon Morrow took to the mound Saturday afternoon sporting a 3.71 ERA and a dismal 4.05 K/9. His struggles may or may not have been well documented, but he was fortunate, to say the least, to be sitting with a sub-4.00 ERA. His inability to miss bats was evolving from something to keep an eye on into a legitimate concern. Often times over a small sample of games or innings a pitcher can be simply unlucky with strikeouts. Maybe a call or two goes the wrong way, or due to the timing of swing and misses, a pitcher misses bats, but not in the right counts to rack up the Ks. This was simply not the case with Morrow; his low K/9 was pretty valid. Caveats certainly apply, as the Mariners, his opposition on Saturday, are hardly terrifying offensively -- an unsurprising 83 wRC+ thus far does well to illustrate this point -- and one game just doesn't provide a ton of predictive value either.