Depth Chart

It is not clear at this time how long he is expected to be out. Walden has a 4.85 ERA in 13 innings of work in his first season in Atlanta. 

Francisco has hit .258/.298/.438 in 98 plate appearances this year after closing out April with a .297/.328/.500 line. He could lose playing time if he continues to struggle, as the Braves have a capable backup third baseman in Chris Johnson.

Freeman upped his season line to .295/.362/.419 with two homers and 22 RBI in 116 plate appearances.

So far, Hudson's main issue has been pitching out of jams with runners in scoring position; batters are hitting .385 against him with runners on second or third, compared to just .249 otherwise. As a result, 35.1 percent of all base runners have come around to score on him, a career-high rate. Entering the season, Hudson has allowed just 26.2 percent of base runners to come around and score on him in his career, so that is the biggest reason for his struggles.

Hudson is still racking up groundballs at a high rate, though he does have an abnormally high 13.6 home run per fly ball percentage. It is a bit of a generalization, but strand rate and home run per fly ball rate are based, at least partially, on chance, so Hudson could easily see those numbers turn around.

Hudson stands a pretty solid chance of turning his season around moving forward, so I wouldn't give up on him just yet. 

Upton lowered his season line to .145/.242/.244 with 49 strikeouts in 150 plate appearances this season. He's in the first year of a five-year, $75.25-million deal signed this past offseason.

The list of players who have successfully come back from two Tommy John surgeries is not encouraging, and Venters will face a tough road back to the majors. Joakim Soria has yet to return from his second Tommy John surgery. Brian Wilson is looking for a team. The only pitcher to return effectively from two Tommy John surgeries is Chris Capuano.

The timetable after Tommy John surgery is typically at least a year after surgery. It could take longer since it's the second time he's undergone the procedure. 

What's worse is he just looked uncomfortable at the plate, and as we saw in 2011, when his mechanics get out of whack, they're not so easy to fix.

Hopefully, the time away gave him a chance to study film and get his swing right. If he looks halfway decent over the weekend, you'll want to get him active in Fantasy Week 8 (May 20-26). Right now, the Braves are projected to face nothing but right-handers, and they're some of the more hittable pitchers in the Twins and Mets rotations.

Despite Simmons' modest hitting streak, he's batting .132 (5 for 38) in his last nine games since producing a season-high four hits May 8. His batting average has gone from .276 to .240.

Gattis said Upton's advice was to avoid cutters that appeared to be bound for the middle of the plate because they would break off the plate. Gattis said Upton's instruction was to wait on a pitch "starting at you, or it looks like it's starting at you. That's going to be the one that you want."

"I remembered (Upton) said something about (Jansen) in the advance meeting, so I wanted to go to him to see what I could get," Gattis said. "Whatever I could get in an at-bat like that was going to help."

Gattis is batting .250 (10 for 40) with two home runs, four doubles and six RBI in 13 May games (10 starts).

Our Scott White pointed out on Wednesday’s broadcast of Fantasy Baseball Today that while Teheran isn’t exactly racking up the Ks, he has only allowed one walk in those last four starts. Al Melchior said he might pick him up in a two-start week, but added that there isn’t much distinguishing Teheran from other options at SP.