FanHouse Aaron Harang

Two good things happened to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates and emerged from their one-day stay in last place in the NL Central. That coincided with Scott Rolen's return from the disabled list. Unfortunately with the Reds, their two pieces of good news were balanced with two more players hitting the disabled list. Aaron Harang will miss the rest of 2009 after an appendectomy on Saturday night and Chris Dickerson badly sprained his ankle during a pick-off attempt during Sunday's game.

The list of Reds' injuries this year is staggering. John Fay at the Cincy Enquirer has a good run down of all of them; every opening day starter except Brandon Phillips has spent time on the DL while Harang joins Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto there, making up 3/5ths of their opening day starting rotation. It's an incredible run of bad luck that's certainly part of the reason the Reds are battling the Pirates for last place. I also think it's creating an easy excuse for a team that has deeper running problems.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

The team might not win a lot of games, but it sure is fun watching the Washington Nationals hit.

In yesterday's 8-3 win against Milwaukee, the Nationals received dingers from Christian Guzman, Adam Dunn, and Ryan Zimmerman. The round-tripper was Guzman's fifth of the year. Seeing Dunn and Zimmerman display some power is nothing new for Nationals fans; in fact, the pair has hit homers in the same game four times in August and the seventh time this season. The round-tripper was Guzman's fifth of the year.

Right-hander Aaron Harang's season is over for the Cincinnati Reds, as the team announced he underwent an emergency appendectomy Saturday night.

Harang, 31, went 6-14 despite a not-as-awful 4.21 ERA, thanks to the third-worst run support in the National League. He leads the NL in losses and hits allowed (186 in 162 1/3 innings). He won just one of his final 16 starts, going 1-10 with a 4.78 ERA

To fill the roster spot, third baseman Scott Rolen was activated from the disabled list.

Rolen, acquired from Toronto in late July, had been out because of a concussions suffered Aug. 2 when he was hit in the head by a pitch from Colorado's Jason Marquis. Rolen played in two Triple-A rehabilitation games, going 2-for-6 with an RBI.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

It must be nice being a Phillies pitcher.

The Philly sluggers put 12 runs on the board in yesterday's game against the Diamond- backs, giving them a total of 25 runs scored in the three-game sweep. Joe Blanton went eight innings and allowed three runs, which is going to be enough to earn a W on most nights when you're on the same team as these hitters. The team has now won eight of their last nine games and look to be the favorites to repeat as NL champions.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

One of the most prized prospects in baseball is blossoming before our eyes. And his timing couldn't be better as the Colorado Rockies are in the thick of a Wild Card hunt.

Carlos Gonzalez did it all in the minor leagues. Before being called up he hit ten home runs and batted .339 in 48 games. He struggled a bit upon arriving in Denver, but now is really turning it on.

Over the last month, Gonzalez is batting .432 with a home run and three stolen bases. His 1.114 OPS shows that he's really creaming the ball and his eruption is fueling the Rockies' winning ways. On Sunday Gonzalez went 3-for-5 and brought his season batting average up to .283.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

A few weeks ago we discussed the possibility of the Padres promoting 21-year-old phenom Mat Latos. Well, he now has four major league starts under his belt, and, needless to say, he's doing just fine. After a solid outing Monday night, Latos is 3-1 with a 2.66 ERA and a sparkling 0.89 WHIP. He's struck out 16 while only walking 6 in 23 2/3 innings. He's also pitching in one of the best pitcher's parks in baseball.

So, he should be owned in all fantasy leagues, right?

There are 47 pitchers in fantasy Week 14 getting two starts. In an unusual turn of events, they are pretty evenly partitioned between "must starts," "solid starts" and "risky business".

Mike Pelfrey has it really tough, having to face Clayton Kershaw and Aaron Harang. Johnny Cueto doesn't have it much better having to face the Phillies and the Mets while getting their aces to boot in Cole Hamels and Johan Santana.

I love Matt Cain this week. He gets two home starts and gets very, very favorable pitching matchups. If he doesn't get two wins and put up impressive strikeout totals and a low ERA, I'll answer questions every Friday afternoon from here on out in a live chat.

First pitch on Monday is at 1:05 PM ET. Make sure you get your rosters set early.

Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

Tuesday was an interesting night for pitchers. Heck, I was just giddy that there were more than two games being played.

It took Justin Verlander a little over a month to convince baseball pundits that he was the "real deal". Going into Tuesday night's start Verlander was the hottest pitcher in baseball. He was touched up for five earned runs in four innings and it'll be interesting to see how the fantasy baseball world reacts. The only correct reaction is to throw him back into your lineup for his next start. One bad outing in ten is a great run at things.

We also saw some gems Tuesday night. King Felix Hernandez threw a complete game shutout and allowed only two hits. If he pitched in New York or Boston we'd all be talking Cy Young.

With only two games on the schedule for Monday, the two-start pitchers for week 11 of the fantasy baseball season aren't plentiful.

The hottest pitcher on the planet goes twice for the Tigers this week. Justin Verlander gets tested as he's going to have to face some big-time sluggers in Albert Pujols on Tuesday and Prince Fiedler and Ryan Braun on Sunday. However, there's no way you can sit Verlander and his 4-and-0 record over the last month.

In all, there are 31 pitchers throwing twice. The first game on Monday doesn't start until 7:05 PM ET. So, put some extra thought into those lineups before they lock tomorrow night.

Must Start
Felix Hernandez, Mariners - Tuesday at SD (K. Correia) and Sunday vs ARZ (D. Davis)
Justin Verlander, Tigers - Tuesday at STL (A. Wainwright) and Sunday vs MLW (Y. Gallardo)
Kevin Millwood, Rangers - Tuesday vs HOU (W. Rodriguez) and Sunday at SF (B. Zito)
Carlos Zambrano, Cubs - Tuesday vs CWS (J. Danks) and Sunday vs CLE (C. Pavano)
Gil Meche, Royals - Tuesday vs ARZ (D. Davis) and Sunday vs STL (A. Wainwright)
CC Sabathia, Yankees - Tuesday vs WAS (S. Martis) and Sunday at FLA (C. Volstad)
Yovani Gallardo, Brewers - Tuesday at CLE (J. Sowers) and Sunday at DET (J. Verlander)

MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.

Sorry for the delay, kiddos, on the Power Rankings. I'm sure you spent the entirety of Wednesday wondering "WHERE IN GOD'S NAME ARE THEY??? WITHOUT THEM I'LL HAVE NOTHING TO BANTER SENSELESSLY ABOUT TO MY CO-WORKERS!!!1" Or something like that. Either way, it's time to debate the worthlessness of your favorite baseball team in numerical form once again. Do enjoy.