FanHouse AaronHarang

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.

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.

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?

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.

In my head, whenever I write about Dusty Baker, I imagine him to be a character called, "Dusty Baker, Baseball Alchemist." This has a lot to do with his wildly-reasoned argument from the early spring that a whole bunch of players in Cincinnati would play well because they were once high draft picks. I just have the general feeling that Baker feels like there's some secret recipe to winning that if he follows it, eventually success will find him and the Reds.

One of those ingredients must be getting his starting pitcher through five innings at any and all costs. Yesterday afternoon/evening, he sent Aaron Harang back out to the mound to finish the fifth inning after a rain delay that lasted more than two hours. Harang only pitched to one batter after the delay and recorded a strikeout of Humberto Quintero to qualify for the win.

Maybe I'm being a bit hard on these guys, but almost 59 percent of the 41 pitchers who are starting twice this week are being placed in the "Risky Business" category.

There are a couple of touted rookies who make up the 59 percent like the Rays' David Price and Atlanta's Kris Medlen. There are also some big-named pitchers who should never be placed among the "Risky Business" pitchers who just are throwing well, or their teams aren't winning behind them. Jon Lester and Francisco Liriano come to mind immediately.

Like I said, in all there are 41 two-start pitchers this week. Make sure that you get your lineups locked early today as there are a bunch of afternoon games. The first is 1:10 PM ET when Houston plays Cincinnati.

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.

What a zany week for a pair of pitchers with amazing stories: Zack Greinke is America's favorite story right now, somehow managing to be hotter than Twitter. (And if Oprah starts doing him too, I'm just quitting. And I mean everything.) Meanwhile, Rick Ankiel (you may hear word of this "podcast" we're doing about him, but that's because I'm shameless like that), a former star on the mound as well, nearly decapitates himself running into an outfield wall. And yet, life goes on. Just like our Power Rankings.

There are a plethora of two-start pitchers hurling in week five (Monday, May 4th - Sunday May 10th) of the fantasy baseball season. There are 58 total this week and you late sleepers are luck that all of the Monday games are night games. You won't need to set you lineups until 7:05 PM ET.

[Update: 7:48 AM ET] : Two games were rained out yesterday. The Mets and Phillies did not play and the Angels and Yankees were rained out as well. Here is the fallout from those two postponed games as it relates to two-start pitchers.

MLB Power Rankings: Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.

HAVE YOU HEARD? YANKEE STADIUM HAS A WIND TUNNEL!!! Does it matter/is it real? Probably not. In fact, it might actually be on the other end of the spectrum of importance when compared to MLB Power Rankings. This week, we welcome another brand new No. 1 at the top of our rankings, although, all spoiler alerts aside, it's from the same division as last week! Debate the quality of your team, after the jump.

MLB Power Rankings: Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.

It's been a while since a week of baseball was this sad -- we saw the tragic passings of Nick Adenhart, Harry Kalas and Mark Fidrych. And without waxing too sentimentally, it's the loss of these men that remind us exactly just how little sports matter in the grand scheme of things. RIP, gentlemen. Power rankings (that feel just a tad inconsequential, to be honest) after the jump.