FanHouse AaronLaffey

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

Mired in the middle of a quite reprehensible offense, Adrian Gonzalez had been struggling at the plate for quite a while. Sure, he was still hitting home runs and drawing walks, but his batting average from May 1 to August 9 was an atrocious .228 in 298 at-bats. He hadn't had a multiple hit game since July 29 and hadn't had more than two hits in a game since June 18.

Tuesday night, Gonzalez went 6-6, giving him more hits in one night than the rest of August combined.

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.

Let me put this simply: you want no part of being No. 1 in the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings. It just brings discord, losing and possibly suspensions to your baseball team. Such was the case with the white-hot Dodgers and Manny Ramirez, who now have to deal with a 50 game-ban of their star slugger. Who's doomed this week? Let's just say that no one would be too shocked if they weren't there again next Wednesday.

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

In news that probably means a lot more to fantasy baseball players than real baseball fans -- with all due respect to the Pirates and their true fans -- Ryan Doumit is going to miss the next 8-10 weeks. He'll be undergoing wrist surgery and have some pins inserted. As fantasy owners, we must march on and look at how to replace the production of a very solid offensive catcher.

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 fantasy baseball question becoming increasingly more prevalent these days is very succinct: Is David Ortiz done? The problem? It's a tough question to answer. What do we actually mean by "done?" Is he ever going to be the guy who hit 54 home runs or the one who drove home 148 runs again? No. Not a chance.

As we head into the third week of the fantasy baseball season we have 34 starting pitchers throwing twice. When setting your lineups, remember that tomorrow is Patriot's Day in Boston, so first pitch is at 11:05 AM Eastern Time.

Must Start
Roy Halladay, Blue Jays - Tuesday vs TEX (B. McCarthy) and Sunday at CWS (J. Contreras)
Derek Lowe, Braves - Monday at WAS (J. Zimmermann)and Saturday at CIN (B. Arroyo)
C.C. Sabathia, Yankees - Tuesday vs OAK (B. Anderson) and Sunday at BOS (J. Beckett)
Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers - Tuesday at HOU (R. Ortiz) and Sunday at COL (J. Marquis)

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the...
Team that should have more doctors on staff. Lofty expectations turned sour when major keys to the Indians lineup went down with injury in 2008. Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner, Fausto Carmona, and Jake Westbrook all lost significant time to various maladies. The health and or hasty return of these guys, and the continued health of Kerry Wood are crucial to the Indians having any success in 2009.

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Chicago White Sox
The buzz around White Sox camp is position battles. Up for grabs is the third base position, center field and second base. Josh Fields and Dayan Viciedo are fighting for third and Fields has the leg up. Both hitters can mash the ball and both play suspect defense; although Fields is improving. Fields worked extensively this off-season at Camp Cora and Cora mentioned that everyone would be shocked with what they see out of Fields this year. He has three hits in six at-bats with two doubles so far this spring. Jayson Nix and his four hits in six at-bats with two doubles seem to be taking over as front-runner for the second base job thought to belong to Chris Getz. DeWayne Wise is being called the "best player this spring" and may be taking the center field job from injured Jerry Owens.

Remember when Tom Gorzelanny was a burgeoning fantasy stud last year? He worked over 200 innings, garnering 14 wins for a sorry Pirates squad and compiling an ERA of 3.88. He only walked 68 batters. This year he's already walked 50, in only 71 innings. The ERA is particularly gross at 6.59. His three starts of less than three innings probably didn't help matters, but he's been consistently bad. Well, this week he gets to screw you over twice in fantasyland ... against the Yankees and Rays no less. Don't let that happen. He's last in my two-start rankings, behind Eric Hurley. Who? Exactly ...

Other notes:

- Gotta love Sean Marshall's chance for a great outing against the O's at home, but he will likely have trouble on the South Side of town for his second start.

- Aaron Laffey gets two lackluster teams at home this week, so he's a quality option.
- Good sleeper for the week: Joe Blanton. He's been struggling all season, but he gets the Phillies (2-7 against the AL) and Giants at home. It's now or never for salvaging a quality campaign.

Pitcher	Team	First Start	Second Start
Jake Peavy	SD	MIN	SEA
Johan Santana	NYM	SEA	NYY
Josh Beckett	BOS	ARI	at HOU
John Lackey	LAA	at WAS	at LAD

Spot Jobs gambles by picking five spot starters for the week and five usual starters to avoid. The success rate is usually around 50%, but the risk level is always through the roof. Obviously, though, you always start Brandon Webb (when healthy) and sit Dave Bush.

Five Up

Joba Chamberlain, Yanks -- He's ready now. Plus, the Padres -- despite a recent upswing -- don't exactly have an inspiring offensive attack.

Kevin Slowey, Twins -- He's coming off an eight inning gem against the Brew Crew, but he's been very inconsistent and the previous outing was a three inning-10 earned run clunker. I do, however, like him to string out a second consecutive quality start and victory this week against the light-hitting Nats.

Bronson Arroyo, Reds -- His opponent (Dodgers) has been an incredibly inconsistent offensive team, especially on the road. Sure, people like to call Arroyo's home the Great American Smallpark (it's clever, I know), but he handcuffed the Cards in it last outing.

Jorge Campillo, Braves -- The Bravos love playing at home. The Mariners have scored 20 runs in their last eight games (2.5 per game, mathematically challenged). I'm only a tad bit fazed by Erik Bedard being opposite Campillo, but the Braves should still be able to manage 2 runs. That should be enough.

Scott Baker, Twins -- Facing the Big Unit (see "Five Down"), and the DBacks loooooove to strike out.

Remember Chris Shelton's beastly start in 2006? Stud or Shelton examines whether currently hot players are having a similar mirage or will continue to play at a high level.

Starting pitching has been relatively topsy-turvy this season. You've got C.C., Bedard, and Verlander collectively sucking. On the other hand, Saunders is tied for the AL lead in wins and Wellemeyer is 7-1. Etc. Etc. Etc.

This is weird, but it's my job to help you sort it out and plan for the rest of the '08 campaign. Let's start with the dude at the right who is throwing a ball at you.

Joe Saunders -- He's 9-2 with a 2.63 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. Those numbers alone say "elite starter." He also plays for the team that wins games, so he should keep piling up wins. As for the other numbers, I'd be worried. In 82 innings he's only struck out 39 guys. If you aren't a power pitcher, you can survive on getting the ground ball, it's just that he's not. 1.21 grounders per flies, teamed with his unGodly .238 allowed BABIP. This means that he's received an inexplicable amount of luck in regards to the type of contact being made.

Verdict: Shelton. Big time Shelton.

More after the jump ...