FanHouse AdamLaRoche

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

Eugenio Velez (pronounce the first name: ay-ooh-HEY-nee-o) is a relative unknown major league baseball player. He's currently gaining playing time for the San Francisco Giants without having an actual starting job. He fights for playing time at second base (against Freddy Sanchez), left field (against Nate Schierholtz and Fred Lewis) and right field (against Randy Winn). Lately, though, Velez has been playing pretty much everyday, and swinging a hot bat. The question is, can it continue?

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 2005, Tom Gorzelanny pitched in the majors for the first time. He was just 22. Two years later, he went 14-10 with a 3.88 ERA -- logging more than 200 innings in 32 starts for the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates. He did allow too many hits, but he was only 25 years old, so it appeared he would settle in as an anchor for the ever-rebuilding Pirates.

Instead, he had a disastrous past two seasons and had been relegated to the minors. Last week, Gorzelanny was traded to the Cubs, and Tuesday night he passed his Cubs debut with flying colors.

Locked in a tight wild-card race and in need of an offensive boost, the Red Sox struck a blockbuster deal Friday, acquiring catcher/first baseman Victor Martinez from the Indians.

FanHouse first reported that Boston was on the verge of acquiring Martinez Friday afternoon. A source confirmed reports that Cleveland would get right-hander Justin Masterson, Single-A left-hander Nick Hagadone and a player to be named, expected to be Single-A right-hander Bryan Price.

A second source said Boston then traded first baseman Adam LaRoche, the odd man out after Martinez's arrival, to Atlanta. The first source confirmed that was straight up for Casey Kotchman, who could be a defensive replacement at first.

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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.

Big ups to Prez for taking the PR reigns over while I was off last week. But we're back in the saddle, fresh out of the All-Star break and ready to incite you with our rankings. Also, I should point out that this is, relatively speaking, the "home stretch." Where even the most minuscule of mini-streaks can change a team's fate. Or something like that. Anyway, let's go to the list, where we'll find out if an attack on Jack Nicholson by the Phanatic and the addition of Petey was enough to vault the Phillies into the top spot of the Week 16 MLB Power Rankings. Cue drumroll.

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.

Well, I'll tell you one thing: baseball ain't boring, folks. At least if you're in the middle class anyway; the upper crust is (somewhat) starting to establish itself across MLB's ranks and the bottom portion of the league is certainly holding steady. But in the middle, well, goodness. We have a lot of would-be title contenders. How's your semi-crappy team faring in the all-important MLB FanHouse Power Rankings this week? Find out after the jump.

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

Adam LaRoche, he of the longest swing in the majors, is starting to heat up. In the last 9 games, he's hit .387 with 3 home runs, 5 RBI, 4 runs, 2 doubles, a .444 on-base percentage and 1.186 OPS. If his career history is any indicator, we can expect things to continue along this pace.

It's just that he's starting things up a bit early. In LaRoche's career, he's been two different players per season. Just look at his splits. He's a decent hitter with good power in through June. From July on, though, he's a good hitter with great power.

There are two sides to every coin. When Carlos Beltran ripped into the Mets on Thursday after their sweep at the hands of the lowly Pirates, many Mets fans were happy to see their team leader step up and call for some accountability from his slumping teammates. Every team needs a fire lit underneath them every once in a while.

On the flip side, though, Beltran really couldn't have expected his remark that he was "embarrassed" to be swept by the Pirates to go over well in the Pirates clubhouse. It certainly wasn't well-received by Adam LaRoche, who's done his share of talking this week, and the Pirates first baseman had some pretty harsh words for Beltran, which you can find after the jump.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's action, with a quick nod to what's ahead.

You Oughta Know...
That instant replay has been in use in the majors for reviewing homers since last August, but there had not been a single home run taken away until Wednesday.

And then it happened twice.

First, Pittsburgh's Adam LaRoche hit a first-inning drive that was initially ruled a three-run homer. After umpires checked the replay, they determined that the ball had not cleared the fence, and LaRoche instead had a two-run double.

A few hours later, in Milwaukee, Marlins pinch-hitter Ross Gload had a would-be solo homer reversed.

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When you lose a star like Manny Ramirez in fantasy leagues, there is no "quick fix." You're either going to make a trade to fill the glaring hole, or you play mad scientist with waiver-wire options to tide your team over. I've always been a fan of the latter before resorting to the block. Luckily, there are seven players available who are capable of giving your team the needed power in mixed leagues. Not Manny-type power, obviously, but enough to mitigate the damage for a few months. And if that's not up your alley, we've got some trade targets, too.

Let's take a peek inside the barrel of pop ...

Monday night, Ryan Braun hit a first-inning home run off of Jeff Karstens of the Pirates. Two innings and two bombs later (by Rickie Weeks and Mike Cameron, respectively), Braun wore a Karstens fastball in the middle of his back. It was the first pitch of the at-bat, so it appeared to be an intentional beanball.

Both benches were warned by the umpiring crew and no Pirates were hit in retaliation for the rest of the game. According to Braun, though, that's not a sign the team has forgiven and forgotten.