Albert Pujols underwent arthroscopic surgery in Dr. James Andrews' clinic in Birmingham, Ala. Wednesday and early reports seem to indicate that the surgery was successful. Pujols had the bone chips in his throwing elbow removed and Andrews said that further surgery, like a ligament replacement (more commonly known as Tommy John surgery), won't be necessary and he's unlikely to miss time in 2010.
It should go without saying that this is good news for the Cardinals, but even that underscores the importance of the announcement that further surgery is not necessary. Pujols' elbow has been bothering him since the end of the 2007 season. After that season rumors about Tommy John surgery swirled, but Pujols put the procedure off. Then, after the 2008 season, he had surgery to move an irritated nerve in the elbow.
In Advanced Scouting, MLB FanHouse's professional talent evaluator breaks down each of the playoff teams from a scouting perspective.
To put it lightly, it'd take a naïve team to believe that Games 1 and 2 against the Cardinals will be anything less than an all-out struggle. In Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter, the St. Louis Cardinals own arguably the best 1-2 punch in baseball. Odds are that these two are not going to be knocked out of a game early and will need to be matched zero for zero.
But, what's the best way to scratch out some production against these two? We'll touch more on that later, but let's not sugarcoat it -- Carpenter and Wainwright are who they are for a reason and beating them will take a patient, intelligent approach.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That Ryan Howard is trying to challenge Albert Pujols for National League MVP.
Howard homered twice, doubled and drove in three runs Friday in the Phillies' 4-2 defeat of the Braves. Philadelphia now has an eight-game lead in the NL East.
"It makes you feel good when he starts hitting," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "He's amazing. He'll take two swings and not look too good, then all of a sudden he stays on a pitch and smokes it out of the yard. He's a tremendous hitter."
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday -- it's running Friday this week.
Earlier this week, Brad Lidge's nightmare 2009 season continued, when he allowed a walk-off homer to Andrew McCutchen. Ed Price covered the outing the following morning. The abysmal performance by the Phillies' closer underlines the only weakness of the defending World Series 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.
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?
At this point, whatever remaining Mets players are healthy should be encased in bubble wrap.
A day after second baseman Luis Castillo sprained his left ankle on the dugout steps -- the Mets said he is day-to-day, and when they say that, they usually end up being wrong -- lefty Jonathon Niese left Wednesday's start in the second inning with a strained right hamstring.
"From what I understand right now we suspect it to be a tear," manager Jerry Manuel said.
As it turns out, it was a complete tear of the right hamstring from the bone, and the team announced Niese would have surgery and miss the rest of the season Wednesday night.
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.
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.
The second half of the season is in full swing and lo and behold if capitalism hasn't reared it's ugly head once again. Billy Beane was spun off Matt Holliday (as expected of course) and the eleventy billion dollar payroll machine that is the New York Yankees are in first place in the AL East. (Of course, that can't explain why the Mets are horrible but that's a whole other thing.)
Will the Yankees' surge be enough to propel them into the critically important No. 1 slot of the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings? Find out after the jump.
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.
Albert Pujols underwent arthroscopic surgery in Dr. James Andrews' clinic in Birmingham, Ala. Wednesday and early reports seem to indicate that the surgery was successful. Pujols had the bone chips in his throwing elbow removed and Andrews said that further surgery, like a ligament replacement (more commonly known as Tommy John surgery), won't be necessary and he's unlikely to miss time in 2010. 
In 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Starting Five
At this point, whatever remaining Mets players are healthy should be encased in bubble wrap.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
MLB Power Rankings
