FanHouse AlbertoCallaspo

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

When you think of Chicago Cubs starting pitchers, you first think of Carlos Zambrano. Next is probably Rich Harden, especially in terms of sheer talent -- plus, the injury woes probably keep him fresh in your mind. After last season, Ryan Dempster should be hanging out in your baseball-knowledge-filled brain as well. The best Cubs' starter of 2009, though, has been Ted Lilly. After yet another quality start Sunday, the Cubs' left-hander is 7-4 with a 2.94 ERA and 1.06 WHIP.

The 26-year-old Rickie Weeks looked to be finally fulfilling the promise of his lofty draft spot (second pick overall in the 2003 draft). He was hitting .272 with 9 home runs, 24 RBI, 2 stolen bases and 28 runs. Now, what appeared to be his breakout campaign has been summarily dismantled on one swing. Weeks tore up his wrist on a swing Sunday and his season is over.

There's no rest for the weary in fantasy baseball, though. Weeks owners must lick their wounds and find a way to recover. A recovery should be possible, considering how little owners probably had to spend on Weeks in their auctions or drafts. The three options are as follows (make sure to check out number three).

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Remember Chris Shelton's nine home runs in the first 13 games for the Detroit Tigers in 2006? Stud or Shelton examines whether currently hot players are displaying a similar mirage or will continue to play at a high level.

As promised in today's Roto Rush, we're gonna check out Mr. Alberto Callaspo. After another solid night Tuesday, Callaspo is hitting .379 with 16 runs, 2 home runs and 11 RBI. He also has a league-high 13 doubles and has walked twice as much as he's struck out (10 to 5). So, this is a joke right? He's coming back down to Earth immediately.

Not so fast ...

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

After having some problems his last two starts, Tuesday night Rick Porcello looked like the phenom the Tigers drafted. The 20 year-old upped his record to 2-3 after hurling 7 scoreless innings against the Twins. He allowed 7 baserunners in as many innings, struck out 3, and -- most importantly -- kept the ball in the yard. In his first four starts, Porcello allowed at least 1 home run per game, 6 total. Tuesday night, Porcellos allowed only three fly balls to the outfield.

Fletch already mentioned it in the Starting Five this morning, but on Monday night in Kansas City Zack Greinke was once again absolutely dominant in going the distance and pitching a shutout against the White Sox. It was the type of pitching performance that you couldn't help but enjoy watching, even if you happened to be pulling for the other team, as it was an absolute clinic performed with a surgeon's precision.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said afterward that it was the best performance he'd seen from a major league pitcher in a long time, and I have to agree. I've seen Greinke make three starts this season -- twice on television, and once in person -- and I'm yet to see him surrender a run. However, I did see him strike out 27 batters while only walking three. It's the type of dominance I haven't seen from a pitcher since Pedro Martinez's amazing run from 1999-2002.

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 wasn't enough for Jacoby Ellsbury to win every U.S. citizen a free taco by swiping the first base of the 2007 World Series. No, Jacoby Ellsbury does more than feed the country. He's working to steal the hearts of all baseball fans. He took a step towards that goal Sunday night by stealing home during the final game of the Yankees/Red Sox series at Fenway Park.

This was the first straight-steal of home plate by a Red Sox player since Billy Hatcher did so in April of 1994. Jose Offerman stole home on the front-end of a double-steal in 1999.

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 who finished above the hype-machine Tigers last season. In fact, finishing only 12 games below .500 in a division that was expected to be very strong had to have exceeded expectations in the first year of Trey Hillman's managerial stint. After all, it was the first year since '03 the Royals didn't finish in last. They still have holes, but they also have a good group of young, talented players.

FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Kansas City Royals.

The 2008 season was a lot like every other season for the Kansas City Royals lately, with one major exception. They didn't finish in last place of the AL Central. No, that honor went to the Detroit Tigers instead. Still, while fourth place isn't really anything to get excited about in any baseball city other than Pittsburgh, in Kansas City it has bred hope for better things in 2009.

A few days ago, our Baseball is Boring Buddy Tom Fornelli (Dugout SN: StLunaticsRapFornelli) reported on Alberto Callaspo's collapse-o in Kansas City. It turns out he was busted for DUI and put on the disabled list for "evaluation and treatment of an undisclosed medical condition," the Major League Baseball equivalent of Hollywood's "severe exhaustion," which basically just means that he's an adult acting like a stupid idiot and is an eff-up. The worst thing is that it happens as the Royals climb out of the cellar for the first time since... well God, are any of us old enough to remember that?

What we bring you today is the police report of the DUI bust, which, as you may have guessed, did not go as planned. It didn't involve Alberto Callaspo going over to, say, Bono's house and getting busted for gay drug bongo sex and having his wife leave him for, oh, let's say Matthew Sweet or anything, but I mean I guess it's fairly interesting.

After the jump, the dark story behind Alberto's Last Gasp-o... and a look at the sinister forces that could be lurking in the shadows to keep the Royals down.

The Royals are playing their best baseball of the season right now, as they feasted on National League competition, and had won 11 of 12 before dropping their last two games against the Cardinals. So there's plenty of reason to celebrate in Kansas City right now, because for the first time in years, Royals fans have been able to watch a team that actually resembles a Major League team.

Unfortunately, the celebration made it's way to members of the team this last weekend when second baseman Alberto Callaspo was busted for a DUI on Friday night after the Royals sixth straight win. On Saturday, Callaspo was placed on the disabled list for undisclosed reasons.

"Alberto is going on the disabled list for evaluation and treatment of an undisclosed medical condition," manager Trey Hillman said. He declined to elaborate.

"I've already given the statement," he said.

Yeah, I can't read minds or anything, but I'd be willing to wager that the undisclosed medical condition that Hillman was referring to was Alberto's DUI. In the interest of being purely speculative, maybe this incident isn't anything new for Callaspo, it's just the first time he's been caught and the Royals want to help him out.

I mean, there have been plenty of baseball players and managers (Hello, Mr. LaRussa!) who have been pulled over for DUI's, yet I don't know many of them who've been placed on the disabled list.

Of course, it's also entirely possible that this is an isolated occurrence for Callaspo and the Royals are just sending a message to the rest of the team to keep this from happening. We don't need any more Josh Hancock incidents. Whatever it is, this is the right move by the Royals, and one that other teams could learn from.