FanHouse BJUpton

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

Max Scherzer, the 24-year-old fireballer for the Diamondbacks, has worlds of talent. He also takes a step back every time you think he's finally hitting his groove. This past week, he was a two-start pitcher in the fantasy baseball world. His first start was pure gold (that's gold, Jerry!). He threw 7 shutout innings and struck out 10 before getting chased in the eighth inning -- after allowing a few earned runs. He followed that up with an absolute catastrophe on Sunday. The light-hitting Braves touched him up for 10 hits and 8 earned runs in only 3 2/3 innings.

So, what gives?

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

While there is still time left in the Hot Stove season, and there are a few high quality players left on the market -- Ben Sheets, anyone? -- the Yankees have been the team who has made the biggest splash in all of baseball thus far. That splash was seemingly a reaction to missing the playoffs for the first time since the strike-shortened 1994.

B.J. Upton provided a serious power presence in the middle of the Rays' lineup during their postseason run, hitting seven home runs and driving in 15 in the first two rounds of the playoffs. This was following a disappointing 2008, in terms of power, for Upton -- he dipped from 24 to nine home runs in just one season.

Upton underwent surgery on his left -- non-throwing -- shoulder after the Rays finished the World Series late last October. While his recovery is said to be going well, he's planning on having to miss the first week of the upcoming 2009 season.

Okay, Rays: your move. You lost Game 1 to one of the best pitchers on the planet. Now it's time to take advantage of your phenomenal home record and get things done. If not, you get to try what only three teams have done: lose the first two games at home and come back to win the Series.

For the Phillies, this is the game to make your move as well. If Brett Myers can win on the road, how bulletproof are you going to feel going to Philadelphia? Game 2's are always pivotal ... this one is no different. So why not spend it with us in our live chat?

Despite being benched twice in the last two weeks for lackadaisical base running, B.J. Upton committed yet another mind-numbing mistake on Monday.

With two outs left in the fourth, Upton hit a line drive to left field. After rounding first base, he casually jogged toward second, apparently thinking that he'd just homered, completely oblivious that Juan Rivera had just rifled the ball to Mark Teixeira, who was chasing Upton down from behind. Instead of picking up an easy extra-base hit, Upton ended the inning with a preventable mistake.

The mistake didn't end up costing the Rays -- they still won the game 6-4 -- but it's more than a little disappointing on the heels of Upton's other recent gaffes. But instead of benching Upton (yet again), Joe Maddon said he'd let the players deal with this one -- and from the sounds of it, Cliff Floyd is ready. From MLB.com:

"You've got a guy who, in my opinion, is going to be different," Floyd said. "I'm going to put my butt on the line by saying that. I'm going to do everything possible, and I think everybody in here is going to do everything possible to make sure it don't happen again. It's not in Joe's hands anymore. It's not in anybody else's hands but ours as players."

"We really haven't put our finger on what it is he's doing. He's going to get it right, trust me. He will get it right before I leave here."

I'm not sure what Floyd had in mind to get his message across (a prescription for Adderall or Ritalin, perhaps?) , but the Rays better hope it works. At Upton's current rate, it won't be long until his mental lapses actually start costing the team wins.

From guest writer Mike Westfall of Progressive Boink:

This is my first spring living in Florida, and accepting the Rays as my new home team would be a lot easier if the local news didn't report so rosily about it. I'm used to the gloom and doom of Philadelphia, so I'm still trying to figure out whether they mean it in a sarcastic, "Aw, that's so cute," way or not, because it sounds like some of them really, genuinely think that this could be the Rays' year for - you know what? I don't even know what for. It's like the sports reporters are live from Bizarro World.

And the more I think about it, that would explain the Rays' excellent spring performance a lot, by actually treating March like it counts.

The boys from the Bay get ready for RAYPRIL®, after the jump.

Unable to land tickets to see the Sox at home, where Fenway Park seats roughly 26 average-sized humans, Boston fans have made road tripping a seasonal tradition. But other teams are apparently tiring of hearing cheers for the oppostion on their home turf.

Earlier this month, some Orioles fans vowed to "take back Camden Yards" from the hordes of exuberant Sox fans. And yesterday, as the Sox hit Tampa Bay for the last time this season, Rays' pitcher Scott Kazmir voiced his own distaste for playing at home to the fans of Boston and New York.

"You know it's going to be nothing but a sea of red when the Red Sox are there and then next week nothing but Yankees fans," Kazmir said. "You go out for the first inning and next thing you know they've got one guy on and already that Red Sox chant is going on. That stuff really bothers me. It does. We're a major-league team too. It's tough. It seems like okay, we're just renting-the-place type stuff. I don't know. It's just wrong. It really is."

Teammate B.J. Upton echoed this sentiment.

"I think it's ridiculous," Upton said. "You're supposed to be the home team and the place is sold out, but it's 98 percent the other team's fans. I think you kind of get used to it, but at the same time it gets old. We're playing in the Trop and it's more like Fenway than anything. We go in and play at home and it's like a road game at home."

Hey, if the Rays can start to turn it around -- and, at least on paper, they've got the young talent to do it -- those pesky out-of-towners might just find themselves shut out at the ticket window. Until then, ownership can just keep re-investing those piles of Boston and New York dollars back into the team.

There never seems to be a lot for the Devil Rays to celebrate. But here's something: dollar for dollar, the team may have baseball's best young outfield.

In left, they've got All-Star Carl Crawford, 26, who many agree could be a superstar on a big-market team. In center, they've got B.J. Upton (real name: Melvin Emmanuel!), 23, who has the team's best average and second-best home run total. In right, they've got Delmon Young, 21, one of the game's more promising rising stars.

Yes, all three are young, exciting to watch, and offer more than just a glimmer of hope for future Devil Rays teams to rise out of the gutters of the AL East. More importantly, as Tampa Bay Online points out, they aren't exactly costing the Rays a whole lot of cash, either. Together, Crawford, Upton and Young will earn less than $6 million in 2007. Or, roughly, about as much as Manny Ramirez will spend on video games this year.

Is there a better bargain in all of baseball? I'm not so sure there is.

A lot has been said about Tim Wakefield's ownership of the Devil Rays. But on the flip side, the Rays have proven quite adept at beating Daisuke Matsuzaka.

This season, the Sons of Joe Maddon have won three out of four starts by Boston's $100 million man, accounting for their only wins against the Sox this year. In fact, Matsuzaka is the only pitcher in all of baseball that the Rays have beaten more than once in 2007.

So how does the team with the worst record in baseball continue to best one of the major league's most celebrated pitching imports? BJ Upton chalks it up to pure luck.

"You just got to go up there and look for a good pitch to hit off him," said Rays CF B.J. Upton, whose sixth-inning two-run homer was the difference in Wednesday's 2-1 win over Matsuzaka. "A lot of his pitches look the same. He kept us off balance most of the times he's faced us. He just left a pitch up."

In fairness to Matsuzaka, he was certainly a hard-luck loser last night, with his offense conjuring only one measly run behind him and leaving, to quote Bob Uecker in Major League, a small village on base. But he may just consider adding a knuckleball to his repertoire during the off-season.