FanHouse Bobby Jenks

As a whole, the baseball season in Chicago has been a disappointment. The Cubs were expected to contend for a World Series title only to be thrown off track by injuries and Milton Bradley, while on the other side of town the White Sox have failed to exceed expectations. As is usually the case when this happens to large-market teams, wholesale changes are made.

The White Sox parted ways with Jim Thome and 2005 World Series hero Jose Contreras, and it's likely other players such as Jermaine Dye, Bobby Jenks and Paul Konerko could be following them out of town this winter. Still, that doesn't mean everybody in the White Sox organization is leaving.

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

Before the season started, I was rough on Derrek Lee. I named him the biggest bust on the Cubs for this coming season and included him on the list of "five guys to lose" your fantasy league. I even predicted Mike Fontenot would hit more home runs than Mr. Lee. Obviously, it sounds outlandish now, in hindsight, as Lee clubbed his 35th home run Tuesday night. In the process, he established a new career high in RBI with 109. His OPS is the second-highest it's ever been -- trailing only his insane 2005 season when he did an Albert Pujols impersonation.

Detroit Tigers closer Fernando Rodney has only one blown save this year. He's recorded 23 saves, has almost a strikeout per inning pitched and at 3.86, his ERA, while not superb, is manageable. So, why is his job on the line?

It could be the 18 walks he's issued since June 1st in only 28 innings of work. It could also be the five home runs he's given up since June 1st compared to only allowing one prior. But, most likely, it's the way he's started out the month of March. In five appearances Rodney has two saves and a win, but he's allowed four earned runs in only five innings. Patience is wearing thin in Detroit, and they have other options.

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.

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

Nearly a month ago, we ran out a roundtable on Jimmy Rollins, advising you to trade for the underperforming shortstop. Well, his struggles seem like a distant memory now. Rollins is not only back, he's one of the hottest middle infielders in fantasy baseball. Oh, and he's also one funny dude (great Dick's commercial if you've never seen it).

Just how hot is J-Roll? Let's go to the statistical tape ...

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

Prospects' careers don't always progress the way we hoped they would. While players like Rick Porcello and Clayton Kershaw became fantasy-relevant before their 22nd birthdays, Nolan Reimold had to wait until he was 25 to get a legitimate shot. Travis Hafner wasn't a true force until he was 27, etc.. In any case, like the curious one of scorching outfielder Garrett Jones, it's important to keep that perspective in mind.

So what exactly do we know about "The Robber Baron"? (Other than the fact that he's drilled nine homers in his first 17 games with Pittsburgh)

It's always nice to know how secure a closer's job is and who's next in line if somebody loses their 9th inning job. The Closer Report will give you that info. And if that wasn't good enough, we'll rank the closers from top to bottom.

As you'll see, Heath Bell has taken over the top spot on this edition of The Closer Report. A few big-name, top-of-the-charts closers from years past have fallen off quite a bit. How weird is it to see Brad Lidge near the bottom of the closer rankings and Joe Nathan stuck in the middle?

You may have noticed in the box scores Wednesday morning that Scott Linebrink earned a save Tuesday night as the White Sox beat the Angels. It wasn't a flawless performance as Linebrink gave up a solo home run to Torii Hunter in addition to another hit in his inning of work. The White Sox won 4-2 and Linebrink notched his first save, but why wasn't Bobby Jenks closing the game out?

Jenks wasn't being punished for blowing his first save of the year this past weekend, he simply had flu-like symptoms and couldn't go Tuesday night. As soon as Jenks is healthy, he be back pitching the 9th for the Sox.

In other closer-related news:

On Saturday night with the White Sox up 3-2 on the Texas Rangers in the top of the ninth, Ian Kinsler came up to the plate with two outs. White Sox closer Bobby Jenks then reared back to throw his first pitch to Kinsler, and it was a 96 mph fastball delivered behind Kinsler. It was a purpose pitch.

Anybody in the stadium or at home on television knew this. The White Sox had been talking the last few days about how they were tired of being used as target practice and were going to respond sooner or later. After Rangers pitching beaned two more Sox players on Saturday, you knew a response was coming. So Jenks threw that pitch, got a warning, and got Kinsler to pop out to end the game. It was a perfect response to everything, and then the postgame interviews came and Jenks messed up.