FanHouse Brian Matusz

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.

The Phillies weren't expecting much when they signed Pedro Martinez right around mid-season. Well, let me rephrase and say the Phillies weren't expecting this much.

On Sunday, Martinez pitched eight scoreless innings and struck out seven while walking two. But those aren't his most amazing numbers. When Martinez pitches the Phillies are a perfect 7-0. Think about that. Every time Pedro runs out there to take the mound the Phillies win.

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 we get our heaping of box score browsing, let's look at a related subject: The fantasy baseball stretch run. With the annual ushering in of September baseball, we see roster changes galore. Not only are there call-ups with the legal expansion of rosters, but players with seemingly minor injuries are shut down on teams who have fallen out of the race. You also have younger players being given an audition for 2010, or being shut down so the team doesn't overwork them in their first season of increased workload. If you are in the thick of things in your fantasy baseball race, now is not the time to use a laissez-faire approach.

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.

John Lackey threw eight innings on Sunday, striking out six and not surrendering an earned run. It was his 100th career victory. He should have been the man of the hour, right?

That would have been the case had Kendry Morales not jacked his 30th home run of the season and stolen the show. At least among fantasy circles, anyway.

Morales had twelve career home runs entering the 2009 season and big shoes to fill as the Angels handed him the keys to the kingdom at first base as Mark Teixeira left for the Yankees. He's handled the task admirably batting .311 and is fast approaching the 100-RBI mark. He's also leading the league in RBI since the all-star break with 45.

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 must be nice being a Phillies pitcher.

The Philly sluggers put 12 runs on the board in yesterday's game against the Diamond- backs, giving them a total of 25 runs scored in the three-game sweep. Joe Blanton went eight innings and allowed three runs, which is going to be enough to earn a W on most nights when you're on the same team as these hitters. The team has now won eight of their last nine games and look to be the favorites to repeat as NL 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.

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.

Less than a week after Chris Tillman made his major league debut, another highly-touted prospect will make his first start in an Orioles uniform. Baltimore is set to call up left-hander Brian Matusz Tuesday night to face the Tigers.

Matusz, the fourth overall pick in last year's draft, has been a professional for less than a year, and only made his minor-league debut this season, but his rapid ascent to the major leagues highlights just how talented and polished he is.

The southpaw is 11-2 with a stingy 1.91 ERA across two minor-league levels this year. He has 121 strikeouts and just 32 walks in 113 innings to back up those gaudy numbers.

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.

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

Why Brian Roberts and why now? The Orioles haven't had a winning season this millennium. Andy MacPhail is entering his second full season in control of the team's baseball operations. The five-year plan, it would seem, is still several seasons away from coming to fruition.

Baltimore handed Roberts a four-year, $40 million contract extension over the weekend. He is 31, and that question lingers. Why give Roberts $10 million a season when he figures to be on the down slope of his career before the O's are in any position to win?

Wondering which young players could have an impact in the majors this year? Let MLB FanHouse guide the way in Better Know a Prospect. In this edition we look at three players from the suddenly flourishing Baltimore system.

Matt Wieters, C: Does he even need an introduction? Wieters is merely the best prospect in baseball. The No. 5 overall pick in the 2007 draft, he excelled in his first professional season, hitting .355 with 27 homers and 91 RBI across two levels. Catchers that can hit like that and actually stick behind the plate are rare. Gregg Zaun is currently blocking the way in Baltimore, but signed to a one-year deal at age 37, he's nothing more than a placeholder. Wieters is unlikely to break camp with the O's, but he'll get the call sometime in 2009. Shortly thereafter, he'll become a franchise player and one of the very best backstops in the game.

The Orioles continued their winter quest to upgrade what was a woeful rotation in 2008 by acquiring Rich Hill from the Cubs for a player to be named later.

Hill is only one year removed from an 11-win season in which he pitched 195 innings, posted an ERA of 3.92 and whiffed 183 batters, but the left-hander had since fallen out of favor with Chicago manager Lou Piniella. Once you're in Piniella's doghouse, it's awfully hard to climb out of it, and since Hill is out of options a trade became necessary.