Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Many times when fantasy owners wait patiently on a potential star to be promoted to the majors, they have to deal with disappointment initially before the payoff finally comes. Take Adam Lind and Felix Hernandez as a few guys who didn't start to fulfill their potential until this year. Sometimes, though, you get a Ryan Braun, Evan Longoria or Tim Lincecum, who immediately start paying dividends. The latest? Braves' 22-year-old phenom hurler Tommy Hanson.
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.
While it's entirely possible the Blue Jays do hit a snag, isn't it about time columnists across the internet stopped doing Can the Blue Jays Really Keep This Up? pieces by now? I've seen at least 10 in the past three weeks. There are almost as many The Rangers Are For Real posts. The discrepancy in the media's faith in those two is likely due to the divisions in which the teams reside, but seven weeks isn't a small sample. At some point, you have to start giving credit where it's due.
There are a plethora of two-start pitchers hurling in week five (Monday, May 4th - Sunday May 10th) of the fantasy baseball season. There are 58 total this week and you late sleepers are luck that all of the Monday games are night games. You won't need to set you lineups until 7:05 PM ET.
[Update: 7:48 AM ET] : Two games were rained out yesterday. The Mets and Phillies did not play and the Angels and Yankees were rained out as well. Here is the fallout from those two postponed games as it relates to two-start pitchers.
Week two (April 13th - April 19th) of the fantasy baseball season features 38 pitchers who are making two starts. There isn't a clear cut lock for easiest schedule amongst them, but Jon Lester looks like a very good start this week against Braden in Oakland and Uehara and the Orioles at home.
Daniel Cabrera doesn't look to have a fun week in store as he has to face Jamie Moyer and the Phillies and then Josh Johnson and the Marlins. At least he gets to pitch at home both times.
Back in early March I wrote about drafting middle relievers late in the draft instead of starters who might be in the back of a team's rotation.
What if I told you that taking two middle relievers would be a better option for your fantasy team? Let's first look at Blanton's 5x5 stats from last season. He had nine wins, 111 strikeouts, a 4.69 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP.
Now, let's look at a few middle relievers who should also be available in those late rounds. J.P. Howell and Matt Thornton both have average draft positions well above 300. If you were to use your final two selections on them and combine their stats here's what you'd get. You have a pitcher with 11 wins, 169 strikeouts, a 2.41 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in 156.2 innings of work.
This is sound advice that I have always followed. It gets even better if your league uses holds as a stat category, but I digress. You see the strategy at work there. Now let me share with you two relievers, who I am targeting now, who are lighting it up early in middle relief roles.
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 refuses to rebuild. Seriously, Drayton McLane, just keep holding out hope you can win the World Series and making your general managers deal every prospect you ever stumble across for the likes of Miguel Tejada and an overrated closer. It just keeps setting the franchise back years at a time. For now, they are solving a broken leg with a band-aid by winning 86 games and treading water.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups
While they have had many chances to take over the AL Central lead from the Chicago White Sox, the Minnesota Twins had been faltering all summer to capitalize on Chicago's mistakes. They would get to within a half-game of the White Sox only to lose every time Chicago opened the door.
That is, until yesterday. After taking three of four from the Sox and two of three from the Indians over the weekend, the Twins are finally on top of the division (again) where nobody expected them to be (again). Now today the Twins will begin to find out that sometimes the only thing tougher than catching the team in front of you is staying ahead of them once you get there.
Is it a coincidence that on the day the Twins finally woke up and brought Francisco Liriano back from minor league purgatory that they gained control of the division? Probably, but his presence in the rotation will go a lot further in helping them hold onto it than Livan Hernandez would have.
Will they hold onto their lead, or let it slip through their grasp? It's still too early to tell but they will begin their quest to put some distance between themselves and the competition after the jump.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups
Houston Astros (35-41) vs. Texas Rangers (39-38) - 8:05PM Est.
Generally when baseball has their "rivalry" matchups during interleague play, they schedule them for the weekend. That's not the case in Texas, as the Astros and Rangers prepare to begin a three-game set tonight at Minute Maid Park. I'm not sure the reasoning behind this, but I'm just going to guess that there's probably a big high school football scrimmage on Friday night, and the Astros are worried that it will hurt attendance numbers.
Of course, it could also just be that neither the Astros or Rangers have done much the last few seasons. The Astros haven't come anywhere near the success they achieved in 2005 when they won the National League, and the Rangers have only had one winning season (89-73 in 2004, which was good enough for third place!) since we entered the new millenium.
Yet tonight the Rangers are poised to go a whopping two games over .500 for the first time since September 22, 2006. Will history be made tonight in Houston?
Lance is currently in the midst of a 17-game hitting streak in which he's hitting .565--Can he hit .500 for the rest of the season? I say yes--with 8 home runs and 27 runs driven in. He's used that streak to raise his average on the season up to .399. In other words, he hit ball good. Make ball go far.
Of course, Lance won't be the only player in Minute Maid Park tonight who's swinging the magic wand.
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Week two (April 13th - April 19th) of the fantasy baseball season features 38 pitchers who are making two starts. There isn't a clear cut lock for easiest schedule amongst them, but Jon Lester looks like a very good start this week against Braden in Oakland and Uehara and the Orioles at home.
Back in early March I wrote about drafting middle relievers late in the draft instead of starters who might be in the back of a team's rotation. 
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. 
