FanHouse BrianSchneider

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

Some NL-Only owners last night got a nice little (understatement) boost in steals last night, assuming that's where Dexter Fowler is mostly owned. The fleet-footed 23 year-old rookie stole 5 bases in the first five innings against the Padres -- giving him a National League-best 9 on the season.

Unbelievably, as noted in this morning's Starting Five, Fowler didn't even set a team record and it hasn't even been a full year since a Rockies' player had 5 steals. That doesn't mean it's common, though. Only 17 players have done so since 1954.

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 ...
Chokers. Sorry, folks, but until they can actually close out a regular season, that's the label they're getting. Fortunately for us fantasy folks, we don't really care about total team performance in the regular season, provided it doesn't impend on individual players' abilities to post statistics. And in that sense, the New York Baseball Mets are quite the enjoyable team to watch. They have a slew of top-tier players on the squad and generally almost always provide a ton of fantasy value. Not much will change in terms of that this year, although you may be surprised as to where it will come from.

Yes, it sounds like a strange injury ... even something that isn't so serious. But an infection can turn into something serious, painful, and at the very least, really annoying. But an infected thumb was serious enough to send Mets catcher Brian Schneider to the hospital in hopes that he can get it cleared up and avoid a DL stint. The good news is that if this is taken care of, Schneider will probably be able to play this weekend against Atlanta.

Schneider had just recovered from a forearm bruise which kept him out of the lineup for three games before coming back on Wednesday against the Nationals. But after flying back to New York on Thursday, the Mets needed a back-up catcher as they only had Raul Casanova on the roster to catch that game. Gustavo Molina will join the club Friday to give the Mets two catchers.

This basically means that the Mets have gone from Schneider and Ramon Castro (who's been out since day one with a strained hamstring), to Casanova and Molina. Considering that Schneider has shockingly been one of the club's best hitters, and not so shockingly very good in handling the Mets' staff, a disabled list trip would be a huge blow to Schneider and the Mets. Could the return of the recently retired Sandy Alomar Jr. be far behind?

And how much trouble are the Mets in if that's the next option?

If you're new to these proceedings, click here and here to catch up on what you've missed.

If you're not into the extended catch-up, you've missed a six-run Mets fourth and a two-run Josh Willingham home run and some entertaining fat men dancing. Johan Santana's on his way to his first Mets win, we'll see if he can get it after the jump.

Hopefully you're moving over from the Innings 1-3 coverage but if not and need to catch up, check it out here.

Johan Santana's been everything the Mets expected to this point but he's getting everything he can handle from Mark Hendrickson. On a basketball court, that wouldn't be surprising but we're playing baseball here. Let's see how both men do as they start facing people for the second and third time. For now we're scoreless and heading into the top of the fourth.

If you're looking for a feeling of rebirth, there ain't much better than Opening Day. Blank slates abound, last year's failures are but a fleeting memory and everybody's in first place. Nope, it doesn't get much better than that.

Unless, of course, you have all those things plus your first look at the best pitcher in baseball wearing your team's uniform for the first time in a game that counts. It's Johan Santana's Mets coming out party and the Marlins are playing both host and cannon fodder for the man who has launched World Series dreams all across Queens.

I'll be here for every one of his pitches (and Mark Hendrickson's too!). Sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

Paul Lo Duca's long quest to find a new home has finally ended: today he chose the Nationals over the Blue Jays and signed a one year deal pending a physical sometime this week. This takes place just a couple weeks after the Nats swapped Brian Schneider to the Mets to take Lo Duca's job. If you're keeping track at home, that means that for the Nationals, the trade now essentially boils down to Lo Duca for Schneider and Ryan Church for Lastings Milledge. That's Jim Bowden 2, Omar Minaya 0.

Lo Duca certainly isn't the player he used to be and his .272/.311/.378 line from last year paired with the fact that he's going to be 36 shortly after opening day really hammers that home and it's not hard to see why teams were shying away from him. What this move will do is let them keep prospect Jesus Flores (minor league stats here) in the minors for another year without having to rush him to the bigs.

What the move also does is add the fiery Lo Duca into a clubhouse with Elijah Dukes, Lastings Milledge, and Dmitri Young. I assume that the Nats will be better in 2008 than they were in 2007, though even if they don't contend for the
NL East championship, they're going to be the most fun team in the league to blog about.

Talk about trades you didn't see coming, this one is fairly shocking.

The Mets have completed a significant deal, sending outfielder Lastings Milledge to the Nationals for catcher Brian Schneider and outfielder Ryan Church, according to major-league sources.

The deal, first reported by WFAN, will reunite Mets general manager Omar Minaya with Schneider and Church, two players he had with the Expos. Schneider, 32, will become the Mets' starting catcher, replacing Johnny Estrada, whom the team recently acquired from the Brewers for reliever Guillermo Mota.

Here's a little perspective for you: At the end of the 2005 season, Milledge's name has been floating around in a one-for-one trade rumor with Manny Ramirez. Now, he gets back Brian Schneider and Ryan Church.

I for one do not understand this from a Mets perspective. Minaya was supposedly stockpiling all of his chips for an ace pitcher, and now he has one less chip. Moreover, Milledge is traded for a catcher after the Mets had already acquired a catcher in Estrada, so I have no idea why this trade was necessary. This trade only works for the Mets if Church turns around and is wheeled as part of a deal for a top flight pitcher ... but wouldn't Milledge have been a more valuable chip?

And not to mention that Milledge remains in the N.L. East and gets to exact revenge on the Mets 19 times a season. Winner: Jim Bowden. Losers: Met fans (as usual when these types of trades happen) every time Milledge comes to town.

The Washington Nationals are all about the reality television genre. Robert Fick and Dmitri Young, for example, are big fans of American Idol. And they're none too pleased with Wednesday night's results. Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post's DC Sports Bog got Fick's take on Idol vote, and on the current season in general:

"I just think it's the way she looks," he said of Melinda and her untimely exit. "Melinda was 29. I don't know. Melinda's the best singer, she is. But the way she looks, she doesn't look like the American Idol." Point being, he loves Idol. Been watching for years. I asked for his favorite contestant this season. "I liked Gina Glocksen the best," he said. "I thought she was good, and I thought she got screwed."

From the information I've obtained (which is my way of saying that I'll never admit that I watch even a little American Idol when in "reality", I'll watch a few songs between innings), half the finalists got screwed via "Sanjaya-mania", which basically means that not only did Gina get screwed, but the show has officially jumped the shark. Dmitri Young weighs in after the jump:

Yeah, so it's going to be a long season for the Washington Nationals ... that doesn't mean that the boys can't have a little fun. And as all good pranksters know, fun is a mere container of baby powder away. Ryan Zimmerman expounds in his Washington Examiner column:

As far as joking, me and Nick Johnson and Brian Schneider and Austin Kearns do a lot to each other. Last year we did a lot of things with baby powder; you'd go away and come back and have it all over everything. In spring training, Nick put some baby powder in Schneider's back pocket of his jeans with his wallet in there. Schneids and I went to Wal-Mart after that and he pulled his wallet out to pay for something and the baby powder went everywhere; there was a big cloud of baby powder.

That might not be funny to some people, but when you're with the same people for 200 days, anything we do is pretty funny.

How can it not be funny to some people? Baby powder is hilarious! That is ... until someone gets mistakenly busted for possession of a controlled substance in their pocket ... or for shoplifting baby powder at a Wal-Mart. But as long as that doesn't happen, then bless those boys and their baby powder. Imagine what the gang can do with peanut brittle (on second thought, I don't want to know).

I can only hope the baby powder is in abundance this season. I hear that excessive losses can chafe.