The Tampa Bay Rays are enduring a pretty disappointing season, and that's an understatement. After going to the World Series last year, they are hovering around .500 and have fallen too far back in any playoff race to have a realistic shot these last few weeks. So, obviously there has to be some frustration among players, and it appears to have boiled over in the clubhouse.
Carl Crawford, one of the team's most respected leaders reportedly "loudly confronted" free-agent bust Pat Burrell before batting practice Wednesday. There are no further details, because no one said anything other than manager Joe Maddon, who kept saying everything is fine.
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.
By now we all know of the greatness of San Francisco pitcher Tim Lincecum. He's the best pitcher in baseball this season, with a 2.34 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 233 strikeouts in 200 1/3 innings. But there's another hard-throwing young kid in the Giants organization that, like Lincecum, has a shot to be one of the league's best very quickly. He's a guy you want to burn that No. 1 waiver priority on, in case he sticks in the rotation for the rest of the season. He is Madison Bumgarner.
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.
On Sunday, Ichiro Suzuki became the second fastest player to ever reach the 2,000 hit milestone as he doubled in the first inning and later scored.
It took Suzuki 1,402 games to reach 2,000 hits. The fastest was Al Simmons who did it in 1,390 games. Suzuki needs five more hits to reach 200 for the season, which would break the record he shares with Willie Keeler at nine consecutive seasons with 200.
As milestone talk goes, Ichiro is playing second fiddle to what's about to happen in New York.
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.
As the No. 1 overall pick in 1990, Chipper Jones signed with the Braves for $275,000.
Even in today's dollars, that's about $450,000 -- or about 3 percent of Stephen Strasburg was guaranteed as this year's No. 1 pick.
And Jones agreed to his deal the night before the draft, while Strasburg came within two minutes of missing last Monday's deadline to sign.
"I think the only way that you're going to get kids signed and get them into the various camps is to put some kind of cap on it," Jones said. "I was always of the belief that you make your money at the big-league level."
That's how the teams want it too. When the current collective bargaining agreement is up in two years, Major League Baseball may pursue an NBA-style slotting system -- with signing bonuses locked in depending on how high a player is picked, as opposed to the current non-binding slot recommendations.
ST. LOUIS – With organizations re-realizing the value of defense, it was appropriate that the MVP of Tuesday's All-Star Game was picked because of his play in the field.
Carl Crawford was awarded the Arch Ward Trophy for his leaping grab in the seventh inning, robbing Brad Hawpe of what would have been a tie-breaking homer to left.
"I don't think I've ever robbed a home run before," Crawford said, "so I picked a good time to do it tonight. It's definitely probably my best catch I've ever made."
The American League stretched its unbeaten streak in the All-Star Game to 13 (12 wins, one tie), edging the National League 4-3 Tuesday night in St. Louis for its fourth consecutive one-run victory in the showcase. The win secured home-field advantage for the junior circuit in the World Series for the seventh straight season, making it unbeaten since the exhibition took on that meaning.
In stark contrast to last year's game, which lasted 15 innings and a record four hours and 50 minutes, this year's was a brisk two hours and 31 minutes, the shortest Midsummer Classic since 1988 and a tribute to the irrepressible pitching of the American League.
Categorically Speaking is designed specifically for Rotisserie GM's. The information is great for all fantasy baseball formats, but for those of you who could use some help bolstering a specific roto category, this is for you. We're going to pay close attention to players who might be readily available on your waiver wire or who you might target in non-blockbuster trade talks.
Carl Crawford has a ten stolen base lead on the rest of the major league pack. If you have him on your fantasy baseball roster, you're probably in good shape in the steals category. But, what if you need some help? Here are some options.
Michael Bourn, Astros - Bourn is only owned in 41% of fantasy leagues, but his 15 stolen bases have him tied for fourth place among all hitters. Most of you avoided Bourn on draft day (and by the looks of it, still are) because of his craptastic .229 batting average last season. Bypassing Bourn at this point is a bad idea. He's sporting a .288 batting average and has cemented his place at the top of the Astros batting order.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Remember when Rickie Weeks was a hot new prospect whose quick bat drew comparisons to Gary Sheffield? Yeah, turns out that was four years ago.
Following season after season of frustration for hopeful fantasy owners, Weeks is finally coming through. The speed isn't there, but he's homered in three straight games to give him nine total in only 140 at-bats. By comparison, he only hit 14 in 475 at-bats last year. So has our man-crush of yesteryear suddenly transformed into the new Dan Uggla, or is this impressive power display just another tease?
The Tampa Bay Rays are enduring a pretty disappointing season, and that's an understatement. After going to the World Series last year, they are hovering around .500 and have fallen too far back in any playoff race to have a realistic shot these last few weeks. So, obviously there has to be some frustration among players, and it appears to have boiled over in the clubhouse. 
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Every Sunday, 
ST. LOUIS – With organizations re-realizing the value of defense, it was appropriate that the MVP of Tuesday's 
Different year, different path, same result.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
