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 ugly pitching line from Monday night shouldn't have been a huge shock to Jarrod Washburn fantasy owners. He went 5 2/3 innings, giving up 9 hits, 8 earned runs, 3 walks and 2 home runs. He struck out just 2. While it was his worst outing for the Tigers, he's been flat-out awful in Motown since he was acquired at the trade deadline. Sure, there was an 8-inning gem where he didn't allow a run. He also mixed in a quality start last time out for his first win in Detroit. Other than that, it's been horrifying.
What a quick turnaround for Chad Qualls. He had just recorded the final out in his 24th save of the 2009 campaign -- 15 more than his previous career-high -- but, in the process, had taken a liner off his knee. Tests have shown the shot did enough damage to tear his patella femoral ligament in his left knee. In layman's terms, it's a ligament that connects the knee-cap (patella) to the thigh bone (femur) and he will need surgery to repair it.
The surgery will end Qualls' season prematurely, as he'll need three to four months to get back on the hill. The good news, though, is the the Diamondbacks aren't going anywhere this year and Qualls has plenty of time to recover before 2010 spring training.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That things got weird, awfully weird, at Petco Park on Sunday. The Diamondbacks carried a five-run lead into the ninth inning against San Diego thanks to seven innings of one-run ball by Dan Haren and a scoreless inning of relief by Tony Pena.
Then the wheels really fell off.
Juan Gutierrez and Chad Qualls surrendered five runs in the ninth, the last three of which came on a game-tying home run by light-hitting David Eckstein. Eckstein has 20 career homers in nine professional seasons, and a career slugging average of .359. So if you're keeping score, one of the most punchless players in the majors went deep in the most cavernous park in baseball, and things were only starting to get interesting.
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's no secret we here at Fantasy FanHouse were not a fan of Matt Holliday for your fantasy baseball team this season. We told you to avoid him several times in the draft kit, and still more in chats. This wasn't because we thought he was a terrible player or a bad guy. Quite the contrary, he's a good player and seems like a swell enough guy. It's just that he was so overvalued and we knew his numbers would take a hit departing Colorado for the Bay area.
Well, now is the fun part of fantasy baseball. Now we're telling you to trade for him.
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?
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Who would have thought that Dexter Fowler's five stolen base game wouldn't even last a week as the high steals game in 2009. Carl Crawford did him one better Sunday, taking six in as many chances. Crawford is now 17-17 in stolen base attempts this season. Lost in the shuffle was that his 4-4 day at the plate caused his average to rise all the way up to .317.
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. Each week The Closer Report will give you that information. And if that wasn't good enough we'll rank the closers from top to bottom.
Here's an interesting statistic. Somewhere between 30 percent and 40 percent of the closers who are listed as the the team's official closer will not be in that role by the end of the season. It's the case every year. Whether a closer loses his job due to injury or just plain can't get the job done, you're going to learn that you can find saves on the waiver wire throughout the season. You just have to know where to look.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
One fantasy baseball question becoming increasingly more prevalent these days is very succinct: Is David Ortiz done? The problem? It's a tough question to answer. What do we actually mean by "done?" Is he ever going to be the guy who hit 54 home runs or the one who drove home 148 runs again? No. Not a chance.
Just as Knox posted his results from our recent FanHouse draft, I'll throw mine on here, too, for your critiques. Mr. Bardeen laid out the league format here. Year 101 is my team name, as you can see from the title to this piece, and it has a little something to do with my favorite baby bears.
Somehow, I ended up with the top pick in the draft. I haven't had this happen to me in years. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I picked first in fantasy baseball or football. Well, I'd been preaching -- since A-Rod fell injured -- what to do with the top choice. I had to put my money where my mouth was.
FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Diamondbacks began 2008 white-hot and were considered a legitimate World Series contender, storming out to record 12 games over .500 on May 18. They then proceeded to slap together two straight sub-.500 months, managing a 22-33 record in May and June, scoring just 90 runs in the latter monht.
When the Dodgers finally acquired Manny Ramirez, well, things snowballed and Arizona suddenly found itself out of the playoffs altogether.
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.
What a quick turnaround for 
Starting Five
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
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. Each week 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Just as Knox posted his results from our recent FanHouse draft, I'll throw mine on here, too, for your critiques. Mr. Bardeen 
