FanHouse Chris Coghlan

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.

All season long, we've been waiting for David Price to deliver on the hype. But Price's year has been up and down, with counting stats that resemble waiver-wire fodder outside of his strikeout total. Well, there's another Rays starter that may be on track to finish 2009 stronger than Price, and is well worth a spot in all keeper leagues.

Wade Davis, you now have our unbridled attention.

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.

After Tim Lincecum missed a start, fantasy owners still in the championship race had to have been holding their collective breath. Now is not the time to lose your staff ace. His next start would be a test of his health. Last year's NL Cy Young winner took the hill Monday night against the wild card-leading Rockies, and he passed the test with flying colors. While the 4 free passes were a bit disappointing, Lincecum more than made up for that with a win, 11 strikeouts and just 1 earned run in 7 innings of work. He's back, and he'll be a force the rest of the way (now if only someone could convince him to get a freaking haircut).

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.

While the main drama happened on Heinz Field last night, there was plenty of drama to be found in Washington D.C. No, President Obama didn't sign a health plan into law. But the Phillies entered the ninth inning down six and ended up losing by one after having the tying run on third base with only one out. Let's see how we got there.

Joe Blanton has been fantastic this year, and he entered the game with a 3.80 ERA and a 136/43 K/BB ratio in 166 innings. That's why it was surprising to see him perform so terribly in Thursday's game, where he gave up eight runs in less than five innings of work. The big blow came in the fifth inning, when Blanton gave up two homers to hitters at very different points in their careers.

NEW YORK -- On the day the Marlins told Chris Coghlan he was getting the call to the majors, they asked him to play one more day in Triple-A.

That's not standard procedure -- why risk an injury? -- but Florida had a good reason.

The Marlins wanted Coghlan to get one career game in left field under his belt before asking him to do it in the big leagues.

In fact, Coghlan has been asked to do two things this year he had never done before. Besides moving from second base to left, Coghlan has become a leadoff hitter.

And while that might seem like piling on, asking a youngster to learn two new jobs at the same time he adjusts to the major leagues, Coghlan has handled it all calmly and well.

For a number of major league teams Mondays and Thursdays are travel days. Every Wednesday and Sunday, Fantasy Fill-Ins finds guys who should be widely available on the waiver wire and can step in for the day, helping you gain ground or hold off the pack.

There are only seven games on Thursday, meaning over half of the major-league teams are off. Finding five fill-in players wasn't easy, but if it was everyone would do it.

Chris Coghlan, Marlins - Whispers around baseball have Coghlan as a dark-horse candidate for the National League Rookie of the Year award. I'm not sure there's enough name recognition for him to take home the hardware, but there's no reason why he shouldn't be helping your fantasy baseball team. He's batting .359 over the last month and .379 during the last week. He's only owned in 41% of leagues so grab him to fill in on Thursday and keep him around afterward. He's just that good.

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.

It wasn't a good day to be a top-ten closer on Wednesday. Both Mariano Rivera and Huston Street are on the shelf for a few days.

After the game Wednesday night, the Yankees told the media that Rivera was unavailable due to tightness in his groin. The 39-year-old Rivera, who has battled this injury for a while, sat out the final game of the Baltimore series but feels that he'll be back to full duty after a few days of rest.

Street seems just as optimistic after being shut down indefinitely due to biceps tendinitis in his right arm. He hopes to test the arm this weekend. If all goes well he'll be back to action in short time.

Kansas City Royals pitcher Zach Greinke started the season and could virtually do no wrong. He won his first six starts and by the end of May he was 8-1 through 11 starts with a tiny 1.10 ERA. That's exactly when you should have traded him, at the highest point of his yearly value. I only say this with the benefit of hindsight. It's easy to look back and decide which moves should have been made.

Since the beginning of June, Greinke has made 14 starts and has a record of 3-7. His ERA has ballooned to 2.44. His earned run average is still great, he's top-five in the league, but he's losing half of his starts. How's that happening with such a great ERA?

When Akinori Iwamura was carried off the field after Florida's Chris Coghlan slid into him hard at second base in late May, it was feared the Rays would be without their second baseman for the remainder of the season. During Iwamura's surgery on Monday, however, doctors found only a partial tear of his left ACL.

That mean arthroscopic, rather than reconstructive, surgery, and the Rays are reporting that Iwamura could rejoin the team in six-to-eight weeks. That lines up nicely with a potential push for a return trip to the playoffs, although one wonders how much Iwamura would actually get into the lineup when and if he will get a clean bill of health then.

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

Fantasy football season is a sprint. Fantasy baseball is a marathon. You might have heard this before, but it bears repeating when we see such headlines as: "Opening-day starter Ricky Nolasco demoted to minors" and "Magglio Ordonez benched indefinitely."

I'd say the photo collection above accurately sums up David Ortiz's season so far. It hit rock bottom on Thursday as the Red Sox slugger (?) went 0-for-7 with three strikeouts, and left ... wait for it ... 12 men on base (Update: Ortiz was benched Friday night against the Mariners). On the Big Papi scale, this is a slump of appalling proportions. He's homer-less in his last 144 at-bats, one shy of his career-worst drought between 1998 and 2000. Is it time for fantasy owners to cut their losses with Ortiz?