From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
This coming weekend, Major League Baseball will reveal its 2009 All-Star teams. So what better opportunity than this to run through a list of this season's "Anti-All-Stars." Anti-All-Stars is far too bland a name, though, so we decided to name the team in honor of Andruw Jones. After all, he was the poster child for guys not earning the lucrative contracts bestowed on them last season. We'll sort through each position and find the player who is least helping his team in comparison to expectations -- whether monetary or from management.
Manny Ramirez is in Albuquerque, Jimmy Rollins isn't stealing bases, and Alex Rodriguez's batting average resembles 2008 Craig Counsell. Top picks have disappointed and the fantasy baseball world has been turned upside down by injuries (Thanks, Dice-K!). Knox Bardeen and I try to sort through the madness in this week's cram session. Check out the podcast after the jump.
Over the course of 162 games, longer if you count Spring Training and throw in a World Baseball Classic, players tend to get nicked up, bruised, broken and anxious. When the injury bug hits players on your fantasy roster you have to react quickly.
It's time to take a look at some recent injury news, talk about how it can effect your fantasy team, and find ways to fix the problem.
Ervin Santana, Angels - Santana wasn't progressing as well as he could have been with the comeback from his strained right forearm. He missed the first month of the season due to the injury and upon his arrival back went 1-3 with a 7.47 ERA in five starts. The Angels are bringing up Sean O'Sullivan, who threw seven solid innings last week in his major league debut, but he may be too green to add to your roster. Since you were hoping for a low ERA and big-time strikeout numbers when you drafted Santana, look at Ubaldo Jimenez who has a 3.73 ERA and 76 strikeouts. Jimenez is only owned in 56% of fantasy leagues.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That the Angels and Cubs -- two overwhelming favorites to win their division entering 2009 -- finally seem to have their mojo back.
A day after Chicago rallied from four down in the eighth inning to beat the White Sox, they climbed out of a 7-0 fourth-inning hole to beat the Indians, thanks in part to another dramatic home run from Derrek Lee -- a drive that came off of longtime Cub Kerry Wood no less.
Not to be outdone, the Angels' Juan Rivera snapped a 4-all tie in the eighth inning of the Freeway Series opener with a decisive solo home run. The Halos have now reeled off seven straight wins, and, despite all the hard luck (and tragedy) they've had to deal with so far this season, are a 1/2 game behind the division-leading Rangers in the AL West.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
For the most of past two seasons, Aaron Rowand has been a thorn in the collective sides of his fantasy owners. In the middle of May, his batting average even dipped down to .214 (he also only had 2 homers at the time). Starting May 10, though, Rowand has been mashing. In that 21-game span, he's hitting .378 with 4 home runs and 12 RBI. He's also accrued 10 doubles and scored 18 runs in that time.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what's ahead. You Oughta Know ... That it's awfully hard for K-Rod to earn his money if J.J. Putz isn't doing his job ahead of Rodriguez. For the second straight day, Putz had a rocky outing. He surrendered two runs in a touch and go eighth inning Sunday against the Marlins (the Mets still won the game) and followed that Monday by allowing four runs and taking the loss against the Pirates.
Putz gave up four consecutive singles during Pittsburgh's rally, and attributed much of his performance to misfortune.
"A couple hoppers up the middle," Putz said. "They hit groundballs; they just hit them to the right spot.
"There's not much you can say about that. There's a little bit of bad luck involved."
Rookie Rick Porcello and Randy Wolf make surprise appearances in the "Must Start" category for the week nine version of two-start pitchers. But, that's not the craziest addition to the list. Am I seriously adding Livan Hernandez? Take a look at what he's done over the last month and you'll want to add him to your starting lineup as well.
In all there are 41 pitchers throwing twice next week. The good thing about Monday is that all of the games are night-time starts. You won't need to finalize your weekly rosters until 7:05 PM ET.
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.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
He's only 21 years old. He's only 21 years old. Whenever you get frustrated that your future fantasy stud is struggling, it's important to take a breather and repeat those words. When I was 21, I think I spent my Wednesday nights playing Counter-Strike and eating bad pizza. Justin Upton, on the other hand, has to deal with expectations that he's the next Willie Mays. Whatever happened to the 27-year-old "breakout" rule? Suddenly it's six years younger?
Over the course of 162 games, longer if you count Spring Training and throw in a World Baseball Classic, players tend to get nicked up, bruised, broken and anxious. When the injury bug hits players on your fantasy roster you have to react quickly.
Starting Five
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Starting Five
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
