FanHouse Derek Jeter

He may not be willing to lace up his sneakers for the Minnesota Timberwolves, but Spanish point guard prodigy Ricky Rubio won't hesistate to become an American pitchman. Via Canis Hoopus, the young Mr. Rubio appears in what would appear to be his first stateside ad campaign, joining the likes of Derek Jeter, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer in a spot for Gillette.

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.

It's a funny thing, sometimes, to see how Power Rankings shape up over the course of the season. Just like when we started the year, there are a number of teams from one particular division sitting atop the rankings. Of course, there are plenty of surprises -- WHERE DID THE FREAKING GIANTS AND ROCKIES COME FROM?? -- and some other interesting stuff, like the fact that the Mets and Cubs just haven't been that good, which we discussed on the inaugural BaseCast recently.

NEW YORK – CC Sabathia is just fine. Perfectly healthy.

So healthy he could hit fifth for the Mets.

After a week of consternation in the Yankees universe over Sabathia's pricey left arm – he came out of his last start, Sunday at Florida, with a sore biceps – he proved there was nothing to worry about. Sabathia was perfect in six of his seven innings as the Yankees throttled the Mets 9-1.

Before the game, Yankees manager Joe Girardi wasn't sure if Sabathia was OK, keeping his fingers crossed his $161 million ace would make it through the pregame session.

Jeff Bennett is notable for two reasons. First off, he's the unfortunate subject of the most unflattering photograph ever taken (see image right). Second, on Wednesday, he sucker-punched a dugout wall, broke his left fifth metacarpal, and returned to the mound to pitch another full inning.

The fracture didn't seem to adversely affect Bennett's performance. Which begs the question: how many times have you thought, "wow, I sure am glad I have a fifth metacarpal behind the pinky finger of my non-dominant hand! What a wonderful skeletal feature!" I never have. What a worthless bone.

Friday's Dugout is after the jump.

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

No one said recovering from a torn pectoral muscle would be easy. And for Vladimir Guerrero's fantasy owners, many of his 130-plus at-bats were pretty painful to watch. But on Wednesday night, Vlad came back to life in a big way.

When you're truly dialed in as a fantasy GM you tend to see things coming before everyone else.

You drafted Raul Ibanez in the middle to late rounds and now you're looking to sell high. You jumped on Albert Pujols instead of Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez with your first round pick and you even took a late-round flier on Mark Reynolds. Things are looking good for your push forward to the championship.

To stay on course, you need to keep finding those hidden gems; those players who will out-produce the rest in the second half. You also need to stay ahead of injuries and slumps. But, and this is something that not every fantasy GM does, if you really want to show off your stuff (and this is an especially effective tactic in daily leagues) you should be looking at splits every single day to get the biggest bang for your buck with your lineup.

Here are some players with statistical splits to keep in mind when locking your lineup.

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.

Tuesday was an interesting night for pitchers. Heck, I was just giddy that there were more than two games being played.

It took Justin Verlander a little over a month to convince baseball pundits that he was the "real deal". Going into Tuesday night's start Verlander was the hottest pitcher in baseball. He was touched up for five earned runs in four innings and it'll be interesting to see how the fantasy baseball world reacts. The only correct reaction is to throw him back into your lineup for his next start. One bad outing in ten is a great run at things.

We also saw some gems Tuesday night. King Felix Hernandez threw a complete game shutout and allowed only two hits. If he pitched in New York or Boston we'd all be talking Cy Young.

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.

You hear that, fantasy baseball owners? Josh Hamilton's sole purpose on this Earth is to mess with you. Really, there's no way to over-dramatize the crap he's put fantasy owners through. Initially, he would have been the crown jewel in a dynasty league with minor-leaguers. When those types finally gave up on him, he made the show for the Reds. Then, he started to catch on for the Reds, but couldn't stay healthy. So he goes to the Rangers and puts himself on a record RBI pace, only to significantly slow down in the second half. In 2009, the bona fide elite-level fantasy outfielder has only played 35 games. He's only hitting .240. And he's out until mid-July.

NEW YORK -- Before he nervously made his debut at the new Yankee Stadium, before he drew four walks in front of a home crowd thrilled to have him back, before the Yankees celebrated their 5-4 win over the Minnesota Twins as if it were a playoff game in October, Alex Rodriguez turned to Derek Jeter and said something.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

I think we can all agree that it's far too early to start voting upon who the best 2009 players are when it's only the middle of May. That being said, there are certainly some shining stars at this point who deserve some props. Plus, Major League Baseball recently released their All-Star ballots for our voting pleasure -- we vote on who will start the All-Star Game. If that's not important, I don't know what is. Let's take a gander.