FanHouse EdinsonVolquez

Two good things happened to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates and emerged from their one-day stay in last place in the NL Central. That coincided with Scott Rolen's return from the disabled list. Unfortunately with the Reds, their two pieces of good news were balanced with two more players hitting the disabled list. Aaron Harang will miss the rest of 2009 after an appendectomy on Saturday night and Chris Dickerson badly sprained his ankle during a pick-off attempt during Sunday's game.

The list of Reds' injuries this year is staggering. John Fay at the Cincy Enquirer has a good run down of all of them; every opening day starter except Brandon Phillips has spent time on the DL while Harang joins Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto there, making up 3/5ths of their opening day starting rotation. It's an incredible run of bad luck that's certainly part of the reason the Reds are battling the Pirates for last place. I also think it's creating an easy excuse for a team that has deeper running problems.

When it was announced Monday that Edinson Volquez had Tommy John surgery, my immediate gut reaction was: "Everyone will blame Dusty Baker for this." Of all of the managers in baseball, Baker is the most notorious destroyer of young arms after his stint in Chicago dramatically altered the careers of Mark Prior and Kerry Wood.

With another promising young starter getting ligament replacement surgery under his watch, the easy assumption is that this is just another notch on Dusty's belt. The easy assumption isn't always the right one, though, and immediately blaming him didn't quite sit right with me.

I remember watching how he handled both Volquez and Johnny Cueto last August and September and nothing jumped out at me as out of the ordinary or abusive. So is it Dusty's fault that Volquez will miss the rest of 2009 and most of 2010?

Monday morning, the Cincinnati Reds announced that ace pitcher Edinson Volquez went under the knife. Reds medical director Dr. Timothy Kremchek performed a 90-minute procedure on Volquez's right arm to repair his torn ulnar collateral ligament. In layman's terms, Volquez received the famed Tommy John surgery in his elbow.

As is the case with most of these procedures, he's likely to miss an entire calendar year before attempting a return.

In all of the excitement of the trade deadline yesterday, one piece of news went unnoticed; Edinson Volquez suffered a setback during his rehab. The expected follow up to that news was announced by the Reds Saturday; Volquez will undergo an unspecified elbow surgery on Monday. Whatever the procedure is, it seems likely that Volquez, who's only thrown one inning since May 16, is done for the season, especially with the Reds dropping out of contention after losing 10 of their last 11.

The big question that remains is what sort of surgery Volquez will require and how much time he'll miss next year. If he does need Tommy John surgery (which has been mentioned as a possibility), he'll be out until this time in 2010 at the very least and he could potentially miss all of the season, depending on how his rehab goes. That's all speculation, of course, the Reds are being vague and we may not know what's actually wrong with Volquez's elbow until he comes out of the operating room on Monday.

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.

Big ups to Prez for taking the PR reigns over while I was off last week. But we're back in the saddle, fresh out of the All-Star break and ready to incite you with our rankings. Also, I should point out that this is, relatively speaking, the "home stretch." Where even the most minuscule of mini-streaks can change a team's fate. Or something like that. Anyway, let's go to the list, where we'll find out if an attack on Jack Nicholson by the Phanatic and the addition of Petey was enough to vault the Phillies into the top spot of the Week 16 MLB Power Rankings. Cue drumroll.

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

The most remarkable thing about this season as we hit the not-halfway halfway point of the All-Star break isn't Albert Pujols' RBI total. Or Zack Greinke's ERA. Or the PED suspension of one of the game's biggest stars.

It's the standings. And they not only reflect the season so far, they give us a clue as to the weeks head leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline.

The Phillies and Dodgers are the only first-place team with a lead of more than 2 1/2 games. And 21 of the 30 teams are within 7 1/2 games of a playoff spot: nine of 14 in the AL and 12 of 16 in the NL.

As the Reds linger around in the NL Central race -- a.k.a. The Race No One Seems to Want to Win -- they could really use the services of last year's ace, Edinson Volquez. The right-hander who went 17-6 last season has been on the disabled list since June 2 with elbow tendinitis. Initial plans were to activate Volquez quite soon.

Those plans have now been put on hold because a recent MRI (the second one taken during last homestand) revealed muscle inflammation in Volquez's forearm, and they have completely shut him down until it subsides.

The NL Central is in a weird sort of stasis field right now. The teams at the top aren't playing particularly well, while the teams at the bottom aren't playing particularly poorly. That's created a compacted division where, entering play Tuesday, every team, from the Astros at the bottom to the Brewers at the top, is within 4 1/2 games. With a division this close, its conceivable that anything could tip the balance right now. That means it's good news for the Reds that Joey Votto is expected to begin his rehab assignment soon.

Dusty Baker told the Cincinnati Enquirer this afternoon that Votto's been swinging the bat and should start working out with the team soon with a rehab assignment closely following. The Reds don't want to rush him, but their lineup could certainly use his .627 slugging percentage back as soon as possible

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.

Sorry for the delay, kiddos, on the Power Rankings. I'm sure you spent the entirety of Wednesday wondering "WHERE IN GOD'S NAME ARE THEY??? WITHOUT THEM I'LL HAVE NOTHING TO BANTER SENSELESSLY ABOUT TO MY CO-WORKERS!!!1" Or something like that. Either way, it's time to debate the worthlessness of your favorite baseball team in numerical form once again. Do enjoy.

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.