FanHouse Freddy Sanchez

The San Francisco Giants announced today that they've come to terms with second baseman Freddy Sanchez on a two-year deal. Terms weren't announced, but with the Giants holding an $8 million option on Sanchez, it's probably safe to assume that the cost for them per year will be less than that. T

That option would've vested for Sanchez on its own if he'd reached 600 plate appearances, but a shoulder and knee injuries limited him to just 25 games in a Giants uniform after he was traded to San Francisco from Pittsburgh. The shoulder's been a nagging problem for Sanchez for some time, but when healthy Sanchez has been one of the best hitting second basemen in the NL over the past few seasons, being named to three of the last four All-Star teams and winning a batting title in 2006.

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 nine games scheduled for Thursday. That means we may need to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find some solid fill-ins. Here are five of the best options.

Jack Cust, Athletics - Cust hasn't been the model of consistent hitting this season and as of late he's been less then stellar batting .221 over the last month. But, he has a pretty good track record against Scott Feldman (five hits and two home runs in 15 at-bats) so could fill-in nicely on Thursday. Cust is only owned in 16% of fantasy leagues.

With the Pittsburgh Pirates in the midst of their 17th consecutive losing season, a lot of Pirates players have been walking the plank and being shipped to other teams around the majors. Still, even with all the roster upheaval in Pittsburgh it seems there will be at least one person left who will be returning to the Bucs next season.

While in Chicago on Sunday during a rain delay -- the game was eventually postponed -- team president Frank Coonelly talked about the future of current manager John Russell and said that he would be back manning the ship in 2010.

So you thought that once Matt Holliday went to St. Louis and Cliff Lee wound up with the Phillies deadline day itself would be anticlimactic? Hardly.

Three All-Stars, including a former Rookie of the Year and Cy Young, went elsewhere on July 31, and all that happened while the biggest name on the market all month, Roy Halladay, stayed put.

No, this deadline did not disappoint. There was a flurry of activity right down to 4 PM ET and a legitimate shocker to finish it all off. What better way to wrap up all of the intrigue then with a look at the early winners and losers? Join me -- and a few other members of the MLB FanHouse crew -- as we break it all down 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.

Apologies for the lack of R.R. yesterday, but we're hitting you with a special extended trade edition today to make up for it. There's been a lot of activity over the past few days, especially with top pitching commodities like Cliff Lee, Jarrod Washburn and George Sherrill. We've also seen a pair of Pittsburgh starters head outta town and two prized minor-league prospects change locations. Time to break it all down from a fantasy perspective.

---

---

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

I intimated last week that the trade deadline is always a tough time of year for Pirates fans, and Wednesday was the perfect illustration of why that is.

In a matter of about eight hours, the Pittsburgh Pirates sent their two most popular players, Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez, packing to the west coast. The moves were made in the name of rebuilding, and they were the right moves for the team to make, but sometimes that knowledge doesn't make the news any easier to take.

The Giants completed the remodeling of the right side of their infield by acquiring All-Star Freddy Sanchez from the Pirates in exchange for Double-A right-hander Tim Alderson, considered the organization's second-best pitching prospect.

Sanchez, 31, will become the Giants' new second baseman, joining new first baseman Ryan Garko. The team had been trying to beef up its offense for the wild-card race. Sanchez was hitting .296 with a .334 on-base percentage.

Alderson, 20, was 7-2 with a 3.65 ERA this season, splitting time between Single-A San Jose and Double-A Connecticut. He was the Giants' second first-round pick, 22nd overall, in the 2007 draft.

SAN FRANCISCO -- When word first surfaced that the Giants may have had their medical people take a look at Freddy Sanchez's sore left knee, it seemed like a sure precursor to a trade sending Sanchez from one clubhouse to the other at AT&T Park.

But Sanchez cleared it up on Tuesday night. Sort of.

Sanchez, who has missed the past few games, confirmed that Dr. Ken Akizuki, the Giants orthopedist, had looked at his knee on Monday night. However, he also said that was simply a courtesy since the Pirates doctor was not on the trip.

"If we'd have been in Arizona, the Arizona doctor would have done it," Sanchez said.

The Minnesota Twins returned home on Monday night after a 4-6 road trip in which they lost four of their last five, and the return home paid off with a 4-3 win over the White Sox. Still, while the win was nice, odds are that the Twins clubhouse wasn't in the greatest mood afterward.

With the team's core players already pleading with general manager Bill Smith to make a deal before the trade deadline, the Twins just discovered a new hole they're going to have to plug. Kevin Slowey had wrist surgery that is going to end his year.

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.