FanHouse Gordon Beckham

The rumors started early on Thursday morning that the Kansas City Royals had agreed to trade Mark Teahen to the Chicago White Sox for Chris Getz and Josh Fields. Neither team would confirm the deal throughout the day, but 24 hours later it has become official.

Teahen and cash will be heading to Chicago for Getz and Fields. While it can't be known for sure, odds are the amount of cash the White Sox will receive from the Royals for the arbitration eligible Teahen is what kept the trade from being completed for 24 hours.

The focus of most Major League Baseball fans is directed towards the playoffs right now as teams fight for their chance to play for a World Series title. But the astute fantasy baseball GM should be looking in the desert as the Arizona Fall League has just started.

Why tune in and watch young baseball players with little or no major league experience? Well, in the Arizona Fall League last year, hitters like Drew Sutton, Gordon Beckham and Nolan Reimold tore up the competition -- showing that they could make contributions at the major league level.

You also should not forget about a pitcher by the name of Tommy Hanson. In seven AFL starts last year Hanson struck out 49 batters while only throwing 28.2 innings. He also had a 5-0 record with a 0.63 ERA. We all know what Hanson did for the Braves in 2008 -- and for fantasy GM's who knew his name on draft day.

Who will be this year's Tommy Hanson?

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.

The ugly pitching line from Monday night shouldn't have been a huge shock to Jarrod Washburn fantasy owners. He went 5 2/3 innings, giving up 9 hits, 8 earned runs, 3 walks and 2 home runs. He struck out just 2. While it was his worst outing for the Tigers, he's been flat-out awful in Motown since he was acquired at the trade deadline. Sure, there was an 8-inning gem where he didn't allow a run. He also mixed in a quality start last time out for his first win in Detroit. Other than that, it's been horrifying.

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?

OAKLAND -- Infielders and former infielders around the majors have long admired Adrian Beltre for his Gold Glove play at third base.

Now, many of them are looking at Beltre with a different kind of disbelief.

"I can't believe a guy is playing third base without a cup," said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, a former All-Star shortstop. "That's ballsy. That's a dangerous place, especially third base."

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

In 2005, Tom Gorzelanny pitched in the majors for the first time. He was just 22. Two years later, he went 14-10 with a 3.88 ERA -- logging more than 200 innings in 32 starts for the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates. He did allow too many hits, but he was only 25 years old, so it appeared he would settle in as an anchor for the ever-rebuilding Pirates.

Instead, he had a disastrous past two seasons and had been relegated to the minors. Last week, Gorzelanny was traded to the Cubs, and Tuesday night he passed his Cubs debut with flying colors.

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

Jon Garland has a 6-10 record on the season with a 4.26 ERA and I'm about to tell you that he's been the victim of poor run support. Well, that's at least part of the reason for his double digit loss column.

We've heard it before from the Diamondbacks and their pitchers. Dan Haren started the season with three straight losses even though he gave up only four total earned runs in those three games. But Haren is an ace and it was believable when we played the run support card with him. Garland, on the other hand, just doesn't have the track record.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That Matt Holliday is looking like the best midseason acquisition in history. Well, it's probably a little early to make that statement, but his first week-plus as a member of the Cardinals has been remarkable.

Holliday hit two homers among his three hits on Saturday, leading the Cardinals to a 3-1 victory over the Astros. Since Holliday was traded by the A's to the Cardinals on July 24, he's 20-for-33 (.606). Those are high school baseball numbers. Holliday, who actually started heating up in his final few weeks in Oakland, is up to Holliday-like numbers for the season: .314 with 14 homers, a .404 on-base percentage and .507 slugging percentage.

An impending free agent, Holliday is making himself a lot of money these days.

---

---

Somebody call Tommy Lee Jones and tell him he can stop searching every warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in the Chicagoland area for missing White Sox pitcher Bartolo Colon has been found. Of course, had he started his search at a Waffle House it probably wouldn't have taken nearly as long to find him.

Colon is scheduled to start in Charlotte for the White Sox' Triple-A affiliate on Thursday but was nowhere to be found this week as the White Sox tried in vain to reach him. Where Colon was I'm not quite sure, but at least Ozzie Guillen was nice enough to explain why he was so hard to find for us.

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

In yesterday's Rush, we mentioned that Gordon Beckham is heating up and that the power would come. As if right on cue, he posted a 4-2-3-2 line in the box score. That is 4 at-bats, 3 hits, 2 runs and 2 RBI, for those box score challenged. One of the hits was a home run. Beckham went through some predictable growing pains when he was first called up the majors, but he's since raised his on-base percentage to .353. His OPS is 1.396 in his last five games. It's time to keep your eyes on him in all fantasy leagues. There's a reason he was in the majors less than a year after he was drafted.