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As Eric Milton eyes his return to the Dodgers' starting rotation, general manager Ned Colletti has been out watching some of their minor-league affiliates recently. It's no secret the Dodgers would like to upgrade starting pitching before the trade deadline, and reportedly Colletti is checking out which minor leaguers in the Dodgers' system can be used in a trade to acquire left-hander Jarrod Washburn from Seattle.

The Mariners are still hanging around in the AL West, though, so it's not exactly a sure thing they'd be willing to part with Washburn. He does make quite the hefty salary, but his contract is up at the conclusion of this season, so moving him wouldn't really save the Mariners much money.

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

The Mets are beginning to look like the Patriots when it comes to injury information. Just a couple of weeks ago, I told you to be worried about Jose Reyes' bum leg when we found out he had a "calf strain." Thursday night, the team confirmed Reyes has a torn right hamstring tendon and this is believed to be something new. Excuse me for being cynical, but this is the latest in a long line of sketchy diagnoses. Let's take a look at what else New York bungled, shall we ...

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

You Oughta Know ...
That two crafty left-handers showed they still have something left in the tank Sunday. Eric Milton, who went almost three years without a win in the major leagues, won his second consecutive start in this 2009 comeback with the Dodgers -- an 8-2 defeat of the Cubs -- since being recalled by the club from Triple-A Albuquerque. It's unclear if he will get a third with Hiroki Kuroda returning from injury on Monday.

Hundreds of miles away and hours earlier, the Phillies' Jamie Moyer -- who knows a thing or two about making a comeback -- picked up his 250th career win against the Nationals ... after five previous tries. Moyer needs just four more wins to pass Carl Hubbell and become the 10th-winningest left-handed pitcher in major league history.

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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 Nationals can still go 0-162. Washington lost at Atlanta in a game that ended at 1:25 AM ET, thanks to a two-hour rain delay and 10 innings.

The Nationals came back from deficits of 4-1 and 5-4, tying the game 5-5 with a run in the top of the ninth. But lefty Joe Beimel, their seventh pitcher, had to work a second inning and gave up the winning run in the 10th, when Kelly Johnson hit the winning single.

Washington, 0-4, left 16 runners on base. The good news for the Nationals is they are getting closer to a win; after losing by six runs on Opening Day, they have cut their final deficits to five, two and now one. Also, the Nats are just three games behind the Braves in the wild-card race.

As you set your fantasy lineups for week one remember that there are 43 starting pitchers this week who will start twice. I've broken these 43 pitchers into three categories. There are 19 "must start" pitchers, nine solid options, and 15 risky hurlers throwing twice.

For the record, since there is only one game tonight featuring the Braves and the Phillies, and it's a Sunday night game, you'll find that in most weekly leagues Derek Lowe and Brett Myers (tonight's starters) will only have one start in week one, even though they'll be starting twice in their teams first seven games.

Tim Lincecum looks to have a cake walk first week as he faces Milwaukee and San Diego. While Paul Maholm, Ian Snell, John Lannan and Scott Olsen have some of the toughest two-start schedules as they face tough teams in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Atlanta and Florida.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Eventual landing spot for Manny Ramirez. Seriously, it's going to happen sooner or later, so we'll just assume it's already happened for the purposes of this post. Obviously, if he either signs elsewhere (unlikely) or sits out this season (as unlikely as the holier than thou media embracing A-Rod), we'll have to re-fantasy-spin the entire offense. He's that important to the lineup.

Next Big Thing is MLB FanHouse's look at emerging teams, trends and stars in 2009.

It's hard enough keeping track of prospects playing minor league ball here in the U.S., let alone all the talented players elsewhere in the world, so when a guy jumps across the Pacific, casual fans have no frame of reference for what to expect.

Remember a couple of winters ago? As hilarious as it seems now, some Yankees fans and beat writers alike were just as excited about Kei Igawa as Red Sox fans were about Daisuke Matsuzaka. Two seasons later, Dice-K finished fourth in Cy Young voting, while Igawa threw all of four innings in the big leagues.

According to multiple reports, Kenshin Kawakami, a 33-year-old right-hander formerly of the Chunichi Dragons, looks like he'll be the next Japanese player to sign with a major league team. Where exactly he lands, though, is a point of a contention.

One report out of Japan suggests he's nearing a deal with the Braves, which jives with what Yahoo's Tim Brown is hearing. But Steve Melewski of MASN Sports has a source claiming that the Orioles "remain in the mix, no question," which seems to suggest Kawakami has yet to shut any doors -- at one time or another, the Mets, Braves, Cardinals, Red Sox and Pirates are also believed to have expressed interest.

Baltimore entered the offseason with exactly one rotation spot filled, so to say it needs pitching help would be an understatement of epic proportions. The Orioles signed journeyman Mark Hendrickson last week. Now they've erased another of the question marks after Jeremy Guthrie by agreeing to two-year deal with Japanese pitcher Koji Uehara, according to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun.

Uehara, who will be 34 on Opening Day and who has an outstanding international resume, will be the first Japanese player in franchise history -- a strange thought considering the impact talent from the Far East that currently resides in the AL East.

The signing certainly could pay future dividends, as Peter Schmuck writes, but the question in the short-term is just how he'll fit in at Camden Yards and how he'll cope with pitching in the toughest division in baseball.

His agent thinks he'll be outstanding:

"I have a lot of confidence in this guy. He'll take the ball every fifth day and can be a No. 2 or 3 in a very difficult division," [Mark] Pieper said. "This will be a challenge for him but he is clearly up for it."

Of course, agents are paid to think and talk like that about their clients.

As well as the Dodgers played against the Cubs, they were just as bad in the NLCS. Chad Billingsley, one of the main reasons they got this far in the first place, struggled mightily in both of his starts, not making it out of the third inning in either. Rafael Furcal completely fell apart in the fifth inning of Game 5, managing to make three errors on two plays, which led to two Philadelphia runs. And Blake DeWitt hit into double plays in both the second and fifth, killing two of L.A.'s scoring chances, which were few and far between against Cole Hamels.

Despite their poor play against the Phillies, the team the Dodgers put on the field in October was excellent, and would be a threat to make some noise again in 2009. Problem is, they won't get that opportunity. Everyone knows Manny Ramirez is a free agent, but the list is a lot longer than just him: Furcal, Derek Lowe, Casey Blake, Takashi Saito, Jeff Kent, and Nomar Garciaparra will all have the opportunity to test the market. This was L.A.'s only opportunity with this group, and they squandered it with their performance over the last seven days.

Even with all the potential departures, the Dodgers do still have a strong core. Russ Martin, James Loney, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier will all be in the lineup for years to come, and the rotation will continue to be strong with Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, and Clayton Kershaw at the top. They're also fortunate enough to play in the weak NL West, so getting back to the postseason won't be as difficult as it might be otherwise. But L.A. had all of those guys (save Kershaw) this year, and still managed only 84 regular season wins, even with Lowe at the top of the rotation and Ramirez for the last couple months. The Dodgers aren't going to suddenly turn into the Royals, but this was probably their best shot for awhile, and they couldn't capitalize.