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.
By now we all know of the greatness of San Francisco pitcher Tim Lincecum. He's the best pitcher in baseball this season, with a 2.34 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 233 strikeouts in 200 1/3 innings. But there's another hard-throwing young kid in the Giants organization that, like Lincecum, has a shot to be one of the league's best very quickly. He's a guy you want to burn that No. 1 waiver priority on, in case he sticks in the rotation for the rest of the season. He is Madison Bumgarner.
With the recent additions to major league ball teams due to the expansion of rosters there aren't that many two-start pitchers next week. And there are still a few situations up in the air. The landscape could change rather quickly as teams decide if they want to run with a six-man rotation or keep things normal with five starters.
Not only has Pedro Martinez looked great in his early starts but he gets to face the Nationals and the Mets next week. He would be a great two-start add, and he's only owned in 33% of fantasy leagues.
There are 35 total two-start pitchers for week 23. Make sure you get your rosters set by 12:35 PM ET as the Cubs and Pirates play first on Monday.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday -- it's running Friday this week.
Earlier this week, Brad Lidge's nightmare 2009 season continued, when he allowed a walk-off homer to Andrew McCutchen. Ed Price covered the outing the following morning. The abysmal performance by the Phillies' closer underlines the only weakness of the defending World Series Champions.
There is a pretty even distribution of talent this week as 43 pitchers will be two-start pitchers for the week.
Of the 11 "Must Start" options I really like Yovani Gallardo who gets the enviable task of facing the Nationals and the Pirates. Roy Halladay has it the worst of the bunch as not only does he have to face the Rays and the Red Sox, but he has to face two starting pitchers with sub-four ERA's.
The other 17 pitchers are "Risky Business". You should only be considering these guys if you're in super-deep leagues or just massively desperate for strikeouts. None of these are viable options.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
Every Hot Stove season, each team reshapes its roster in an attempt to better themselves. After each transaction, whether a free agent acquisition, trade or something else, writers and bloggers everywhere provide knee-jerk reactions on each particular move. Though the majority of the analysis is educated, it's still just conjecture. Today, we'll take the long view and look back at some of the maneuvering this past offseason and see how it played out on the field.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
We've seen our fair share of no-hitters and perfect games get busted up in late this season, maybe even more then our fair share. In fact, if Jonathan Sanchez hadn't finally made it all the way through nine innings back in early July, I'd think there was some sort of conspiracy against the no-hit bid in 2009.
Sunday, Brett Anderson took a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Angels. But, just like most of the attempts for perfection this season, the Angels found a way to play spoiler. This time it was Bobby Abreu in the seventh inning.
Abreu also was responsible for breaking up Anderson's perfect game, grounding a clean single through the left side with two outs in the seventh. Anderson promptly picked him off.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... Jason Marquis is three wins shy of his career high.
Marquis won Sunday for the Rockies, giving him 12 for the season, most in the majors. Not bad for a guy the Cubs essentially dumped in the offseason so they could sign Milton Bradley.
Against the Padres on Sunday, Marquis got 16 ground-ball outs in eight innings, allowing five hits and walking none -- despite a blister on his middle finger.
"If today is any indication of what the second half is going to be like for Jason Marquis, we will take that," manager Jim Tracy said. "He's one of the best in our league when he's pounding the strike zone early in the count like he was today."
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 Kemp put on quite a show a day after he lost out on the final spot on the National League All-Star team. The Dodgers' center fielder was one of the five players on the fan ballot for the final spot, which was won by Philadelphia's Shane Victorino on Thursday.
On Friday night, Kemp hit a go-ahead grand slam to lead the Dodgers to a 12-8, 10-inning victory over the Brewers in Milwaukee. In the bottom of the inning, Kemp recorded the final out of the game making a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch, running with his back to the infield.
Kemp said he'd actually been fooling around making over-the-shoulder catches in batting practice earlier in the day.
"I was messing around with it in batting practice today," said Kemp, who ran up the wall for show after the catch. "I guess I thought I'd use it in the game."
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
I had no idea I had these kinds of powers. Just one day after I made Johnny Cueto one of the headliners for All-Star Game snubs, he took the ball against the Philadelphia Phillies. The result was an absolute massacre, the likes of which we rarely -- if ever -- see from a starting pitcher. This outing so was horrifying it scared the hell out of Ugly.
The line? 49 pitches, 5 hits, 3 walks, 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 9 earned runs ... all with just two recorded outs. Two.
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.
With the recent additions to major league ball teams due to the expansion of rosters there aren't that many two-start pitchers next week. And there are still a few situations up in the air. The landscape could change rather quickly as teams decide if they want to run with a six-man rotation or keep things normal with five starters.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Starting Five
Starting Five
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Starting Five
