Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's action, with a quick nod to what's ahead. You Oughta Know ... That the American League West is still the Rangers' division, at least for a few more days. After a hot start, the Mariners have cooled off, going 2-8 in their lost 10 games. Texas has gone 8-2 over the same span to take first place in the West.
Lurking in the background are the Angels, suddenly only 1 1/2 games back of the Rangers and preparing to welcome ace John Lackey back into the fold, but Texas got a key player of its own back Tuesday night. Josh Hamilton returned from the disabled list, snapping a 1-1 tie with a home run in the Rangers' 7-1 win over Seattle.
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 Washington Nationals will be looking for a new closer as Joel Hanrahan has been fired. He was given the opportunity to close out five games and blew saves in three of those. His ERA is an unhealthy 8.64. The team will look to use a closer by committee approach for a while, waiting to see if injured Joe Beimel can return and flourish.
Tuesday, one day after Hanrahan surrendered a game-losing grand slam, Manager Manny Acta said that his team would now finish games -- or at least try to finish them -- with a committee of relief pitchers that includes Julián Tavárez and Kip Wells, both signed in March to non-guaranteed minor league deals. Once Joe Beimel (left hip flexor) returns from the disabled list in the first week of May, he could either join the mix or claim the job for himself.
Julian Tavarez recently compared signing with the Nationals to being in a bar during the late hours looking for a companion. Apparently, Joe Beimel was in the same bar still looking while Tavarez was leaving the establishment. Turns out Tavarez's companion has plenty to go around, as the Nationals have signed Beimel to a $2 million contract for one season.
Ironically, Beimel once made headlines while actually in a bar when he cut his hand on a glass putting him out for the 2006 playoffs. If he does that again and cost the Nationals a pitcher in the playoffs, then ... wait, that would mean the Nationals would be in the playoffs, so I'm sure you Nats fans would take that in a heartbeat.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
The funny thing about the Dodgers is that it's really, really easy to forget that before Manny Ramirez rode in on his dreadlocked donkey like a free-swinging Don Quixote, well, they were basically just your run of the mill mediocre baseball team.
Ned Colletti was, justifiably, on the hot seat, Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre were gathering larddustballs on the bench, and despite some pretty good pitching, there wasn't enough offense to limp the team towards a .500 National League West-winning record and OMG JOE TORRE FAIL.
But Manny did show up, and he did play the role of hero. The Dodgers streaked into the playoffs, the fans started flocking back to Chavez Ravine in their imitation 'locks and then Los Angeles shocked the world by sweeping the Cubs in the NLDS. Nowhere to go up but, right? Um, actually, no.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
See this kid? That's right -- he's crying. Do you know who caused this? That's right: you, New York Mets. You did this to him not once, but twice, losing the final game of the season at Shea Stadium with a sizable division lead in September and your destiny in your hands.
Only bad people make children cry. And if you do fail for a third season in a row, this child will wind up spending more money on extensive therapy than you did signing Luis Castillo. Heck, with this wig on, it may already be too late. But maybe not. So here's what you -- the Mets -- can do to make sure that this child grows up to lead a somewhat normal life.
While the Phillies celebrate a well-deserved World Series victory, life (and business) goes on for Major League Baseball. 65 players filed for free agency on the first day of the filing period for eligible players, and it's a completely normal but somewhat sad thing to see so many building blocks from playoff teams packing up and hittin' the old dusty trail.
Tonight's Dugout is a two-parter to give Philly their mad, Hammer-like propers, to find out where the Dugout regulars who didn't reach the mountaintop might be headed, and to officially end our season with FanHouse. Tomorrow the season starts over again when we find out what the hell happened to the Twins.
Every four years, Major League Baseball's postseason intersects with a presidential election. This is one of those years. In the spirit of the season, we here at MLB FanHouse have divided the playoff teams up for a series of debates.Matt Snyder and Will Brinson discuss the NLDS between the Cubs and Dodgers.
We'll run through different aspects of each team -- starting rotation, bullpen, defense, starting lineup, bench, manager, and end with a prediction. We'll do it with numbers and snarky commentary (most of which was used by Brinson), and we'll get right to it after the jump.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Playoffs are SERIOUS BUSINESS.
Players are having disputes with announcers, trades are being made, statistics are being used to support and argue and build and destroy. Futures are being planned. Hair is either being cut or not being cut, we aren't quite sure. Is there going to be a happy ending?
Today's Dugout, one man's point of view, is after the jump.
I don't care how good he's playing he still looks weird in that uniform. Like when I'm playing MLB The Show 08 for the PS3 and turn on the fantasy draft. Juan Pierre is an Oriole and he's driven in 160 runs before the All-Star Break!
In tonight's Dugout, after the jump, the heel turn continues as Manny learns valuable lessons about humility, Internet phenomena, and bottled water licensing agreements.
It was only yesterday that we talked about Matt Capps taking Salomon Torres' job as the Pittsburgh Pirates closer. Though manager Jim Tracy insisted it wasn't a demotion for Torres and had nothing to do with his four blown saves, most Pirate fans (and most baseball fans in general) suspected otherwise. It looked like a good idea when Capps made his closing debut last night by collecting three outs with five pitches to close out a 3-1 Pirate win over the Dodgers. The inherent flaw in Tracy's plan, however, was that the rest of the Pirate bullpen is so bad that the erratic Torres still remained as set-up man for the Pirates.
You see where this is headed. Torres came into today's Pirates-Dodgers tilt with a 4-2 lead and bases loaded in seventh inning with two outs. He gave up an infield single in seventh to let the Dodgers close the deficit to 4-3, then served up a two-run homer to Andre Ethier in the eighth to give the margin needed for their 5-4 win. The Dodgers bullpen showed the Pirates how to actually hold a lead, despite closer Takashi Saito leaving in the ninth inning with an undisclosed injury (former Pirate Joe Beimel collected the save).
So how bad is the Pirates' pen right now? Besides Capps, Torres and his 5 blown saves and 4.50 ERA. He's got a decent WHIP (1.15), but that was mostly collected in games that were out of reach. Damaso Marte has been effective this year, but mostly only against left-handed batters. Jonah Bayliss, Josh Sharpless, John Grabow, and Tony Armas are all mostly useless as relievers. Usually ERAs aren't a great indicator of reliever performance. In this case, Bayliss, Sharpless, Grabow, and Armas all have ERAs over 5.00 (and most well over). That is an excellent indicator of how well they've pitched this year. None of the few leads that the Pirates can manage to achieve are currently safe.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's action, with a quick nod to what's ahead.
While the Phillies celebrate a well-deserved World Series victory, life (and business) goes on for Major League Baseball. 
It was only yesterday that we talked about 
