Tuesday, FanHouse had the opportunity to discuss the MLB Playoffs with Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, who currently serves as a studio analyst for TBS. TBS will be broadcasting all four Division Series and also the NLCS again this season. Ernie Johnson is the studio host while Dennis Eckersley and David Wells join Ripken as studio analysts for these playoff games.
Of all the things Ripken discussed Tuesday, the most intriguing subject, not surprisingly, was one Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod is an oft-maligned regular season superstar, in that he's put up extremely gaudy regular season numbers throughout his career, yet has never played in a World Series and has pretty sub-par numbers in the playoffs overall -- especially of late.
It's a baseball podcast. The math is easy, right? BaseCast. Let's rock.
The Yankees became the first team to officially qualify for the postseason Tuesday night. The Tigers and Twins, meanwhile, are in a dogfight just to get there in the AL Central.
In the latest long overdue edition of BaseCast, FanHouse's Ed Price and I discuss the challenges and decisions facing New York now that it is playoff-bound and who has the edge between Minnesota and Detroit over the final week and a half of the regular season.
With the Detroit Tigers struggling to hold on to their lead in the AL Central, they can't afford to have any more poor outings from their starting pitchers -- guys like Edwin Jackson, who got off to a great start this season and was 7-5 with a 2.64 ERA in the first four months of the season, but is 5-2 with a 5.22 ERA since August. The record is fine, but that ERA is going to have to come down to finish off the Twins and beat the Yankees -- the Tigers' likely first round opponent.
The good news for Jackson is that his pitching coach Rick Knapp thinks he knows what the problem is. It seems that Edwin has been tipping his slider in recent weeks, allowing hitters to lay off of it and sit on his fastball.
MINNEAPOLIS -- If the rest of the Tigers have as much heart as Justin Verlander, Detroit will hang on in the AL Central.
But they still have to prove it.
Oh, Zack Greinke may deserve the AL Cy Young Award. But he never had to pitch a game like this.
A packed house (largest crowd at the Metrodome since Opening Day). His team having lost eight of 11 to turn a 6 1/2-game lead into three. His offense unable to get a big hit off Twins right-hander Carl Pavano, who has tamed more Tigers this year than Siegfried and Roy combined.
Yet Verlander did absolutely everything he could, putting on as impressive a performance as there has been this season considering the circumstances.
All three will certainly be in the hunt for the Cy over the final month of the season, but Wainwright's stunning run is worth looking at in more depth.
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.
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?
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
By all accounts, this has been a season to forget for Josh Hamilton. While it would have been hard to meet the expectations that come after a 32-HR, 130-RBI season (Hamilton's numbers in 2008), no one could have predicted a fall this precipitous.
After a .242, two-HR April, we called it a rough start. Hamilton followed that up with a .237 May and went on the shelf for a month. The struggling Texas outfielder entered the All-Star break hitting .243 with just six HRs on the season. By August 2, his average was down to .220.
Tuesday, FanHouse had the opportunity to discuss the MLB Playoffs with Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, who currently serves as a studio analyst for TBS. TBS will be broadcasting all four Division Series and also the NLCS again this season. Ernie Johnson is the studio host while Dennis Eckersley and David Wells join Ripken as studio analysts for these playoff games. 
It's a 
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MINNEAPOLIS -- If the rest of the 
Starting Five
Kansas City Royals pitcher 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Starting Five
