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.
On the day Milton Bradley began serving a team-mandated, season-ending suspension, former Cubs fan favorite Mark DeRosa suited up for the Cubs rival. He's been doing so since coming over in a trade from Cleveland. This past offseason, the Cubs moved DeRosa to the Indians as part of a concerted effort to free up payroll. The target: Bradley.
Thus, it was only fitting the chain of decisions were further cemented as awful when DeRosa hit two home runs and drove in four runs Monday night.
As Tim Hudson continues to build up toward his pre-injury strength, the Braves can look to the offseason with a dilemma: Which of their six starting pitchers should be playing elsewhere in 2010. Hudson has a $12 million option, and in order for the Braves to afford to pay that, they'd likely have to trade one of the other starters. Tommy Hanson and Jair Jurrjens aren't going anywhere, and it's doubtful the Braves could convince someone to take on Derek Lowe's massive contract.
Thus, the likely candidates -- should the Braves decide they need to shed salary and keep Hudson -- would be Kenshin Kawakami and Javier Vazquez.
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.
As the No. 1 overall pick in 1990, Chipper Jones signed with the Braves for $275,000.
Even in today's dollars, that's about $450,000 -- or about 3 percent of Stephen Strasburg was guaranteed as this year's No. 1 pick.
And Jones agreed to his deal the night before the draft, while Strasburg came within two minutes of missing last Monday's deadline to sign.
"I think the only way that you're going to get kids signed and get them into the various camps is to put some kind of cap on it," Jones said. "I was always of the belief that you make your money at the big-league level."
That's how the teams want it too. When the current collective bargaining agreement is up in two years, Major League Baseball may pursue an NBA-style slotting system -- with signing bonuses locked in depending on how high a player is picked, as opposed to the current non-binding slot recommendations.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... The Astros are a game out of first place.
A little more than a month ago -- before the games of June 20 -- Houston was dead last in the NL Central, six games behind first-place Milwaukee.
Since then the Astros have gone 19-11, including Wednesday's 4-3 defeat of the (now) first-place Cardinals with two runs in the bottom of the ninth, finishing a three-game sweep. Miguel Tejada delivered the game-winning single.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Heading into 2009, here's what we thought we knew about Rich Harden: Absolutely lights out stuff, but can't be counted on to stay healthy consistently. In 2008, he went 10-2 with a 2.07 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP and 181 strikeouts in 148 innings. Those are elite numbers on a per-start basis. The problem, of course, is that he only made 25 starts. In 2007, he had a 2.45 ERA, but only pitched 25 2/3 innings.
Until Monday night, 2009 had been quite surprising from the 27-year-old right-hander.
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 learned how to play fantasy sports 10 years ago from my stepdad, who's been playing it since the days when rotisserie baseball didn't even exist. Back when he was a teenager, it was called Strat-O-Matic, a simulation board game that seemed more laborious than fun to me. Then again, they also had fun flipping baseball cards instead of preserving them.
One of the first things he ever taught me about veteran players was the basic tenet of: "Look on the back of the baseball card." Sure, there are outliers, but seeing career statistics is comforting, and can often tell you a lot about a batter's peak performance.
There are a plethora of two-start pitchers hurling in week five (Monday, May 4th - Sunday May 10th) of the fantasy baseball season. There are 58 total this week and you late sleepers are luck that all of the Monday games are night games. You won't need to set you lineups until 7:05 PM ET.
[Update: 7:48 AM ET] : Two games were rained out yesterday. The Mets and Phillies did not play and the Angels and Yankees were rained out as well. Here is the fallout from those two postponed games as it relates to two-start pitchers.
As we head into the third week of the fantasy baseball season we have 34 starting pitchers throwing twice. When setting your lineups, remember that tomorrow is Patriot's Day in Boston, so first pitch is at 11:05 AM Eastern Time.
Must Start Roy Halladay, Blue Jays - Tuesday vs TEX (B. McCarthy) and Sunday at CWS (J. Contreras) Derek Lowe, Braves - Monday at WAS (J. Zimmermann)and Saturday at CIN (B. Arroyo) C.C. Sabathia, Yankees - Tuesday vs OAK (B. Anderson) and Sunday at BOS (J. Beckett) Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers - Tuesday at HOU (R. Ortiz) and Sunday at COL (J. Marquis)
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 days where boos rained down upon Kosuke Fukudome seem like a distant memory.
Through nine games on the new season, the formerly-embattled center fielder is batting .375 with three homers, eight RBI, six runs and a steal for good measure. Compare that to his rookie campaign, where he only managed 10 big knocks in 501 at-bats. Should we believe in this new and improved Fukudome, or is it only a matter of time before fans are ripping him to shreds again?
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.
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Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Every Sunday, 
Starting Five
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
As we head into the third week of the fantasy baseball season we have 34 starting pitchers throwing twice. When setting your lineups, remember that tomorrow is Patriot's Day in Boston, so first pitch is at 11:05 AM Eastern Time.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
