FanHouse Manny Parra

With a full week of baseball left in the 2009 season, the current edition of the Milwaukee Brewers have already allowed almost 100 runs more than the playoff-bound 2008 edition. While a large amount of that difference can be chalked up to losing CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets, a more abstract difference for this Milwaukee team is the absence of well-regarded pitching coach Mike Maddux, who left Milwaukee for Texas after last season.

FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reported that the Brewers are interested in trying to bridge that gap by hiring Rick Peterson. The rumor shouldn't be surprising; Peterson worked both with Brewers' manager Ken Macha in Oakland and bench coach Willie Randolph in New York before being fired by the Mets along with Randolph last summer.

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.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

Manny Parra was able to put up a quality start on Tuesday, but the win and the strikeouts didn't come, so we'll chalk that up as an unsuccessful pick. Tonight, we went with Jeff Niemann against the Orioles. Surprisingly, the 4-11 Jose Contreras would have been a great spot start today, as he struck out eight, walked one, and allowed only one run against the Royals in an afternoon game in Chicago.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

We weren't able to secure a win in yesterday's Mike Pelfrey spot start, but the Mets pitcher turned in a great outing nonetheless, going 7.2 innings while striking out five and allowing two runs. We've now made 31 post-All Star Break starts, picking up 14 wins and posting a 3.64 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 161 Ks in 187.2 innings pitched.

For comparison's sake, Carlos Zambrano also had 14 wins in 2008, throwing 188.2 innings while striking out 130 batters and turning in a 3.91 ERA and 1.29 WHIP. In a month, we've managed to exceed Zambrano's entire 2008 season.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

Wednesday was a great day for spot-starter Tommy Hunter. The Texas rookie dominated the Tribe, throwing 7.2 innings of shutout ball, striking out five and earning a win. Hunter has allowed just 14 runs in nine starts this year; knowing that, I'd run out and add him to my mixed-league team immediately.

Today, I went with Manny Parra, who was torched by the Padres. Parra gave up 13 hits and six runs in 5.2 innings, but even though he wrecked our ratios, there was some positive aspects to the start. We did get seven strikeouts from Parra, and the Milwaukee offense came through with 11 runs of support while he was in the game, giving the Team another win.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

A solid string of successes was abruptly halted by Nick Blackburn last night. Failing to make it out of the second inning, Blackburn allowed six runs (four earned) and put eight runners on base. This knocked the Team's post-All Star Break ERA up 20 points, although our numbers are still very good on the whole. Today, we'll be looking for a great start from Tommy Hunter.

MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.

The second half of the season is in full swing and lo and behold if capitalism hasn't reared it's ugly head once again. Billy Beane was spun off Matt Holliday (as expected of course) and the eleventy billion dollar payroll machine that is the New York Yankees are in first place in the AL East. (Of course, that can't explain why the Mets are horrible but that's a whole other thing.)

Will the Yankees' surge be enough to propel them into the critically important No. 1 slot of the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings? Find out after the jump.

MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.

Big ups to Prez for taking the PR reigns over while I was off last week. But we're back in the saddle, fresh out of the All-Star break and ready to incite you with our rankings. Also, I should point out that this is, relatively speaking, the "home stretch." Where even the most minuscule of mini-streaks can change a team's fate. Or something like that. Anyway, let's go to the list, where we'll find out if an attack on Jack Nicholson by the Phanatic and the addition of Petey was enough to vault the Phillies into the top spot of the Week 16 MLB Power Rankings. Cue drumroll.

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

Before David Price took the mound Thursday, he said he was looking to rediscover his missing edge. "I just haven't had that edge, haven't had that mentality when I was out there," said Price. "I have to get back to the same way I was last year, the same way that got me to this point..."

For one night, at least, the 23-year-old lefty found what he was looking for.

MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.

Well, I'll tell you one thing: baseball ain't boring, folks. At least if you're in the middle class anyway; the upper crust is (somewhat) starting to establish itself across MLB's ranks and the bottom portion of the league is certainly holding steady. But in the middle, well, goodness. We have a lot of would-be title contenders. How's your semi-crappy team faring in the all-important MLB FanHouse Power Rankings this week? Find out after the jump.