FanHouse Marc Rzepczynski

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

Nearly a month ago, we ran out a roundtable on Jimmy Rollins, advising you to trade for the underperforming shortstop. Well, his struggles seem like a distant memory now. Rollins is not only back, he's one of the hottest middle infielders in fantasy baseball. Oh, and he's also one funny dude (great Dick's commercial if you've never seen it).

Just how hot is J-Roll? Let's go to the statistical tape ...

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

Apologies for the lack of R.R. yesterday, but we're hitting you with a special extended trade edition today to make up for it. There's been a lot of activity over the past few days, especially with top pitching commodities like Cliff Lee, Jarrod Washburn and George Sherrill. We've also seen a pair of Pittsburgh starters head outta town and two prized minor-league prospects change locations. Time to break it all down from a fantasy perspective.

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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.

Tonight's a big night for Chris Tillman, my spot-start pick for today. He'll be battling Zack Greinke and the Royals in his first major-league start; make sure you tune in and see the youngster in action. Marc Rzepczynski was our pick last night, and he was cruising through five innings before allowing a couple runs in the sixth and departing. We'll take the eight strikeouts, even if the ERA was a little high.

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.

Another Joe Blanton spot start, another quality outing. The Philadelphia pitcher continues to excel while spending his time as a free agent in most leagues. Yesterday, he held a very good St. Louis offense to two runs in eight innings, striking out six and picking up a win along the way. As Brandon Funston points out, Blanton has always been a stud in the month of August. Combine that with Blanton's studliness over the last two months, and he's a must-own at this point.

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.

Chad Gaudin was able to give the Stream Team another quality start, pitching six innings while giving up three runs and striking out three. Hey, it ain't great, but it counts as a QS. That makes four in a row for our squad, and after the Rangers scored four runs off the excellent Josh Beckett last night, I'm a little on edge about our Clay Buchholz spot start tonight. Then again, if Buchholz excels against the Rangers in Texas, he should be good to use against just about any opponent.

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.

The weather played tricks with our spot start last night, postponing the Phillies-Marlins contest and preventing us from scoring any stats from Joe Blanton. For what it's worth, I added Marc Rzepczynski to one of my teams after last night's win against Boston. He had great minor-league numbers and looks like he could be a keeper. Even if he doesn't stick in the Blue Jays rotation, you should be able to get a few more good starts out of him for your team.

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

When Paul Konerko finished 2008 with a dismal .240 average and only 22 HRs, most fantasy players were quick to write off the 33-year-old Chicago first baseman as finished. A deeper look into the stats revealed two consecutive seasons with poor BABIPs (batting average on balls in play), alerting the shrewd among us that Konerko might have just been the victim of an unlucky two-year streak. Sure enough, his BABIP is back to its normal level in 2009, and it was kind enough to bring along Konerko's batting average.

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