FanHouse MattHolliday

With the Cubs imploding and the Brewers still in desperate need of pitching, the road to a playoff return for the St. Louis Cardinals is looking more and more wide open. The Cardinals see this opportunity themselves.

As such, they have begun keeping tabs on A's slugger Matt Holliday should Oakland decide to move him before the trade deadline, a major league source told FanHouse's Jeff Fletcher. St. Louis is cautious because of the size of Holliday's paycheck -- $13.5 million this year -- and his sagging performance in his first season away from Coors Field, but the team is interested in getting perennial MVP candidate Albert Pujols some help in the middle of the order.

Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch also reported that the team is stepping up its efforts to bring Holliday back to the National League for a stretch run.

Billy Beane's public position has always been that the A's were happy to keep Matt Holliday until the end of the season, even if they weren't contending, because he could get the draft picks as compensation if Holliday signed elsewhere.

Don't believe that.

Beane has to make that his public position. He has to convince his fellow GMs that he is happy to keep Holliday, or else he has no trade leverage.

That was a dubious position from Day 1, but now it's looking even more questionable. As we near the season's halfway point, Holliday is still having an unspectacular year, and there is a growing possibility, as pointed out by Buster Olney, that the A's might not be able to get those draft picks anyway.

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 you think of Chicago Cubs starting pitchers, you first think of Carlos Zambrano. Next is probably Rich Harden, especially in terms of sheer talent -- plus, the injury woes probably keep him fresh in your mind. After last season, Ryan Dempster should be hanging out in your baseball-knowledge-filled brain as well. The best Cubs' starter of 2009, though, has been Ted Lilly. After yet another quality start Sunday, the Cubs' left-hander is 7-4 with a 2.94 ERA and 1.06 WHIP.

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.

We had to break the trend. Sure, the Dodgers might have a better record than everyone else -- but competition has to count for something, doesn't it? The Dodgers have mutilated the mediocre-at-best NL West to the tune of 26-9. This means they are 14-11 against everyone else. Is that a top-two team in baseball? Hardly, I'll take the heated-rivals: Yankees (who have overcome a slow start to go 19-7 since May 12) and Red Sox (18-8 against the best division in baseball) as the top two.

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.

Sorry for the delay, kiddos, on the Power Rankings. I'm sure you spent the entirety of Wednesday wondering "WHERE IN GOD'S NAME ARE THEY??? WITHOUT THEM I'LL HAVE NOTHING TO BANTER SENSELESSLY ABOUT TO MY CO-WORKERS!!!1" Or something like that. Either way, it's time to debate the worthlessness of your favorite baseball team in numerical form once again. Do enjoy.

Since the beginning of the season, it's been pretty common knowledge that the Oakland A's were only going to have Matt Holliday for a maximum of one season. The A's are a small-market team that keeps to a certain budget. They've let Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi and a bevy of other high-profile players leave town due to their rising contract values. With Holliday being a free agent at the conclusion of the season, he's obviously a one-year rental unless they decide to move him sooner.

In an interview with Sirius XM's "The Show" on Tuesday, Holliday seemed perfectly at ease with this inevitability. In fact, he seemed like he wanted to be traded before the deadline.

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

It's no secret we here at Fantasy FanHouse were not a fan of Matt Holliday for your fantasy baseball team this season. We told you to avoid him several times in the draft kit, and still more in chats. This wasn't because we thought he was a terrible player or a bad guy. Quite the contrary, he's a good player and seems like a swell enough guy. It's just that he was so overvalued and we knew his numbers would take a hit departing Colorado for the Bay area.

Well, now is the fun part of fantasy baseball. Now we're telling you to trade for him.

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, that took freaking forever ... but the Blue Jays finally started to stink the joint up. I swear to you, you can't stay long atop the MLB Power Rankings -- our failure by osmosis jinxing ability is just too strong, son. At any rate, it was a weird week for ranking baseball: the Cubs continued to skid, the Padres went on a tear and Toronto fell off the face of the planet. So, yeah, spiciness ensued, and you may take the jump to see how badly your team fared. Unless you're a Rangers or a Braves fan, in which case they couldn't have done that poorly.

OAKLAND -- Billy Beane, whose team hit Memorial Day in last place, with the second worst record in the American League, is willing to overlook such pesky details.

"The most important thing we had to do this year was to start to develop the youngest rotation in the big leagues," Beane told FanHouse. "I think some of those young guys are starting to show some progress and that's ultimately where our future lies."

The A's general manager spent most of the winter trying to beef up the offense with acquisitions like Matt Holliday, Jason Giambi, Orlando Cabrera and Nomar Garciaparra. The point was not so much to get the A's to the playoffs in 2009 as it was to help provide an offensive cushion to support the pitchers who the A's hope will get them to the promised land in 2010 and beyond.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

With the recent news that Mark DeRosa is on the trade block and the White Sox have possibly landed Jake Peavy, junkies of major league baseball trade rumors got an early glimpse at what promises to be a very interesting July. It's far to0 early to know exactly who will be in the market for what -- or who can afford to take on temporary payroll in this economy -- but it's certainly fun to speculate. Let's do it.