FanHouse MattKemp

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.

Before we get our heaping of box score browsing, let's look at a related subject: The fantasy baseball stretch run. With the annual ushering in of September baseball, we see roster changes galore. Not only are there call-ups with the legal expansion of rosters, but players with seemingly minor injuries are shut down on teams who have fallen out of the race. You also have younger players being given an audition for 2010, or being shut down so the team doesn't overwork them in their first season of increased workload. If you are in the thick of things in your fantasy baseball race, now is not the time to use a laissez-faire approach.

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

Yes, the Dodgers' solar system revolves around Manny Ramirez. He's their star on the field and their main attraction.

But they wouldn't have Ramirez, nor many of the players who carried the team in his absence, were it not for a farm system that has been remarkably productive.

"It's nice that management kept us all here," ace Chad Billingsley told FanHouse. "There's some teams that maybe just start trading guys away. And believing in us, that's a huge thing."

In the 2002-03 drafts, Los Angeles took Russell Martin, James Loney, Jonathan Broxton, Matt Kemp and Billingsley. Those five players made their big league debuts within an 11-month span, from July 2005 to June 2006.

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers were enjoying a magical start to the season. Best record in baseball. Longest season-opening home winning streak of the modern era.

And then "it was like somebody punched a hole in the balloon," manager Joe Torre said.

In the hours between Wednesday night's victory and Thursday morning, word got around the Dodger organization that Manny Ramirez, who had defined the franchise since he was acquired last July, had been suspended for 50 games for violating baseball's drug policy.

Hundreds of media members converged on Dodger Stadium on Thursday, caring little about the team's hot start or its winning streak. They were there to see how the Dodgers were handling the stunning loss of Ramirez.

Ahhhhhhh... Opening Day!

It's one of the finest days in professional sports. Free agents have been signed. Rookies have busted their humps to make the big club. And now we get to see where the chips will fall.

Now that just about every team has one game in the books, let's look back and talk about some fantasy implications that can be drawn from Opening Day. This first day of baseball offers us only a minute sample size to read from. But there are story lines already developing.

It's only one game but...
Did you see what youngsters Jordan Schafer and Emilio Bonifacio did? Schafer hit a home run in his first Major League at-bat (the 99th player in history to do so). He was 2-3 on the night as his Braves team sent a message to the World Champion Phillies that the NL-East wasn't going to be a cake walk. Bonifacio also hit a home run in his first game of the season. His was an inside-the-park job as this kid has speed to burn. Bonifacio was 4-5 with three stolen bases as he hushed the critics that said he was too immature to handle the leadoff role in Florida.

In his first full season in the majors, Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp had a pretty impressive campaign. He hit .290 with 18 homers and 76 RBI while stealing 35 bases. It was the kind of season that has plenty of Dodgers fans wondering just what their 24-year-old outfielder is capable of doing.

Perhaps Kemp will be able to increase his power production this year and maybe join the 30-30 club with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases? Well, that would be nice, but Kemp is dreaming a little bigger than that. He's got his eyes on a 40-40 season.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Eventual landing spot for Manny Ramirez. Seriously, it's going to happen sooner or later, so we'll just assume it's already happened for the purposes of this post. Obviously, if he either signs elsewhere (unlikely) or sits out this season (as unlikely as the holier than thou media embracing A-Rod), we'll have to re-fantasy-spin the entire offense. He's that important to the lineup.

As we'll preach time and again at FanHouse, compiling a successful fantasy baseball team isn't about the most productive players. It's about what players give you the most value. Carlos Quentin was much more valuable last season than Ryan Braun -- despite ending with slightly inferior numbers -- because of how much cheaper he was to attain than Braun.

The best way to compile a winning team is to recognize areas where you can maximize the value of your draft picks. Not spending high picks on closers is one way to do this. Finding players being underestimated is another. Another, still, is to find places lacking depth and grab a strength.

Yard Work focuses on what chicks allegedly love: the long ball. From the big boppers to the small poppers, it's a rundown of which home run hitters will make a dent in your fantasy baseball league.

When Jose Reyes makes his move for second and robs another bag from an unsuspecting pitcher, the Mets faithful follow with applause and "Jose, Jose Jose Jose!" chants. But there's 50 or so more to go from Jose, and no matter how dirty that jersey gets, it's still just a stolen base.

David Wright steps up to the plate, drills a first-pitch heater into the picnic area ... it's BIG APPLE TIME. Cue the wackier video animation and the rumbling seats, too.

Say what you want about the appeal of steals, the home run is still king.

In fantasy baseball, however, that king can be overrated.

The impact that Manny Ramirez had on the Dodgers as a team last season was pretty obvious. He took an offense that wasn't exactly intimidating to opposing pitchers and made it pretty darn scary. Where as a young Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier could do some damage on their own, if you put Manny between them in the lineup they become legitimate threats.

Which is probably why the Dodgers are hoping they can bring Manny back this season because replacing the production he gave the team will not be easy if he doesn't. Still, to listen to third base coach Larry Bowa talk about it, you'd think that the losing Manny would be like cutting off the arms and legs of the Dodgers' offense.

With just over 24 hours to go before the first pitch of the National League Championship Series, the writers of the MLB FanHouse gathered for a discussion of the Phillies and Dodgers. It didn't take long for the discussion to veer away from who will win and onto the ever fascinating and potentially otherworldly Manny Ramirez.

Josh Alper: Is it just me or is it really hard to find a clear edge in this series? The Dodgers and Phillies each have strong rotations, bullpens and offenses. The biggest difference, to me, is that the addition/return of Manny Ramirez and Rafael Furcal give the Dodgers a stronger 1-8 lineup than the Phillies. Not by a lot but by enough to give them a slight edge over seven games.

Tom Fornelli: Both these teams are incredibly hot right now. The Dodgers are 20-8 (including playoffs) in their last 28 games, and over that same time period the Phillies are 20-9. A strong series from Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, or Pat Burrell can easily propel the Phillies past the Dodgers. Which is why I'm leaning more towards the Phillies because I think they have more options on offense, whereas the Dodgers are basically centered on Manny.