FanHouse MattWieters

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 the season started, I was rough on Derrek Lee. I named him the biggest bust on the Cubs for this coming season and included him on the list of "five guys to lose" your fantasy league. I even predicted Mike Fontenot would hit more home runs than Mr. Lee. Obviously, it sounds outlandish now, in hindsight, as Lee clubbed his 35th home run Tuesday night. In the process, he established a new career high in RBI with 109. His OPS is the second-highest it's ever been -- trailing only his insane 2005 season when he did an Albert Pujols impersonation.

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 the season, the signs were there that the Rockies' 25-year-old right-handed starter Ubaldo Jimenez was ready for a breakout campaign. The only question was his occasional lack of command, which reared its ugly head in April (he started the season 1-3 with a 7.58 ERA and 2.11 WHIP). Since then, though, Jimenez has actually been one of the best hurlers in baseball and he's been even hotter for the past month.

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

Vladimir Guerrero's had a rough 2009, with injury issues and his dwindling power (his .466 slugging percentage would easily be his career low if the season ended today) causing concern the 34-year-old was full-on in the middle of a career decline.

With two cracks of the bat Monday night, "Vlad the Impaler" reminded us that he's been swinging a hot stick of late. In fact, he's been the old Vlad for quite some time. He just needed to shake the Earth a little bit to ensure everyone took notice.

"Taterjack" is a term I like to employ for a "home run." I find it to be awesome. Nearly as awesome as I found Chris Davis, the power-swinging, Texas Rangers first basemen ... before the season. But news hit the proverbial fan yesterday that Davis had been demoted and that he would no longer be on the Rangers' big league team.

This is highly problematic for fantasy owners who wasted used a high pick (and, invariably, it was high) on Davis: because he doesn't seem likely to get a lot more opportunity in the Rangers lineup. This is true for a number of reasons. First, he stinks. Second, Justin Smoak is the minors and probably ahead of Davis on the "track to the bigs" now. Additionally, Hank Blalock is playing first base. And, finally, the Rangers need pitching.

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

Adam LaRoche, he of the longest swing in the majors, is starting to heat up. In the last 9 games, he's hit .387 with 3 home runs, 5 RBI, 4 runs, 2 doubles, a .444 on-base percentage and 1.186 OPS. If his career history is any indicator, we can expect things to continue along this pace.

It's just that he's starting things up a bit early. In LaRoche's career, he's been two different players per season. Just look at his splits. He's a decent hitter with good power in through June. From July on, though, he's a good hitter with great power.

OAKLAND -- Matt Wieters' first week in the big leagues looked something like this: three hits, 217 stories written about him (give or take).

Gregg Zaun thinks the two may be related.

"My personal feeling is he's getting too much media attention and people should just leave him alone and let him play and stop talking about him," Zaun, the Orioles backup catcher, told FanHouse on Friday night. "He doesn't show any signs of being totally stressed out or overwhelmed by it. Obviously he hasn't gotten off to the start he's expected to, and I think a lot of that has to do with the amount of attention he gets. If everyone really wants to see the kid do well, let's back off and revisit this in a month."

Lately, our feedback has been exclusively Matt Wieters-centric. I've gotten e-mails about how we should handle his ascension to the big leagues. We've gotten comments about how we should set up a fake Twitter account for him, and follow his exploits on a minute-by-minute basis as he goes 0-for-4 and occasionally triples. My Dad calls me every couple of days to ask me how good I think Wieters is, because Wieters could go to the bathroom, put it in a McDonald's bag, and show it on television and my Dad would call me to ask me how awesome I thought it was.

This is my humble attempt to transfer the ethereal glory of the hard-swinging, hard-loving Orioles catching prospect who hit .999 in Single-A and redefined Double-A simply by being there.

This morning's Dugout is after the jump.

It's about time Fantasy FanHouse stuck its nose into all this podcast business. In our first fantasy baseball podcast segments of the year, Will Brinson, Knox Bardeen and I delve into expectations for uber-catcher Matt Wieters in anticipation of his major league debut Friday night for Baltimore.

We also talk about another young power hitter who's lost his luster, Chris Davis, and try to find out what's eating B.J. Upton. Oh, and if you're riding Juan Pierre's hot streak, you'd be wise to listen to the second segment, too.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That umpire Todd Tichenor made quite a name for himself in a big league cameo as a vacation replacement. Tichenor, a 32-year-old Triple-A ump, ejected both managers and both starting catchers in one inning of the Red Sox-Twins game on Thursday afternoon.

"Sometimes, those things happen -- everybody handles thing differently," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "It looked like he had his hands full today."

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was tossed for the 43rd time in his career. An expert on ejections, he said that Tichenor acted too quickly. Tichenor did not make himself available to the media to explain himself.

In the top of the seventh, Twins catcher Mike Redmond argued with Tichenor after he called Jeff Bailey safe at home. Redmond got ejected, and then Gardenhire got ejected when he came out. In the bottom of the inning, Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett and catcher Jason Varitek both expressed their displeasure at not getting a called third strike. Tichenor ejected Varitek and then Francona, who came out to defend his catcher.

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Fantasy Felony will occupy this space on Thursdays.

I drafted Matt Wieters in a lot of leagues. That's mainly because I think he'll be freaking awesome; and he very well might be this year's Evan Longoria, the type of rookie who storms the bigs at full speed upon his call up. OR ... well, he could not.

Rookies are hit and miss a lot of times. They don't always dominate and a hot start can lead to a really cold streak and vice-versa. But regardless of how Wieters performs, you're going to have some sort of play to make in terms of trading (depending, of course, if you own him).