FanHouse Mike Jacobs

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

Every Hot Stove season, each team reshapes its roster in an attempt to better themselves. After each transaction, whether a free agent acquisition, trade or something else, writers and bloggers everywhere provide knee-jerk reactions on each particular move. Though the majority of the analysis is educated, it's still just conjecture. Today, we'll take the long view and look back at some of the maneuvering this past offseason and see how it played out on the field.

Tony Pena already hits like a pitcher, so the Royals decided to see if he could throw like one too. That's actually not fair to pitchers, Pena hits like the kid picked last during gym who would prefer perfecting his cursive to do anything athletic.

He always flashed a fine glove at shortstop, but a career OPS+ of 44 (including a mind-boggling -32 OPS+ in 51 at bats this season) was way too much for any fielding excellence to overcome. Pena threw a bullpen session on Friday and will report to the team's Arizona facility to work as a pitcher.

Unless you're a pitcher in the American League, there's a lot of reason to like this move.

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

About eight years ago, the hardest part of Lee Banks' job as coach of a youth travel team based in southeast Virginia was picking a shortstop.

"It was a lot of fun," Banks recalled to FanHouse last week. "You just sat back and let 'em play and try not to mess it up."

Back then, the team (now known as the Tidewater Orioles) had on its roster B.J. Upton, David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman and Mark Reynolds.

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.

When you lose a star like Manny Ramirez in fantasy leagues, there is no "quick fix." You're either going to make a trade to fill the glaring hole, or you play mad scientist with waiver-wire options to tide your team over. I've always been a fan of the latter before resorting to the block. Luckily, there are seven players available who are capable of giving your team the needed power in mixed leagues. Not Manny-type power, obviously, but enough to mitigate the damage for a few months. And if that's not up your alley, we've got some trade targets, too.

Let's take a peek inside the barrel of pop ...

MLB Power Rankings: Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.

HAVE YOU HEARD? YANKEE STADIUM HAS A WIND TUNNEL!!! Does it matter/is it real? Probably not. In fact, it might actually be on the other end of the spectrum of importance when compared to MLB Power Rankings. This week, we welcome another brand new No. 1 at the top of our rankings, although, all spoiler alerts aside, it's from the same division as last week! Debate the quality of your team, after the jump.

Let's face it, we could all use a little bit of help on our fantasy teams. I'm currently mired with Chris Davis and Mark Teixeira as my corner infielders in one of my fantasy leagues. I can't cut either, but I could sure use some stop-gap assistance until they both wake up.

If you're looking for some power potential off of the waiver wire, I've found four hitters who could step in until some of your big bats wake up.

Mike Jacobs, Royals - Jacobs popped 32 home runs last season and already has four more in the early stages on 2009. He's batting .282/.349/.692 and has ten RBI. Currently he's sitting on the waiver wire in 79% of Yahoo fantasy leagues. That's a shame because he could probably help a lot of fantasy teams.

MLB Power Rankings: Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.

We're almost there. You can smell it in the air, can't you? That's right ... the NHL playoffs! Ha. I kid, of course. No one actually watches hockey (if it even exists). But people do get amped up for baseball, and the season is upon us. So, in that vein, we've got our final installment of preseason power rankings ready for your digestion. Play ball.

Dan Haren has been awful this spring. Adam Jones is raking, as is Chris Shelton. Michael Bourn has been a completely worthless hitter. Of the above players, two have stat-lines that matter, and two have ones that don't.

You see, judging spring training stat-lines in fantasy baseball can be helpful, but you don't want to get too caught up in it. After all, the games are meaningless. Most established veterans are just going through the motions in attempt to get their body ready for the real season. For them, the stat-lines are meaningless. Thus, I don't care that Haren has sucked thus far. I'd still draft him with confidence.

Let's take a deeper look at a when they matter, when they don't, and why.

FanHouse breaks down the who's who and the what's what of the baseball world each week with our MLB Power Rankings.

Spring Training is always a time of year when false hopes or false assumptions are built based on performance. It might Jeff Francoeur lacing the ball, for instance. Or Yovani Gallardo stinking the joint up. But it is also a time of year when season-altering injuries are revealed. For instance, Alex Rodriguez will miss the first 10 weeks of the season because of surgery. Chipper Jones is dealing with an oblique injury. Oh, and this Manny Ramirez guy signed with the Dodgers. So even though it might seem premature to react in a knee-jerk fashion, it's not.

Hence, we have our second installment of preseason MLB Power Rankings, just to keep your jones going for America's pastime.