FanHouse Mike Pelfrey

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

At $149,373,987, the New York Mets had the National League's highest payroll in 2009. Their fourth place finish in the NL East, 23 games back in the standings, might suggest that the cash Omar Minaya dished out wasn't money well spent. A closer look reveals a team harassed all season by injuries and a group of hitters that could never find a long-term answer to produce runs.

In the outfield, Carlos Beltran had a potential All-Star season broken up, playing in only 81 games due to a knee injury. In fact, only Jeff Francoeur amassed more than 500 at-bats among Mets outfielders, and he was a mid-season import from the Atlanta Braves.

The infield wasn't spared either as mainstays Carlos Delgado and Jose Reyes had their seasons cut extremely short due to injuries. Even staff ace Johan Santana ended his season early with elbow issues.

The good news is that most of these players are expected to be healthy and ready to go for spring training.

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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.

On Sunday, Ichiro Suzuki became the second fastest player to ever reach the 2,000 hit milestone as he doubled in the first inning and later scored.

It took Suzuki 1,402 games to reach 2,000 hits. The fastest was Al Simmons who did it in 1,390 games. Suzuki needs five more hits to reach 200 for the season, which would break the record he shares with Willie Keeler at nine consecutive seasons with 200.

As milestone talk goes, Ichiro is playing second fiddle to what's about to happen in New York.

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.

On Saturday, Brett Anderson struck out six batters while allowing three runs in five innings, nabbing us a win. Today, Mike Pelfrey pitched eight innings of one-run ball, securing us another win. Even with a 5.51 ERA through the first six games of September, the Team has an excellent 25/9 K/BB ratio and 4 wins in 6 starts. The main culprit has been our spot starters' tendency to give up home runs, as they've combined for 8 HRs allowed in this first week of September.

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.

Garrett Mock threw another forgettable Stream Team start, allowing six runs in just three innings of work. Today is much more promising, with Stream Team vet Brett Anderson on the mound. I'm going to try and avoid more stinkers by selecting guys that should be available in a majority of leagues, as opposed to guys that should be available in nearly all leagues. Because, as we found out, there's a reason those guys are sitting in free agency.

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.

We weren't able to secure a win in yesterday's Mike Pelfrey spot start, but the Mets pitcher turned in a great outing nonetheless, going 7.2 innings while striking out five and allowing two runs. We've now made 31 post-All Star Break starts, picking up 14 wins and posting a 3.64 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 161 Ks in 187.2 innings pitched.

For comparison's sake, Carlos Zambrano also had 14 wins in 2008, throwing 188.2 innings while striking out 130 batters and turning in a 3.91 ERA and 1.29 WHIP. In a month, we've managed to exceed Zambrano's entire 2008 season.

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.

After giving the Team three quality starts, Brett Anderson didn't have his best stuff working last night, giving up seven runs in five innings against the White Sox. It seems there's no middle ground for us in August; our spot-starter either pitches well and gets a quality start and a win (nine of each in August), or he gets completely rocked and ruins our ratios. Between Nick Blackburn, Manny Parra and now Anderson, this was likely a week where the Team ruined any shot of winning ERA and WHIP.

Hopefully we can put together a couple wins and double-digit strikeouts over the weekend to mitigate the damage a bit. Tom Gorzelanny pitches against the Pirates today.

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.

There are 47 pitchers in fantasy Week 14 getting two starts. In an unusual turn of events, they are pretty evenly partitioned between "must starts," "solid starts" and "risky business".

Mike Pelfrey has it really tough, having to face Clayton Kershaw and Aaron Harang. Johnny Cueto doesn't have it much better having to face the Phillies and the Mets while getting their aces to boot in Cole Hamels and Johan Santana.

I love Matt Cain this week. He gets two home starts and gets very, very favorable pitching matchups. If he doesn't get two wins and put up impressive strikeout totals and a low ERA, I'll answer questions every Friday afternoon from here on out in a live chat.

First pitch on Monday is at 1:05 PM ET. Make sure you get your rosters set early.

With only two games on the schedule for Monday, the two-start pitchers for week 11 of the fantasy baseball season aren't plentiful.

The hottest pitcher on the planet goes twice for the Tigers this week. Justin Verlander gets tested as he's going to have to face some big-time sluggers in Albert Pujols on Tuesday and Prince Fiedler and Ryan Braun on Sunday. However, there's no way you can sit Verlander and his 4-and-0 record over the last month.

In all, there are 31 pitchers throwing twice. The first game on Monday doesn't start until 7:05 PM ET. So, put some extra thought into those lineups before they lock tomorrow night.

Must Start
Felix Hernandez, Mariners - Tuesday at SD (K. Correia) and Sunday vs ARZ (D. Davis)
Justin Verlander, Tigers - Tuesday at STL (A. Wainwright) and Sunday vs MLW (Y. Gallardo)
Kevin Millwood, Rangers - Tuesday vs HOU (W. Rodriguez) and Sunday at SF (B. Zito)
Carlos Zambrano, Cubs - Tuesday vs CWS (J. Danks) and Sunday vs CLE (C. Pavano)
Gil Meche, Royals - Tuesday vs ARZ (D. Davis) and Sunday vs STL (A. Wainwright)
CC Sabathia, Yankees - Tuesday vs WAS (S. Martis) and Sunday at FLA (C. Volstad)
Yovani Gallardo, Brewers - Tuesday at CLE (J. Sowers) and Sunday at DET (J. Verlander)

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

There I am. Bottom of the 10th inning. Promenade section of Citi Field.

With my hands swollen from furious applause throughout the night and my legs bobbing to stay warm, Fernando Martinez laced a hit to right field. We came alive once more, while the old man sitting next to me grumbled: "Another friggin single? Pelfrey's the only one who drove somethin'."

Sixteen hits and pitcher Mike Pelfrey was the Met with pop.