FanHouse Paul Maholm

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.

Vicente Padilla hit a little bit of a speed bump in his Friday start against the Giants, giving up four runs in five innings and depriving the Team from another win. Still, we have better than a 3/1 K/BB ratio in September, which is exactly what Padilla gave us yesterday (3 strikeouts, 1 walk). Jon Garland is pitching for us today, and he's well on his way to another win and another great performance.

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.

It's finally time for real baseball again, where the NL actually has a shot of winning some games. Stream Teamer Dallas Braden will be taking the hill tonight against the Angels, and we'll review how he did tomorrow in this space. If you're new to the Stream Team, the idea is to find one pitcher each day that will give you a good strikeout total (and hopefully a win) while posting solid ERA and WHIP ratios.

When you're truly dialed in as a fantasy GM you tend to see things coming before everyone else.

You drafted Raul Ibanez in the middle to late rounds and now you're looking to sell high. You jumped on Albert Pujols instead of Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez with your first round pick and you even took a late-round flier on Mark Reynolds. Things are looking good for your push forward to the championship.

To stay on course, you need to keep finding those hidden gems; those players who will out-produce the rest in the second half. You also need to stay ahead of injuries and slumps. But, and this is something that not every fantasy GM does, if you really want to show off your stuff (and this is an especially effective tactic in daily leagues) you should be looking at splits every single day to get the biggest bang for your buck with your lineup.

Here are some players with statistical splits to keep in mind when locking your lineup.

Maybe I'm being a bit hard on these guys, but almost 59 percent of the 41 pitchers who are starting twice this week are being placed in the "Risky Business" category.

There are a couple of touted rookies who make up the 59 percent like the Rays' David Price and Atlanta's Kris Medlen. There are also some big-named pitchers who should never be placed among the "Risky Business" pitchers who just are throwing well, or their teams aren't winning behind them. Jon Lester and Francisco Liriano come to mind immediately.

Like I said, in all there are 41 two-start pitchers this week. Make sure that you get your lineups locked early today as there are a bunch of afternoon games. The first is 1:10 PM ET when Houston plays Cincinnati.

Futilitywatch '09 is a our semi-regular update on the Pittsburgh Pirates and their march toward their record 17th consecutive losing season.

In our last installment two weeks ago, we left the Pittsburgh Pirates for dead as they sat at 12-16, in the midst of what turned out to be an eight-game losing streak that dropped their record to 12-19. Since then, the Bucs have reeled off seven wins in 10 games and sit at 19-22. In fact, if their bullpen hadn't blown an eighth-inning lead last night, they'd only be one game under .500 and Bucco Fever would be sweeping Pittsburgh. Or something.

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

At least we know Alex Rodriguez will have plenty of help from Yankee Stadium as he makes his way back from hip surgery.

Just ask Johnny Damon, who's suddenly turned into one of the hottest power hitters in baseball after hitting only 17 home runs all of last year. Damon has already knocked seven out this season, including three this month. The Rays joined in on the ball-smashing fun Thursday, launching six homers as a team. So is a trip to Yankee Stadium the same as visiting Arlington now?

There are a plethora of two-start pitchers hurling in week five (Monday, May 4th - Sunday May 10th) of the fantasy baseball season. There are 58 total this week and you late sleepers are luck that all of the Monday games are night games. You won't need to set you lineups until 7:05 PM ET.

[Update: 7:48 AM ET] : Two games were rained out yesterday. The Mets and Phillies did not play and the Angels and Yankees were rained out as well. Here is the fallout from those two postponed games as it relates to two-start pitchers.

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

We're getting close to having three full weeks of baseball in the books. Astute fans know that it's definitely not enough to reveal the outcome of the season, but it's certainly enough of a sample to start drawing preliminary conclusions. Of course, you still have the occasional instance where home crowds boo their own players for one reason or another. Wednesday, for example, CC Sabathia was booed by about half the Yankee Stadium crowd when he departed after allowing six earned runs in 6 2/3 innings, upping his ERA to 4.81 on the season.

Most starting pitchers who have been healthy thus far have made between two and three starts. It's still a small sample size, but we're starting to see some dominating trends from faces both familiar and not-so-well known.

After scouring the statistics I came up with a list of starting pitchers who have pitched at least 19 innings, have an Earned Run Average below 3.00, and have a WHIP below 1.00. Anyone care to take a guess at home many are on this list?

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

Ichiro's hobbies include: Hitting baseballs, getting massages from manager Don Wakamatsu, and hitting more baseballs.

One nice way to put injury concerns to rest is by smashing a grand slam in your first game back. Ichiro, who missed the first week and a half due to fatigue and ulcer troubles, went 2-for-5 with the homer, four RBI and a stolen base against the Angels. But his stat line paled in comparison to another leadoff star.