Editor's Note: FanHouse's Jeff Fletcher contributed to this report
CHICAGO -- The Reds' need to slash payroll, according to a major league source, could lead them to explore trading second baseman Brandon Phillips as well as right-handers Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang.
Cincinnati's 2009 payroll was about $71 million. General manager Walt Jocketty said during a break Tuesday at the GM Meetings that he "might" have to move some high-salaried players to meet the 2010 goal.
"We're going to probably have less to spend this year than we have in the past," Jocketty told FanHouse. "It just depends on how [ticket] sales go this offseason."
Long considered one of the worst defensive shortstops in baseball by those in sabermetric circles, Derek Jeter won the fourth Gold Glove of his career on Tuesday, proving that no matter what statistically-oriented folks think of Jeter's glovework, he enjoys a good defensive reputation among those within the game.
For a number of major league teams Mondays and Thursdays are travel days. Every Wednesday and Sunday, Fantasy Fill-Ins finds guys who should be widely available on the waiver wire and can step in for the day, helping you gain ground or hold off the pack.
There are only seven games on Thursday, meaning over half of the major-league teams are off. Finding five fill-in players wasn't easy, but if it was everyone would do it.
Chris Coghlan, Marlins - Whispers around baseball have Coghlan as a dark-horse candidate for the National League Rookie of the Year award. I'm not sure there's enough name recognition for him to take home the hardware, but there's no reason why he shouldn't be helping your fantasy baseball team. He's batting .359 over the last month and .379 during the last week. He's only owned in 41% of leagues so grab him to fill in on Thursday and keep him around afterward. He's just that good.
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.
OAKLAND -- Infielders and former infielders around the majors have long admired Adrian Beltre for his Gold Glove play at third base.
Now, many of them are looking at Beltre with a different kind of disbelief.
"I can't believe a guy is playing third base without a cup," said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, a former All-Star shortstop. "That's ballsy. That's a dangerous place, especially third base."
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
After a terrible first week, Texas first baseman Chris Davis was one of the hot topics of concern in fantasy baseball circles. My colleague Matt Snyder recently tried to put those fears to rest in Slump or Suck, and right on cue, Davis went ahead and smashed them with his bat.
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... Most disappointing team of 2008. This goes for real and for fantasy. Nearly the entire team was a massive bust last year -- I said nearly, because the man in the picture to the right was immune in fantasy -- as the team finished in last place. They've made some changes, and the players coming back need to just play better.
With 64 games to go, the ledger is even for the Detroit Tigers. They leave Baltimore at 49-49 -- no small feat considering they were nine games below .500 at the end of May. Still, Jim Leyland's club has a long way to go to live up to the lofty preseason expectations placed upon them.
The Tigers trail the Twins by six games and the White Sox by 6 1/2 in the AL Central, and with the way the Rays, Red Sox and Yankees are playing, the wild card probably isn't an option. Resurrections aren't unheard of in the three-division era. Just look at the Phillies last year or the 2005 Astros, who were 36-41 on July 1, but ended up qualifying for the playoffs.
But those teams had horses and they had a bit of magic too (or mojo or just good fortune, whatever you want to call it). The Phillies had an irrepressible offense led by Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard and won 13 of their final 17 games. The Astros had a formidable three-headed monster in Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt and Andy Pettitte and they won games 8-6, 12-8 and 7-6 down the stretch when they weren't stifling opposing teams with their pitching.
Unfortunately for Leyland, it doesn't look like this edition of the Tigers has the horses or the spark to mount a comeback.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
Los Angeles Angels (12-9) at Boston Red Sox (15-7)- 7:05 PM ET I swear these teams have met like 100 years in a row in the playoffs (OK, it's like twice, or three times, I can't remember), which makes this regular season match up all the more interesting. Well, that and most of the other games tonight are crap.
Tonight's game is interesting because of the pitching matchup between Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jon Garland. Dice-K's cruising so far at 4-0 with 28 strikeouts in 28 and 2/3 innings and a 3.14 ERA. It makes me wish I told more people about my pre-season premonition that he was going to break out and challenge for the Cy Young this year, but what can I say, I don't like it when people laugh at me. Garland was the Angels big off-season acquisition and with all eyes turned towards him in hopes that he could step up in the absence of Kelvim Escobar and John Lackey, he's been pretty bad, turning in a 4.81 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. The Angels will need him to step it up if they want to avoid the ignominy of losing the division to a team that traded away it's best hitter and pitcher in the off-season.
Well, you all know the old saying: When it rains, it pours. Man is it pouring in Detroit right now. It's pouring so much that one man has even built an ark and is loading animals on it as we speak. Not only are the Tigers incapable of winning a game, (or hitting the baseball, or tying their shoes, or standing upright...) but they're also blowing record streaks.
Polanco received this error when third baseman Miguel Cabrera couldn't pull off a catch-and-tag in one motion on sliding Manny Ramirez.
Ramirez had boomed a Kenny Rogers pitch to the deepest part of Fenway Park, the triangle in deep right-center. Polanco took center fielder Brandon Inge's strong relay and fired a one-hopper to third as Ramirez bid for a triple. Cabrera tried to backhand the ball and tag Ramirez all in one motion.
Given the description of the play, I didn't see it, I'm not sure Polanco really deserved the error. The throw got to Cabrera, and it sounds like he was able to catch it, but messed it up when he tried to catch the ball and tag Ramirez out on the play. If an error even deserved to be called, and I don't think it should have, then Cabrera should have been tagged with it.
Too bad this game wasn't in Detroit, because Polanco probably would have gotten the benefit of the hometown scorekeeper. Though if the game had been in Detroit, there's an off chance that Polanco and his teammates wouldn't have made it out of Comerica with their lives. So maybe in the end, this error was the best thing that could have happened to Placido.
Editor's Note: FanHouse's Jeff Fletcher contributed to this report
Long considered one of the worst defensive shortstops in baseball by those in sabermetric circles, 
For a number of major league teams Mondays and Thursdays are travel days. Every Wednesday and Sunday, 
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
OAKLAND -- Infielders and former infielders around the majors have long admired 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in 
Well, you all know the old saying: When it rains, it pours. Man is it pouring in Detroit right now. It's pouring so much that one man has even built an ark and is loading animals on it as we speak. Not only are the Tigers incapable of winning a game, (or hitting the baseball, or tying their shoes, or standing upright...) but they're also blowing record streaks. 
