Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That Brad Lidge has come back to Earth with a thud this season. On Saturday Lidge gave up a game-tying homer to Rafael Furcal in the ninth, despite the leaping effort of Jayson Werth, right. It was Lidge's second blown save in two days. After being perfect in converting saves to help the Phillies to the World Series title last year, Lidge now has six blown saves, three losses and a 7.27 ERA.
The nature of a closer's job is that a few bad breaks or bad pitches are magnified, but Lidge isn't simply shrugging off this season's struggles.
"The results are starting to frustrate me," Lidge said. "It just seems to be one thing. Tonight, it was the slider he hit. I don't know. I feel good, but I know something needs to change in terms of results. You've just got to get it done, and right now for whatever reason, it's not happening."
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel added a vote of confidence for Lidge: "He'll always be my guy."
For those of you who keep up with minor league prospects, you'll know the significance of the Brewers promotion of Mat Gamel yesterday. If his name is unfamiliar to you, familiarize yourself with one of the top 100 prospects (Baseball America #34, MLB #23 & Baseball Prospectus #58) in all of baseball.
Through 33 games (119 at-bats) Gamel is batting .336/.428/.647 for the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. He also has 11 doubles and eight home runs. This kid can really mash the ball and he's been doing it his whole career.
Since being selected in the fourth round of the 2005 First-Year Player Draft, Gamel has never hit below .288 for a season and has a career minor league batting average of .308. Last season he hit 20 home runs and 35 doubles while driving in 99. So, as you can see, Mat Gamel can hit the ball.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
I think we can all agree that it's far too early to start voting upon who the best 2009 players are when it's only the middle of May. That being said, there are certainly some shining stars at this point who deserve some props. Plus, Major League Baseball recently released their All-Star ballots for our voting pleasure -- we vote on who will start the All-Star Game. If that's not important, I don't know what is. Let's take a gander.
MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
Let me put this simply: you want no part of being No. 1 in the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings. It just brings discord, losing and possibly suspensions to your baseball team. Such was the case with the white-hot Dodgers and Manny Ramirez, who now have to deal with a 50 game-ban of their star slugger. Who's doomed this week? Let's just say that no one would be too shocked if they weren't there again next Wednesday.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Matt Garza is one of those talented pitchers that novice owners probably lost patience with quickly. And if they did, they were watching Thursday's spectacular performance kicking themselves. Garza, who had struggled with his command through his first four starts, took a perfect game bid into the seventh inning against the Red Sox and finished with a line worthy of adulation: 7 2/3 innings, 10 strikeouts, 1 hit, 1 walk, no runs. Has he turned the corner that quickly?
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.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
A few days before the 2009 Major League Baseball season began, I was watching MLB Network. They were doing their Cubs' installment of "30 Teams, 30 Days." As I went to take a sip of my beverage, former Indians and Rangers general manager John Hart, when examining the Cubs' lineup, said, "you know you're gonna get your 30 homers from Derrek Lee." I'm pretty sure I spit Pepsi all over the room in disbelief.
FanHouse continues it 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Brewers are a really interesting team. Last March, everyone expected them to make a run at the playoffs, and they expected them to do so without any knowledge of the CC Sabathia trade and with the assumption that Ben Sheets would spend some time on the disabled list. In the end, they did make the playoffs, but they did it with half of a season of Sabathia and almost 200 innings from Sheets. Now those two are gone, and everyone expects the Brewers to take a step back this year.
FanHouse positional rankings were compiled by averaging the individual rankings of each member of the Fantasy FanHouse staff.
The easiest thing in my job is to fill in that "number one" spot in fantasy baseball's first basemen rankings. Regardless of whether Albert Pujols finishes with the best numbers at the position, he's always in the top three and he will never, ever let you down. This year won't be any different. You can expect .330 with 40 homers, 120 RBI and over 100 runs. He may even steal close to 10 bases for you. Don't think too hard about the decision, just pick him if you get the chance.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
For those of you who keep up with minor league prospects, you'll know the significance of the Brewers promotion of 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
FanHouse positional rankings were compiled by averaging the individual rankings of each member of the Fantasy FanHouse staff. 
