FanHouse Randy Winn

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.

Monday is a big travel day as only ten teams are seeing action. It's time to dig deep to find fantasy baseball fill-in hitters as there isn't much time left to catch the front-runner in your league.

Erick Aybar, Angels - Over the last week Aybar is hitting .333. But, it's his career mark versus Andy Pettitte that makes Aybar a good fill-in on Monday. Against Pettitte, Aybar is 6-for-13 (.462) and is only owned in 24% of fantasy leagues.

Saturday Spotlight is a weekly lightning-round of questions delving into the personalities and stories of major leaguers. This week the Spotlight goes multimedia, with its premier audio edition.

Randy Winn has been overshadowed throughout most of his career because he's shared an outfield with Ichiro Suzuki and Barry Bonds, but Winn has put up some numbers of his own. He's been an All-Star and a member of Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. He's also a former teammate of a third MVP: Steve Nash.

Enjoy the interview...

SAN FRANCISCO -- If you doubted the Dodgers because they didn't have any top-of-the-rotation starters to replace Brad Penny and Derek Lowe, Randy Winn has a little newsflash for you.

Chad Billingsley is an ace-in-waiting, and he may not be waiting much longer.

Billingsley, the only 4-0 pitcher in the National League, will look to go 5-0 against Winn and the Giants on Tuesday night at AT&T Park.

"He's had the stuff to be a No. 1 starter," Winn said. "It's just the teams he's played for they had some more experienced guys, like Penny and Lowe. Now those guys aren't there, so people are looking at him in a different light, but people who had to face him the last few years know he's been really good."

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 ...
Team desperately needing a bat in the middle of the order. It's too bad money is so tight right now, because the Giants could certainly use a certain eccentric slugger in the middle of their order. They still aren't altogether out of the running for Manny Ramirez, but I believe he's staying put in Los Angeles. Too bad they wasted all that money on Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand.

Grand Theft Guide is FanHouse's fantasy baseball draft kit guide to all the base-stealers that matter in your league.

Most people will tend to agree with the following statement: Today's players are bigger and stronger than their counterparts from 15 years ago. However, if you look at stolen base statistics from 1993 you'll find that 45 players swiped 20 or more bases that year. Six players even stole more than 50 bags. In 2008, only 37 players notched 20 or more stolen bases, with only three swiping 50 or more.

It's no secret that the Giants need offensive help. They've finished 15th in the National League in scoring two years running. It's also become abundantly clear that they're gearing up for a run at the NL West crown in 2009, having signed Randy Johnson, Edgar Renteria, Jeremy Affeldt and Bobby Howry this offseason.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise then, that San Francisco is making a run at the biggest and best bat still available.

The Giants, the NL West's most active team this winter, are quietly making an aggressive play for free agent Manny Ramirez, according to a major-league source.

Acquiring Ramirez would come with a number of headaches -- from simply having the mercurial slugger on their roster to likely having to trade one of their incumbent outfielders (Randy Winn, Aaron Rowand, Dave Roberts). But all in all, he'd probably be worth it for a team that isn't all that far from seriously contending. They play in a soft division where 85 wins could easily equal a playoff berth.

That's especially true when you consider three factors: (1) the market for Ramirez is severely depressed because of the number of all-hit, no-field corner bats on the market, (2) signing him would simultaneously improve the Giants' offense and weaken the rival Dodgers and (3) it would save GM Brian Sabean from having to engineer a complex trade for a bat that would cost him one of his top young pitchers like Jonathan Sanchez.

Sign Manny? Sure, why not? It's not like folks in San Francisco aren't used to having a sometimes-surly, Hall of Fame slugger prowling around in left field after all.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

The Giants were not a disappointment in 2008 as far as I'm concerned, because they only lost 90 games and did not finish in last place. Going into the season, in looking at the rosters, Giants fans had to expect 100 losses and a definite last place finish. Moving forward, there is hope for a quick franchise turnaround.

Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, and even the injury-prone Noah Lowry have the makings of a quality young starting rotation. They could be above average with offensive support and an improved defense. Bengie Molina and Aaron Rowand can be helpful players on a good team, but they cannot be the centerpieces of the offense, as they were this past season. Randy Winn and Fred Lewis are viable starters for '09, but they need to be slotted at the end of the batting order.

The key to the approach for 2009 is to try and compete without foregoing the future. The rotation, closer Brian Wilson, and potential stars like Madison Bumgarner, Conor Gillespie, and Buster Posey are too valuable to deal in a trade just to land one player.

July 31 is rapidly approaching. Buy or Sell lets each team know where they stand on the trade market with the deadline right around the corner.

Before you ask, using this picture of Erin Andrews interviewing Evan Longoria was in no way, shape, or form, an attempt to gather some cheap page hits. Rather, it's used to illustrate just how far the Tampa Bay Rays have come. How many ESPN sideline reporters have you seen at Tropicana Field in the ten years prior to this season? Not many.

Erin Andrews at the Trop is just one by-product of a season that finds Tampa at the top of the A.L. East standings on July 22nd. It also means that the Rays are solid candidates to be buyers and not sellers for the first time in their short history. But who's on the grocery list?

July 31 is rapidly approaching. Buy or Sell lets each team know where they stand.

It's very odd that a) the Giants are not completely out of their division race and b) that somehow, they are reasonably stocked with prospects. Just imagine what would have happened if Brian Sabean really knew what he was doing.

However, as we have seen from the trade of Ray Durham to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Giants are, heading into the final 11 days before the trade deadline, most certainly sellers. They stand eight games back of their division, and it's not likely that even the most stout of second halves from their youngsters or tepid of performances by the Dbacks and Dodgers will let them sneak into the playoffs.

In terms of assets and receivables, the Giants have a pretty decent situation. They have no true veteran superstar to deal (unless they're willing to pay 75% of Barry Zito's contract and his "star" status is certainly debatable). In addition, they need young offensive help, but they need it everywhere, so it's not like they need to be picky.

Rich Aurilia, Dave Roberts, Randy Winn and even Omar Vizquel represent tradeable veteran talent with three or less years on their contract. They aren't premiere guys by any means, and the two years after this season that will saddle the receiving team might negate their trade value.

Maybe the All-Star Game is a meaningless to the players and just an excuse for Bud Selig to admire himself for a week. That doesn't mean that the selections should be stupid. Today, the MLB 'Haus gives you All-Star Grievances.

Grievance: Aaron Cook over Cole Hamels, or to stay in division, Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Sanchez. Mmmm-mmm. Home cookin'! Cook has been pretty good this year, but to call him All Star quality dominant might be a bit of a stretch. Hamels is a no-brainer and Billingsley and Sanchez have been erratic at times, but both have helped shore up their respective team's rotations with high strikeout pitching (they are 20 shy of collectively quadrupling Cook's totals.) Also, it really bothers me when the manager for a team uses his power to grab a homer pick. Or when people reward wins (which, partially = luck).

Grievance: Brandon Webb starting over Edinson Volquez or Tim Lincecum. Webb has been great this season, but he's scuffled recently. All three deserve to be heading to New York, but the reality is that Lincecum or Volquez should be starting, if we're basing the "award" on recognizing the entire first half of the season.