FanHouse RotoRush

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 the day Milton Bradley began serving a team-mandated, season-ending suspension, former Cubs fan favorite Mark DeRosa suited up for the Cubs rival. He's been doing so since coming over in a trade from Cleveland. This past offseason, the Cubs moved DeRosa to the Indians as part of a concerted effort to free up payroll. The target: Bradley.

Thus, it was only fitting the chain of decisions were further cemented as awful when DeRosa hit two home runs and drove in four runs Monday night.

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.

There was reason for concern with Cliff Lee. After storming out of the proverbial gates upon his entrance to the so-called Senior Circuit, he stumbled. Lee's first five outings yielded a 5-0 record with a 0.68 ERA and a 39:6 K:BB in 40 innings. His next three? Ugly. He got a win (going 1-2), but his ERA in 15 innings was 9.60, after allowing 29 hits, 16 earned runs and 4 home runs.

Tuesday night, Lee re-announced his presence with authority.

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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.

After Tim Lincecum missed a start, fantasy owners still in the championship race had to have been holding their collective breath. Now is not the time to lose your staff ace. His next start would be a test of his health. Last year's NL Cy Young winner took the hill Monday night against the wild card-leading Rockies, and he passed the test with flying colors. While the 4 free passes were a bit disappointing, Lincecum more than made up for that with a win, 11 strikeouts and just 1 earned run in 7 innings of work. He's back, and he'll be a force the rest of the way (now if only someone could convince him to get a freaking haircut).

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.

While the majority of the American workforce got a day off on Labor Day, some major league hitters were getting their power stroke on in a big way. With only 11 games on the docket, four players left the yard twice in one game: Derrek Lee, Billy Butler, Mark Teixeira and Juan Uribe. The fantasy fallout isn't huge, save for one; Lee's having a resurgence, Butler a breakout campaign and Teixeira an MVP-caliber season. Uribe, though ... that's news.

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.

Before we get our heaping of box score browsing, let's look at a related subject: The fantasy baseball stretch run. With the annual ushering in of September baseball, we see roster changes galore. Not only are there call-ups with the legal expansion of rosters, but players with seemingly minor injuries are shut down on teams who have fallen out of the race. You also have younger players being given an audition for 2010, or being shut down so the team doesn't overwork them in their first season of increased workload. If you are in the thick of things in your fantasy baseball race, now is not the time to use a laissez-faire approach.

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.

The ugly pitching line from Monday night shouldn't have been a huge shock to Jarrod Washburn fantasy owners. He went 5 2/3 innings, giving up 9 hits, 8 earned runs, 3 walks and 2 home runs. He struck out just 2. While it was his worst outing for the Tigers, he's been flat-out awful in Motown since he was acquired at the trade deadline. Sure, there was an 8-inning gem where he didn't allow a run. He also mixed in a quality start last time out for his first win in Detroit. Other than that, it's been horrifying.

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

It's rare that I lead Roto Rush with news not from the field, but this saga is too good to pass up.

Jake Peavy, newly acquired by the Chicago White Sox, on Thursday declared himself ready to start. He said that pitching Saturday in New York would be fine by him.

The Sox, on the other hand, feel Peavy needs one more Triple-A rehab start before he's ready for major league action. That final rehab start will happen for the Charlotte Knights on Saturday. If all goes well...

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

When you select Carlos Pena in fantasy baseball, you know you aren't getting batting average help. Still, his career-low .223 mark this year was well below expectations, and up until August 5, the power numbers weren't nearly high enough to console disappointed Pena owners.

Well, that has all changed. Since that date, Pena has slugged 11 home runs and driven home 22. His average has been respectable (.286) and his OPS is ridiculous (1.307). On the season, Pena now has a six home run lead on the rest of the AL with 37. He's also third in RBI (91).

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

For the second consecutive year, the Indians have given a playoff contender a huge boost. For the second consecutive year, they traded the previous season's AL Cy Young award winner. And for the second consecutive year, he's absolutely dealing in the National League.

Through five starts, Cliff Lee is 5-0 with a 0.68 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 2 complete games and 39 strikeouts (with only 6 walks) in 40 innings. Sound familiar?

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

Heading into the season, the signs were there that the Rockies' 25-year-old right-handed starter Ubaldo Jimenez was ready for a breakout campaign. The only question was his occasional lack of command, which reared its ugly head in April (he started the season 1-3 with a 7.58 ERA and 2.11 WHIP). Since then, though, Jimenez has actually been one of the best hurlers in baseball and he's been even hotter for the past month.