DENVER -- The way the Cardinals have bulldozed through the National League in the second half, it's easy to forget that they were locked in a see-saw battle with the Cubs, barely over .500, a few months ago.
By the time John Smoltz showed up in mid August, the Cardinals were a changed team.
"You get four guys like that, who add postseason experience and most of all a lot of depth to our lineup and our bench," Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick told FanHouse before Friday's potential division-clinching game in Colorado. "We just got better depth-wise. We've just been having a lot of fun. You start winning games and it becomes contagious and you get rolling."
"My dad was a really good athlete (Kenny Ross, who played safety at New Mexico in the late 1960s)," said Ross, the Marlins' right fielder. "My dad was all right[-handed]. My mom's a lefty, so maybe I got that gene from her."
Ross and St. Louis' Ryan Ludwick are the only two active position players who throw left and bat right. Just 14 such players in baseball history have gotten as many as 1,000 at-bats -- and that list now includes a Hall of Famer, Rickey Henderson.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Ryan Ludwick scuffled early this season, which was a sign to many about how much of a fluke his huge 2008 season was. Through June 29, Ludwick was hitting just .227 with a .718 OPS. Last season, he hit .299 with a .966 OPS in his career year, with a whopping 37 home runs and 113 RBI. Many thought it was an outlier, but he had never gotten a chance to play everyday in the majors until then.
In July, he's heating up and showing that he is no fluke.
We're coming up on the All-Star Game and a day off on Wednesday before Major League Baseball gets back to business. If you squint really hard, you can see the finish line. For those without great eyesight, you've got approximately 74 games until the 2009 season is over. That's about 12 weeks of games, two-and-a-half months of baseball to make that last-ditch effort to push your fantasy baseball team towards the top of the standings.
Do you have what it takes?
Maybe you do, maybe you don't. No matter the answer, everyone could use a little bit of help, right? Here are a few hitters to target in the second half that could really help you on your quest for the championship.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That the Mets can't even break a lengthy team-wide home run drought without something going wrong. Brian Schneider went deep Sunday afternoon at Citi Field, snapping an 80-inning span without a big fly for New York. Three pitches later Fernando Tatis left the yard again. So why did that elicit boos from the Met fans?
Because Tatis homered so soon after Schneider that the infamous mechanical apple -- an all-new heavier model than the one used at Shea Stadium (seen on the right at Citi Field) -- didn't reset in time for it to rise immediately after Tatis' drive. The apple did eventually emerge, but not before the ire of already edgy Mets fans had been raised.
"You come to Citi Field, Mets fans expect to see the Apple," said Elizabeth Cruz, 24, of Maspeth. "It should go up every time. It was disappointing."
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Before David Price took the mound Thursday, he said he was looking to rediscover his missing edge. "I just haven't had that edge, haven't had that mentality when I was out there," said Price. "I have to get back to the same way I was last year, the same way that got me to this point..."
For one night, at least, the 23-year-old lefty found what he was looking for.
With the Cubs imploding and the Brewers still in desperate need of pitching, the road to a playoff return for the St. Louis Cardinals is looking more and more wide open. The Cardinals see this opportunity themselves.
As such, they have begun keeping tabs on A's slugger Matt Holliday should Oakland decide to move him before the trade deadline, a major league source told FanHouse's Jeff Fletcher. St. Louis is cautious because of the size of Holliday's paycheck -- $13.5 million this year -- and his sagging performance in his first season away from Coors Field, but the team is interested in getting perennial MVP candidate Albert Pujols some help in the middle of the order.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Troy Tulowitzki was the runner-up for the 2007 Rookie of the Year, but he followed it up with a rough 2008. And a rough beginning to 2009. All of a sudden, though, the kid has caught fire. Not coincidentally, the Rockies have as well.
After trouncing the Angels Monday night, the Rockies have now won 15 of their last 16 games. After going 0-2 in the first game of the streak, Tulowitzki has gone 20-for-48 (.417) with 5 home runs, 11 RBI, 15 runs, 4 doubles and 5 stolen bases. Again, that's in 15 games.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Oh what a difference a month makes. Josh Beckett's ERA in April stood at 7.22, including a two-game span where he was shellacked for 15 runs. Since then he's hurled five straight quality starts and posted a 2.38 ERA in May. His ERA is now 4.60 and his WHIP is 1.47, both of which fail to indicate his true current value. Often, like in Beckett's case, you can only get an accurate gauge by looking at what a player's done lately instead of viewing overall stats.
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.
While it's entirely possible the Blue Jays do hit a snag, isn't it about time columnists across the internet stopped doing Can the Blue Jays Really Keep This Up? pieces by now? I've seen at least 10 in the past three weeks. There are almost as many The Rangers Are For Real posts. The discrepancy in the media's faith in those two is likely due to the divisions in which the teams reside, but seven weeks isn't a small sample. At some point, you have to start giving credit where it's due.
DENVER -- The way the Cardinals have bulldozed through the National League in the second half, it's easy to forget that they were locked in a see-saw battle with the Cubs, barely over .500, a few months ago.
Every Sunday, 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
We're coming up on the All-Star Game and a day off on Wednesday before Major League Baseball gets back to business. If you squint really hard, you can see the finish line. For those without great eyesight, you've got approximately 74 games until the 2009 season is over. That's about 12 weeks of games, two-and-a-half months of baseball to make that last-ditch effort to push your fantasy baseball team towards the top of the standings.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
With the Cubs imploding and the Brewers still in desperate need of pitching, the road to a playoff return for the St. Louis Cardinals is looking more and more wide open. The Cardinals see this opportunity themselves.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
