FanHouse Sean Marshall

WASHINGTON -- The Cubs signed recently released relief pitcher B.J. Ryan to a minor-league deal Thursday, ending speculation that the club would land the former Blue Jays and Orioles closer.

Chicago assistant general manager Randy Bush said that Ryan would report to Cubs' extended spring training in Mesa, Ariz. initially to work on his mechanics before moving up the chain to Triple-A Iowa and possibly Wrigley Field after that.

"We feel like there's a whole lot of upside for us," Bush said.

Here's an example of how badly the Chicago Cubs need another left-handed arm in their bullpen for the second half of this season. On Sunday night manager Lou Piniella had his lone lefty reliever Sean Marshall in to pitch the ninth inning. Well, with the bases loaded and nobody out, the Cardinals had Brendan Ryan at the plate so Piniella brought in righty Aaron Heilman to face him.

But Lou still needed Marshall to face Skip Shumaker after Ryan's at-bat, so he moved Marshall to left field for an at-bat before moving him back to the pitcher's mound. A somewhat ingenious move by the crafty Cubs skipper, but it speaks more to the team's lack of left-handed relief than anything else, which is why it's not all that surprising that the Cubs are interested in the recently released B.J. Ryan.

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

Max Scherzer, the 24-year-old fireballer for the Diamondbacks, has worlds of talent. He also takes a step back every time you think he's finally hitting his groove. This past week, he was a two-start pitcher in the fantasy baseball world. His first start was pure gold (that's gold, Jerry!). He threw 7 shutout innings and struck out 10 before getting chased in the eighth inning -- after allowing a few earned runs. He followed that up with an absolute catastrophe on Sunday. The light-hitting Braves touched him up for 10 hits and 8 earned runs in only 3 2/3 innings.

So, what gives?

Maybe I'm being a bit hard on these guys, but almost 59 percent of the 41 pitchers who are starting twice this week are being placed in the "Risky Business" category.

There are a couple of touted rookies who make up the 59 percent like the Rays' David Price and Atlanta's Kris Medlen. There are also some big-named pitchers who should never be placed among the "Risky Business" pitchers who just are throwing well, or their teams aren't winning behind them. Jon Lester and Francisco Liriano come to mind immediately.

Like I said, in all there are 41 two-start pitchers this week. Make sure that you get your lineups locked early today as there are a bunch of afternoon games. The first is 1:10 PM ET when Houston plays Cincinnati.

Through the first 36 games of the season, it's been quite the bumpy ride for the Cubs. They've gone through as much adversity as they faced during the entire 97-win campaign that was the 2008 regular season. There have been myriad injuries, a suspension, many players suffering through extended slumps, excessive booing by the fans, bullpen meltdowns, and a much, much tougher division.

And yet, Lou Piniella's troops are 21-15. You know what their record was after 36 games in 2008? An identical 21-15.

I'd say the photo collection above accurately sums up David Ortiz's season so far. It hit rock bottom on Thursday as the Red Sox slugger (?) went 0-for-7 with three strikeouts, and left ... wait for it ... 12 men on base (Update: Ortiz was benched Friday night against the Mariners). On the Big Papi scale, this is a slump of appalling proportions. He's homer-less in his last 144 at-bats, one shy of his career-worst drought between 1998 and 2000. Is it time for fantasy owners to cut their losses with Ortiz?

There are a plethora of two-start pitchers hurling in week five (Monday, May 4th - Sunday May 10th) of the fantasy baseball season. There are 58 total this week and you late sleepers are luck that all of the Monday games are night games. You won't need to set you lineups until 7:05 PM ET.

[Update: 7:48 AM ET] : Two games were rained out yesterday. The Mets and Phillies did not play and the Angels and Yankees were rained out as well. Here is the fallout from those two postponed games as it relates to two-start pitchers.

The biggest weakness in the early going of 2009 for the Cubs has been bullpen depth. Carlos Marmol and Aaron Heilman have been good, but they can't pitch every night. It appears the Cubs are going to halt the project of stretching Jeff Samardzija out so he can be a starter in favor of adding him to the bullpen. He would be part of the bridge to the eighth inning, giving Lou Piniella another option to Heilman.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, in order to make room for Samardzija, the Cubs will designate Luis Vizcaino for assignment, meaning they have 10 days to trade him, or else he'll be released.

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

One fantasy baseball question becoming increasingly more prevalent these days is very succinct: Is David Ortiz done? The problem? It's a tough question to answer. What do we actually mean by "done?" Is he ever going to be the guy who hit 54 home runs or the one who drove home 148 runs again? No. Not a chance.

Heading into Spring Training, the most unknown fantasy baseball values come in the form of positional battles. Let's face it, the entire "sport" of fantasy baseball is unknown, because no one has a crystal ball. Still, predicting output from an individual player is much more difficult when you don't know what his role will be.

With that in mind, we're going to take a look at some of the pitchers who have recently either sewn up a spot in the starting rotation or are nearing that job. We won't be including those who were guaranteed a spot heading into camp.