FanHouse SeanGallagher

There are some pretty good two-start pitchers going in week seven of the fantasy baseball season. Chad Billingsley and Dan Haren lead the list of "Must Start" pitchers, while I'm not sure which option would be riskier between Dontrelle Willis and Tim Redding this week.

There are 47 two-start pitchers in all and you'll need to lock your lineup by 1:07 PM ET on Monday as that's first pitch between the White Sox and Blue Jays.

Must Start
Dan Haren , Diamondbacks - Monday at FLA (R. Nolasco) and Saturday at OAK (J. Outman)
Derek Lowe , Braves - Monday vs COL (J. Marquis) and Saturday vs TOR (S. Richmond)
Jair Jurrjens , Braves - Tuesday vs COL (J. Hammel) and Sunday vs TOR (B. Tallet)

PHOENIX -- Sean Gallagher, also known as The Best Player the A's Got For Rich Harden, is not going to be in the rotation. Manager Bob Geren announced the rotation after today's game and he said Gallagher is now "competing for a bullpen spot."

Gallagher was penciled in as the No. 2 starter when spring training began. He has top-of-the-rotation stuff, good velocity and movement, but clearly something is missing.

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...
Most average team in the league. It's weird, because there don't seem to be many real weaknesses on team -- but can you really find a bunch of strengths? I hate the term "very average," but this team is pretty close to the mean across the board. As you scroll through ADP charts, you'll find the A's aren't often towards the top of the lists, but they are definitely there. As I said, average.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

San Francisco Giants (39-54) at Chicago Cubs (56-37) - 1:05 PM ET

Here you go, boys and girls. The Cubs' answer to Brewer-mania is here. Sure CC Sabathia has made the Brewers about as popular as free gasoline or free beer. But the Cubs have been popular since William McKinley was president ... and as Rich Harden makes his Cubs debut today, I'm sure some of that free beer will be flowing up and down Addison. At first the beer will go down throats in celebration. But Cubs fans had better hope that Harden stays relatively healthy this season, or that beer will turn out to be nothing more than sorrowful suds.

By the way, Harden's career numbers against the Giants: Four starts, 2-0, 0.84 ERA, 0.61 WHIP, .074 BAA. Chew on that.

When I first found out yesterday that the Oakland Athletics had traded Rich Harden to the Cubs, my first reaction was "Why?" I didn't even know who Oakland had gotten in return from the Cubs, and already the deal didn't make that much sense to me. Then I heard who the A's got, and the deal made even less sense to me.

Don't get me wrong, I think Matt Murton has the potential to flourish in Oakland as he's finally found an organization that can appreciate what he's capable of (Matt has struggled this season, but does still have a career OPS of .810 without ever getting regular playing time), and Sean Gallagher could end up being a very effective pitcher for the Athletics. Eric Patterson is probably just an insurance plan should Mark Ellis not re-sign with the team after the season, as the A's are pretty thin at second base in the minors, and I don't know anything about John Donaldson.

But why now, Billy Beane? Why pull the trigger on this deal when your team is only five games out of first place in the AL West, and only 3.5 behind Boston for the wild card? There is no way that Beane can honestly think his team has a better shot at making the playoffs this season without Rich Harden.

Yet, while on the surface this deal makes absolutely no sense to me, I also realize that Beane knows what he's doing and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's just tired of being held hostage by Harden's injury history and is tired of having to build a team around a pitcher who may or may not be available at any given time. If you look at Beane's history of letting his pitchers go, he seems to have great timing, as Mark Mulder and Barry Zito have never been the same since leaving the bay area.

It's still way too early to tell if this was a mistake or not, but I have to say, at the moment I don't think this was one of Beane's finest moment.

As Watson noted earlier, there has been a fairly decent seismic shift in the National League Arms Race, what with the Cubs acquiring Rich Harden only 24 hours after the Brewers picked up CC Sabathia. And just like it affects real baseball, the trade does some things for fantasy owners as well. So, why not look at the four biggest names in the trade?

Rich Harden, SP -- I've said it once, and I'll say it again: sell high on Harden. Billy Beane rarely gets suckered and this deal kind of looks like one of those times, no? Which makes me think "ruh-roh" with regard to Harden's health. Especially when you remember that during his next to last start in an Oakland uni, he was barely topping 90 mph. But his move to one of the most offensively potent teams and a World Series contender should boost his value in theory, making him a prime sell.

Just days after the Brewers made a splash by trading for CC Sabathia, the Cubs countered by acquiring an ace of their own, picking up Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A's in exchange for Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, Matt Murton, minor leaguer Josh Donaldson and ... wait, that's it? Whoa. Advantage: Cubs.

Harden is obviously a huge injury risk, but no one can dispute that he's one of the most dominant pitchers in the game when healthy. In 13 starts he's been one of the best in the AL this year, posting a 2.34 ERA (1.14 WHIP) while averaging better than 10.7 strikeouts per nine.

And while Gaudin is clearly an afterthought, he's not all that bad himself, capable of eating innings from the bullpen or starting rotation.

What did it cost Chicago? Some intriguing prospects, sure, but absolutely nothing in terms of players capable of helping the Cubs win today.

Perhaps you saw Gordon Wittenmyer's Cubs' notebook in the Chicago Sun-Times today and were expecting some kind of FanHouse commentary on Jim Hendry's, "How can I panic about the CC Sabathia trade if I'm already crazy?" statement. I was kind of thinking of trying to work that into a post, but that was before the second item in the notebook hit my eyeballs:

After Derrek Lee spotted a bug in his locker Saturday in St. Louis, [Sean] Gallagher ate it for an undisclosed sum of cash -- to the disgust and delight of Lee and teammate Reed Johnson.

Sean Gallagher eats bugs ... now that's a scoop! Still, the little blurb in the notebook now leaves me with more questions than answers. What kind of bug was it? How much money do you have to pay a guy that makes $350,000 a year to eat a bug? Is this some kind of rookie hazing? Will Gallagher continue to eat bugs if it helps him break out of his recent slump? What else will Sean Gallagher do for cash? Wait ... don't answer that last one.

The real question now is whether or not the light-hearted, bug-eating atmosphere will continue now that the Cubs appear to have a genuine division race on their hands. The Cubs might claim otherwise, but it kind of seems like they've been on cruise control for a month now. They can't really afford to keep that up now that the Brewers have made their move.

Spot Jobs gambles by picking five spot starters for the week and five usual starters to avoid. The success rate is usually around 50%, but the risk level is always through the roof. Obviously, though, you always start Brandon Webb (when healthy) and sit Dave Bush.

Five Down

Randy Johnson, DBacks, @ Boston -- As I assumed would happen when he was going well, he's in the middle of a free-fall. He's done. I wouldn't start him again the rest of the season anyway, but getting the Red Sox in Fenway is a rough task for anyone. Do not let him destroy your ERA and WHIP just for a few Ks.

Roy Oswalt, Astros, vs. Rangers -- I don't trust him anymore, and the Rangers lead the majors in runs scored. He's already disappeared from "must-start" territory, so why would you let him go against a team that mashes like Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Milton Bradley, and company?

Daisuke Matsuzaka, Red Sox, @ Houston -- That last debacle of a start was enough to scare me temporarily, and the Astros definitely have the potential to take advantage of mistakes in that park. I like him for one sit and then he's back to a must-start.

Our version of "fantasy start'em/sit'em" for one-start pitchers of the week. We hope you assume the Brandon Webbs are auto-starts and the Dave Bushes are auto-sits. Specific lineup questions? Email us!

Five Up

Chad Billingsley -- Only the Nationals have scored less runs in the NL than the Padres, and that ballpark is absolute rape on fly balls. That should help Billingsley, who is somewhat susceptible to the longball. He's been plagued by a lack of run support this season -- and that may continue with Randy Wolf on the opposite bump in that park -- but has been dealing of late. In his past five starts he's compiled a 1.97 ERA in 32 innings while striking out 31. Of course, he's only 2-1 in that stretch. Hopefully the Dodgers can push two across for him Wednesday night, because that should be enough.

Sean Gallagher -- The Braves offense is already much worse on the road, but now it appears Chipper -- the only Brave hitting better than .271 on the road thus far at .371 -- will likely miss the entire series at Wrigley. The young Gallagher has settled decently into the Cubs rotation, going 2-1 with a 3.06 ERA and 17/5 K/BB in 17+ innings during his last three starts.