FanHouse Shaun Marcum

Randy Wolf was good on Sunday. Really good.

Let's start with his 7.2 innings of work on the mound. Wolf gave up three earned runs and five hits. But he struck out an amazing ten batters while walking none. And this isn't the first good outing for Wolf in a while. In fact, quite the opposite.

If you take out the four earned run game on August 6th against Atlanta, you have to go all the way back to June 24th to find another day where Wolf didn't provide the Dodgers with a quality start. Nine of his last ten outings have been quality starts and he's sporting a 3.13 ERA over that time. He only has four wins to show for it, but that sounds like a run support issue and not a dig on Wolf.

Getting the jump on injured, rehabbing or struggling players can help win your fantasy leagues. Stash or Trash? tells you what your play is for these guys.

Blue Jays pitcher Shaun Marcum made a successful first step on Monday in recovering from Tommy John surgery. He pitched for Class A-Advanced Dunedin, throwing three innings and allowing zero runs on two hits with a strikeout. This was his first game action since September of 2008.

Marcum burst onto the scene in 2007, winning 12 games and striking out 122 batters in 159 innings. He followed up that performance in 2008 by lowering his ERA to 3.39 and winning nine games before being shut down for surgery.

Marcum went largely undrafted prior to the 2009 fantasy baseball season as many were weary of his promise to be back by August. He now looks like he could make good on that promise.

After three strong innings on Monday, Marcum will throw again in Dunedin on Saturday before being reevaluated.

So, where should Marcum fit into your fantasy outlook?

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

With the recent news that Mark DeRosa is on the trade block and the White Sox have possibly landed Jake Peavy, junkies of major league baseball trade rumors got an early glimpse at what promises to be a very interesting July. It's far to0 early to know exactly who will be in the market for what -- or who can afford to take on temporary payroll in this economy -- but it's certainly fun to speculate. Let's do it.

With Dustin McGowan and Shaun Marcum on the shelf -- not to mention A.J. Burnett's following the almighty dollar to the Bronx -- the Jays' rotation looks a bit less stout this season. After Roy Halladay, they line up with Jesse Litsch and David Purcey. You can add a fourth name to the list, because Cito Gaston has announced the next spot in the rotation will go to Ricky Romero.

The 24-year-old left-hander has never thrown a pitch in the majors, and he has only made seven starts in Triple-A.

FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Toronto Blue Jays.

There's no team in baseball in a worse spot than the Blue Jays. They've had to contend with the megapowers in New York and Boston for years, watching their competitive payroll and over-.500 seasons amount to nothing more than third-place finish after-third place finish. No matter how much they have spent and how much they have won, it has never been enough to catch the Red Sox or the Yankees.

FanHouse breaks down the who's who and the what's what of the baseball world each week with our MLB Power Rankings.

Spring Training is always a time of year when false hopes or false assumptions are built based on performance. It might Jeff Francoeur lacing the ball, for instance. Or Yovani Gallardo stinking the joint up. But it is also a time of year when season-altering injuries are revealed. For instance, Alex Rodriguez will miss the first 10 weeks of the season because of surgery. Chipper Jones is dealing with an oblique injury. Oh, and this Manny Ramirez guy signed with the Dodgers. So even though it might seem premature to react in a knee-jerk fashion, it's not.

Hence, we have our second installment of preseason MLB Power Rankings, just to keep your jones going for America's pastime.

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 about to lose one of the best pitchers in baseball. Let's face it, with the economy in the tank for the rest of this calendar year, major league teams will be forced to cut costs. Roy Halladay makes a lot of money. The Blue Jays are going to be the worst team in the AL East (yes, they really will). People will stop attending games, and the Jays are going to have to deal him for about 30 cents on the dollar.

With the 2008 season coming to an end, the future was starting to look bright for the Toronto Blue Jays. They have one of the best starting rotations in baseball, leading the Majors with a 3.54 team ERA, and if they can add a bat to their lineup to help score some runs, they can make a lot of noise in the AL East next season.

Of course, one of the big questions going into this offseason for the team is whether or not they were going to bring A.J. Burnett back. Burnett was rumored to be on the move at the trade deadline, but instead remained in Toronto, and he's currently tied with Roy Halladay for the team lead in wins (18) and leads the AL with 220 strikeouts. All of which virtually guarantees he's going to be opting out of his deal after the year ends.

Still, even if Burnett leaves Toronto for a bigger contract someplace else, the Jays were still comfortable with their rotation thanks to guys like Jesse Litsch and Shaun Marcum.

Well, they're probably going to have to try harder to keep Burnett around for 2009, because they just found out they aren't going to have Marcum. Shaun needs Tommy John surgery, and he won't be pitching next season. If the Jays lose both Burnett and Marcum for next season, that will leave two large holes in their rotation, and they probably won't have Dustin McGowan back until May as he recovers from shoulder surgery. In other words, next season could already be over before it even starts.

As I mentioned over the weekend, the Toronto Blue Jays had to place Shaun Marcum on the disabled list due to some problems with his elbow. More specifically, the fact that it had been hurting him the past few weeks. Marcum was scheduled for a visit with the famous Dr. James Andrews on Monday to find out what exactly was wrong, and to see how long he's going to be out.

He got some good news, as it doesn't appear that Marcum is going to miss too much time.

During an examination in Birmingham, Ala., Andrews confirmed Marcum was suffering from strained ligaments around the elbow and forearm. The injury wasn't deemed to be severe, and Andrews gave Marcum the go-ahead to begin a throwing program as soon as Saturday.

According to the team's website, there's still no established timetable for Marcum's return. He is eligible to be activated from the 15-day disabled list in time for Toronto's July 4-6 road series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, but it's more likely that the Blue Jays will take extra precaution, meaning Marcum could be sidelined until around the All-Star break July 14-16.

While it's good news that Marcum will not be needing surgery and that it's an injury that should heal with rest, it still comes at a bad time for the Jays. They had lost seven in a row before beating the Pirates on Sunday, and have lost 14 of their 19 games in June to fall behind everybody in the AL East. Considering how well everyone else in the division has played this month, by the time Marcum makes it back to the mound, Toronto may be completely out of the race.

Now that Cito Gaston has re-emerged from whatever cave he's been in the last eleven years to return as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, and put J.P. Ricciardi's job in serious jeopardy (okay, so Ricciardi is probably the one who put his job in serious jeopardy), he has to be wondering if he'll have any starting pitchers left at the end of the season. The way A.J. Burnett is begging talking, odds that he won't be a member of the Blue Jays after July 31 are looking pretty good. Jesse Litsch has followed up his 7-1 start to the season by going 0-3 with a 6.46 ERA in four starts this month.

Then there is that whole Roy Halladay taking a line-drive off his head incident on Friday night against the Pirates. Halladay left the game immediately and underwent a CAT scan. The scan showed no broken bones, and Halladay hasn't been experiencing any headaches or other signs of a concussion, so it's looking like he won't be missing his next scheduled start.

The same cannot be said for his teammate Shaun Marcum, who has been placed on the disabled list.

Marcum, second in the American League with a 2.65 ERA, was to fly to Florida on Saturday to be examined by Dr. Steve Mirabello. Marcum will also see noted orthopedic Dr. James Andrews on Monday.

"Hopefully, we'll get good news and then after 7-10 days of a rest period, we'll make a decision and go from there," Blue Jays pitching coach Brad Arnsberg said.

Marcum says that he's been experiencing pain in his right elbow the last few weeks, but that hasn't seemed to stop him from pitching well over that span. Gaston has made no announcement as to who will take Marcum's place in the rotation, the team called up outfielder Adam Lind to take his place on the roster, and they'll probably just bump A.J. Burnett up a day to take Marcum's place on Tuesday.