FanHouse Tony Pena

Tony Pena already hits like a pitcher, so the Royals decided to see if he could throw like one too. That's actually not fair to pitchers, Pena hits like the kid picked last during gym who would prefer perfecting his cursive to do anything athletic.

He always flashed a fine glove at shortstop, but a career OPS+ of 44 (including a mind-boggling -32 OPS+ in 51 at bats this season) was way too much for any fielding excellence to overcome. Pena threw a bullpen session on Friday and will report to the team's Arizona facility to work as a pitcher.

Unless you're a pitcher in the American League, there's a lot of reason to like this move.

The 2009 season was supposed to be the one where the Kansas City Royals were able to compete in what was viewed as a weak AL Central division. Things started out nicely enough, with the Royals getting off to an 18-11 start and holding first place while Zack Greinke took the baseball world by storm. Since then, however, things haven't been going very well for the Royals.

In fact, they've gone pretty terrible, as the Royals are 19-42 since and are 11 1/2 games back in what's still a pretty mediocre division. So, as is normally the case when things like this happen, fans start to look for someone to blame. The popular target in Kansas City is Trey Hillman. So, will Hillman finish the year in Kansas City?

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 no secret we here at Fantasy FanHouse were not a fan of Matt Holliday for your fantasy baseball team this season. We told you to avoid him several times in the draft kit, and still more in chats. This wasn't because we thought he was a terrible player or a bad guy. Quite the contrary, he's a good player and seems like a swell enough guy. It's just that he was so overvalued and we knew his numbers would take a hit departing Colorado for the Bay area.

Well, now is the fun part of fantasy baseball. Now we're telling you to trade for him.

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 ...
Still incredibly young Diamondbacks. It seems like when the Backs failed to keep the momentum going after an early season charge, people forgot this was still a very young team. The overwhelming majority of the roster is younger than 30, and most of the offense is younger than 27. This means we have a large group of guys who have the potential to throw up career-year type numbers at the drop of a hat. Be ready ...

Brandon Lyon has been unreliable recently for the Diamondbacks, and that's putting it lightly. Starting with one inning on August 4th, Lyon has compiled an abysmal 16.88 ERA over his past six outings. That's 16 hits allowed, 10 earned runs allowed, and only three strikeouts over the course of five and a third innings. Granted, his only save opportunity in there was also his only perfect inning. Still, though, Lyon doesn't have a solid explanation:

"It's just as simple as not making pitches right now," Lyon said. "Everything that can go wrong is going wrong. I can't explain it. I just have to keep grinding it out and keep going back out there and get one out at a time."

In light of the Dodgers still only trailing the Snakes by three games, you'd like to be able to have confidence with a close ninth-inning lead if you were in Bob Melvin's shoes. Reportedly, he was "vague" when questioned about any possible changes to the back end of the bully. There wouldn't be an ambiguous answer to the closer question if Melvin knew he was sticking with Lyon, which is a sign that he's at least mulling over a change.

When you consider that the Kansas City Royals have scored the least amount of runs of any team in the Majors with 181, and that none of the regulars are currently hitting over .300 on the season, it's pretty easy to see that this team has trouble scoring runs. All of which makes it a lot easier to understand the team's current 8-game losing streak that's dropped them into a tie with the Detroit Tigers for last place in the AL Central.

Now, when a whole team is struggling offensively, it's tough to find that one guy that's sucking like no other. Fortunately for Royals fans, shortstop Tony Pena has made himself a very easy target, though his manager Trey Hillman has no plans on taking him out of the lineup anytime soon.

"I think it goes back to this," manager Trey Hillman said. "If the guys who are supposed to be hitting will just hit, then he's not the issue. The issue is the other guys in the lineup who are hitting one through six on any given day."

For your fantasy assistance, Always Be Closing will occasionally stop in and take a look at some relief gigs that are worth monitoring, should the current closer falter. Finding saves is a cheap and dirty business. And there are always a few jobs that are murky, especially early in the season. Thinking ahead never hurt anyone.

Milwaukee Brewers -- Currently, Eric Gagne, he of the longest save streak in MLB history and Mitchell Report implications, is the closer. His name is funny for blown saves because it has so many "choke" implications in it. But it's not funny if you're Ned Yost or a fantasy owner dealing with the ERA inflation. The reality is, Gagne has lost something, whether it's an outside boost or an inside-the-head thing; if you witnessed his meltdown against the Cubs, it's obvious. Derrick Turnbow might not be the answer though, because one would think the Brewers wouldn't pay Gagne if they already had him and felt he could close. David Riske is the guy I'd take a cheap run at -- last season in Kansas City he had nearly a 2:1 K:BB ratio and he very quietly hasn't had an ERA over 4.00 since 2003.

Don't expect an announcement from the Yankees regarding who their new manager will be until next week at the earliest. Even if the team makes a decision over the weekend, they have to coordinate their announcement with the commissioner's office, who wants to time these sort of things so they don't overshadow the World Series. Considering Tuesday is an off-day for the Rockies and Red Sox, don't be surprised if that's when we hear something.

As for handicapping the candidates, the Yankees have given no indication who might be in the lead. In fact, Hank Steinbrenner went out of his way to dismiss any notion that it's just a two-horse race between Don Mattingly and Joe Girardi, which should be somewhat reassuring to Tony Pena, though he remains something of a dark horse. To make the decision, GM Brian Cashman is soliciting the input from all of the front office staff. From the NY Daily News:

Cashman met individually with members of his baseball operations department yesterday, getting each person's take on the three candidates. He is expected to process that information and make a recommendation to the Steinbrenner family, with whom he met for a couple of hours before heading back to New York.

Hank Steinbrenner pointed out that while he, his brother and father would make the final call, they'd most likely go with whatever Cashman recommended. For Cashman, that's both empowering yet daunting at the same time. You have to figure the family won't hire a guy that's not their favorite of the three, yet framing the process this way puts Cashman solely on the hook if things don't work out.

If you're closely following the Yankees process of hiring a new manager, and you want to keep abreast of the situation, I have a suggestion for you.

Don't watch ESPN.

They won't know anything because the Yankees aren't including anyone from the network in their conference calls.

The Yankees have barred ESPN from news media conference calls with their managerial candidates this week. The move was in retaliation for the network violating rules covering last week's call on which it was announced Joe Torre had turned down a contract offer.

Jason Zillo, the Yankees' media relations director, said yesterday afternoon he told operators conducting calls with Joe Girardi Monday and Don Mattingly Tuesday not to accept ESPN as an affiliation.

First MLB wouldn't let ESPN do Baseball Tonight from the All-Star Game because they announced the All-Star rosters before they were supposed to, and now the Yankees are freezing them out of any conference calls. Do you think ESPN is going to realize at some point that they aren't God? They can't just do whatever the hell they feel like doing.

I get a bit of a kick out of the fact that I could call the Yankees and get some information from them on their managerial search, but if Peter Gammons calls they'll tell him to go to hell. That's just awesome.

(As for the picture, Erin Andrews has nothing to do with this story, though if she did call the Yankees they wouldn't answer her calls either. I would though. Seriously. Call me, Erin.)

Joe Girardi met with Yankees officials for about six hours on Monday, the first candidate of three expected to interview for the vacant manager's job. Don Mattingly, Torre's bench coach this past season, is expected to meet with the team Tuesday, and Tony Pena, the first-base coach last year, will interview on Wednesday.

While Mattingly seems to have the leg up in the court of public opinion because of his presence last year in the dugout, Girardi played up the lessons he learned as a broadcaster. From MLB.com:

"The greatest thing about being a broadcaster is that you see the game a little bit different," Girardi said. "You have a much better understanding of the media than you do as a player, and even a different understanding as a manager. You just understand how it works more."

He also downplayed any concerns that he might not command complete respect from some of the current players who were his teammates several years ago:

"I don't think it's odd," Girardi said. "I think the players know what I'm about, and I know what the players are about."

When the Orioles job opened up midseason, Girardi was offered the job but declined. Many people assumed that he was holding out for the Yankees job, but he finally explained what went into his decision-making: his father, Gerald, was ill at the time, and he decided against managing because of the time commitment.

While it's still early in the interview process, Hank Steinbrenner did indicate that the team may already be leaning in one direction, saying, "There's a slight favorite, not a heavy favorite." Who that "favorite" is, however, remains unknown. He did say, though, that Girardi, Mattingly and Pena are the only candidates the team anticipates interviewing.