FanHouse TroyPercival

The Rays' pitching staff took a pair of hits on Friday with the news that both Scott Kazmir and Troy Percival are headed to the disabled list. The Rays called up shortstop Reid Brignac and right-handed pitcher Dale Thayer to take their places on the roster. If reports are accurate, 2008 playoff hero David Price may not be far behind them.

Kazmir has a strained right quadriceps, which may have been contributing to his poor performances of late. Kazmir has allowed 14 earned runs in his last two starts, which lasted less than eight innings combined, and has a 10.89 ERA in May.

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

Who knew there was a hulking slugger waiting to bust out of Joe Mauer? After hitting his eighth jack in just 72 at-bats and driving in six RBI, the Twins catcher is putting all concerns to rest. Heck, he hit nine total home runs in 536 at-bats last season. So the "ailing" back is just fine, thank you very much, but is the power sustainable?

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

Remember when Rickie Weeks was a hot new prospect whose quick bat drew comparisons to Gary Sheffield? Yeah, turns out that was four years ago.

Following season after season of frustration for hopeful fantasy owners, Weeks is finally coming through. The speed isn't there, but he's homered in three straight games to give him nine total in only 140 at-bats. By comparison, he only hit 14 in 475 at-bats last year. So has our man-crush of yesteryear suddenly transformed into the new Dan Uggla, or is this impressive power display just another tease?

It's always nice to know how secure a closer's job is and who's next in line if somebody loses their 9th inning job. Each week The Closer Report will give you that information. And if that wasn't good enough we'll rank the closers from top to bottom.

Here's an interesting statistic. Somewhere between 30 percent and 40 percent of the closers who are listed as the the team's official closer will not be in that role by the end of the season. It's the case every year. Whether a closer loses his job due to injury or just plain can't get the job done, you're going to learn that you can find saves on the waiver wire throughout the season. You just have to know where to look.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know...
The Rangers have scored at least eight runs in their first three games of the season, the first team to do that since the 2003 Yankees. Those Yankees won the pennant. The Rangers are 3-0 for the first time since 1996, when they won the division.

"You couldn't be more excited right now coming off this first series, playing with energy and passion," pitcher Brandon McCarthy said. "The team chemistry in here is second to none, and right now it's a special team to be part of."

While that bodes well for the Rangers, it doesn't look so good for the Indians, who have been on the wrong end of these beatings. When your top three starters get hit like that, look out.

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Boston Red Sox
The shortstop battle between Jed Lowrie and Julio Lugo is heating up. Lowrie has six hits in sixteen at-bats with two doubles and a triple while Lugo has eight hits in fifteen at-bats with two doubles.

Lugo has made changes the Sox hope will help him recapture the power he showed before his arrival in Boston. He added muscle this offseason and, this spring, he slightly altered his batting stance.

Hitting coach Dave Magadan has been telling Francona he expects to see more power from Lugo this season.

There aren't enough positions on the field for both of these guys to play full-time and the DH spot is going to be occupied by David Ortiz. That can only mean one thing; a who's hotter at the moment platoon. No fantasy owner wants to hear that. This is one of those situations where what's best for the Major League team isn't so good for your fantasy team.

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 ...
Best team in baseball. Yes, they are still better than the Yankees and Red Sox. Lost in all the joy of last season were the facts that two key players were injured down the stretch and another had an absolutely dreadful offensive season. Throw in the addition of Pat Burrell, and the continued growth of the young pitching staff, and you have a team who can take on the big-spending Yankees and venerable Red Sox.

Troy Percival, the Rays' closer for much of 2008, underwent back surgery on December 3 to remove herniated discs and repair some other damage. Conventional wisdom this offseason has been that Percival won't be ready to take on his old role for a bit in the upcoming regular season. If he's ready, it won't be a gigantic blow to the Rays, because they already have Dan Wheeler, Grant Balfour, and J.P. Howell at the back-end of the bullpen.

Percival, though, is now feeling like he's going to be ready to go when the season begins. In fact, he wants to work a handful of Spring Training games just to be sure.

Hold on. Why would you trade Evan Longoria after the run the Rays just made, going all the way to the World Series? He's young, he's -

Oh, not him.

Well, Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton had off-years, so they can't really be the team MVP.

James Shields? Matt Garza?

Regardless, why on God's green Earth would an up-and-coming team like the Rays trade any of these guys.

They aren't, but they are looking to trade the little guy they named team MVP.

For some reason void of any logic or rational thought whatsoever, their "team MVP" was Jason Bartlett this past season. He of the averageish defense, good speed, and 82 OPS plus. That's right, the Rays' team MVP was a well-below-average hitter. He's got good range, but not great, defensively. He stole 20 bases, so there's that. I'm just trying to find some other legitimate reason he was voted their team MVP. Nothing stat-wise jumps out at me. He only played 128 games, so it's not like you can say something like, "with Longoria and Crawford hurt, he was the ironman of the team." You could try to say something about his attitude, I guess, but would his have really meant that much more than adding Troy Percival or subtracting Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes? And did they really win by staying positive, or by actually playing well?

Every four years, Major League Baseball's postseason intersects with a presidential election. This is one of those years. In the spirit of the season, we here at MLB FanHouse have divided the playoff teams up for a series of debates. Tom Fornelli and Eamonn Brennan discuss the ALDS between the Rays and White Sox.

Eamonn and I took a look at this series and broke it down into six key areas: Starting rotation, Bullpen, Defense, Lineup, Bench, and Manager. Then for good measure we throw in our five-star lock of the week predictions, because we're psychic mediums in our spare time.

All of the debating goodness after the jump.