On the surface, the Brewers' handling of shortstop J.J. Hardy seems strange. They sent their veteran shortstop to Triple-A Nashville early in August, saying at the time it was being done to make room for top prospect Alcides Escobar. Then Tuesday they called up Hardy and said he'd be playing shorstop for the rest of the season. What gives?
When Hardy was sent down, Dave Cameron at FanGraphs wrote a post detailing how any lengthy demotion of Hardy would delay free agency for him by a year. That means that Hardy, now under team control for two more years, is a much more desirable trade target in the offseason. And Hardy himself seems to know it, saying that the move "makes sense."
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
The team might not win a lot of games, but it sure is fun watching the Washington Nationals hit.
In yesterday's 8-3 win against Milwaukee, the Nationals received dingers from Christian Guzman, Adam Dunn, and Ryan Zimmerman. The round-tripper was Guzman's fifth of the year. Seeing Dunn and Zimmerman display some power is nothing new for Nationals fans; in fact, the pair has hit homers in the same game four times in August and the seventh time this season. The round-tripper was Guzman's fifth of the year.
He possesses a sparkling defensive repertoire at shortstop, blazing speed, and he hits for average. Wednesday night, he made an appearance in the game as a pinch runner for Prince Fielder in the ninth inning. Escobar wasted little time making an impact, as he stole second base and then advanced to third when the errant throw skipped into center field.
The Milwaukee Brewers made the playoffs last season for the first time since 1982, and their foundation of youth seemed to indicate they would at least be in the race for 2009. Sure, losing CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets would hurt the pitching staff in a big way, but the Crew would have a full season of Yovani Gallardo. And they were in the thick of the race for a while.
So you thought that once Matt Holliday went to St. Louis and Cliff Lee wound up with the Phillies deadline day itself would be anticlimactic? Hardly.
Three All-Stars, including a former Rookie of the Year and Cy Young, went elsewhere on July 31, and all that happened while the biggest name on the market all month, Roy Halladay, stayed put.
No, this deadline did not disappoint. There was a flurry of activity right down to 4 PM ET and a legitimate shocker to finish it all off. What better way to wrap up all of the intrigue then with a look at the early winners and losers? Join me -- and a few other members of the MLB FanHouse crew -- as we break it all down after the jump.
The 26-year-old Rickie Weeks looked to be finally fulfilling the promise of his lofty draft spot (second pick overall in the 2003 draft). He was hitting .272 with 9 home runs, 24 RBI, 2 stolen bases and 28 runs. Now, what appeared to be his breakout campaign has been summarily dismantled on one swing. Weeks tore up his wrist on a swing Sunday and his season is over.
There's no rest for the weary in fantasy baseball, though. Weeks owners must lick their wounds and find a way to recover. A recovery should be possible, considering how little owners probably had to spend on Weeks in their auctions or drafts. The three options are as follows (make sure to check out number three).
Bad news coming out of Milwaukee this evening, as the Brewers have recently learned that they're going to lose second baseman Rickie Weeks for the remainder of the 2009 season. Weeks tore the tendon sheath in his left wrist on Sunday and the injury will require surgery that will keep Weeks out at least four months. It's the same injury weeks suffered in his right wrist in 2006 that ended that season and caused him trouble into 2007.
It's almost unspeakable bad luck for Weeks, as he was off to a great start in 2009 and seemed to finally be fully healthy and ready to live up to the expectations that the Brewers placed on him years ago. Through 37 games, Weeks was hitting .272/.340/.517 with nine homers (his career high is 16) and even made Snyder's early All-Star ballot last week. He's still only 26, but to suffer another injury like this is devastating.
FanHouse continues it 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Brewers are a really interesting team. Last March, everyone expected them to make a run at the playoffs, and they expected them to do so without any knowledge of the CC Sabathia trade and with the assumption that Ben Sheets would spend some time on the disabled list. In the end, they did make the playoffs, but they did it with half of a season of Sabathia and almost 200 innings from Sheets. Now those two are gone, and everyone expects the Brewers to take a step back this year.
For all of the success that the Brewers have had with Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun in the past two seasons, I feel like the organization (and certainly the fanbase) is vexed by Rickie Weeks' failure to blossom the same way. While the entire team was putting together a second-half surge to the playoffs in 2008, Weeks was hitting .234/.342/.398.
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 who could easily end up with the best offense in the National League. The potential firepower of this lineup is mind-boggling. They are going to need it, because the pitching staff has a chance to embarrass itself on a regular basis. They weren't good to begin with, but now Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia have departed.
On the surface, the Brewers' handling of shortstop J.J. Hardy seems strange. They sent their veteran shortstop to Triple-A Nashville early in August, saying at the time it was being done to make room for top prospect Alcides Escobar. Then Tuesday they called up Hardy and said he'd be playing shorstop for the rest of the season. What gives? 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
The Milwaukee Brewers made the playoffs last season for the first time since 1982, and their foundation of youth seemed to indicate they would at least be in the race for 2009. Sure, losing 
The 26-year-old 
Bad news coming out of Milwaukee this evening, as the Brewers have recently learned that they're going to lose second baseman 
For all of the success that the Brewers have had with 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
