FanHouse Ben Francisco

After the Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series championship, highly respected general manager Pat Gillick decided to step down. A few days later, the reins of the franchise were handed to rookie general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr., who had been serving as Gillick's right-hand man for the past three seasons.

Needless to say, Amaro wasn't exactly heading into an easy gig. He was taking over a team that had nowhere to go but down, he was succeeding someone considered one of the best in the business and he was doing it in the unforgiving city of Philadelphia. The deck was already stacked against him, but Amaro appeared to make matters worse when his first big move drew the skepticism of many: he signed Raul Ibanez instead of retaining the services of Pat Burrell.

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

Apologies for the lack of R.R. yesterday, but we're hitting you with a special extended trade edition today to make up for it. There's been a lot of activity over the past few days, especially with top pitching commodities like Cliff Lee, Jarrod Washburn and George Sherrill. We've also seen a pair of Pittsburgh starters head outta town and two prized minor-league prospects change locations. Time to break it all down from a fantasy perspective.

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Being a Cleveland Indians fan can't be the easiest thing right now. As if the fact that the Tribe are scuffling their way through another long season at 42-60 isn't enough, a familiar feeling crept into the collective psyche of Indians fans everywhere on Wednesday afternoon.

The Indians sent Cliff Lee to the Philadelphia Phillies along with Ben Francisco for four prospects -- pitcher Jason Knapp, pitcher Carlos Carrasco, catcher Lou Marson and shortstop Jason Donald. It's a trade that sounds the death knell for the Indians in 2009, and most likely in 2010 as well. Worse yet, it is nothing new for Indians fans, who just last summer saw the team send its ace CC Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers for four young prospects.

What's an Indians fan to think of all this? How are they supposed to see the light at the end of the tunnel? If there is one, it's hard to see.

No National League team has gone to back-to-back World Series since the 1995-96 Braves.

Until now.

OK, the Phillies could miss out on a second straight pennant. They could cough up a seven-game lead on the NL East. They could lose in a short playoff series.

But with the addition of Cliff Lee on Wednesday, they are more than the defending NL champions in name. Even though the Dodgers have a better record, Los Angeles will need to knock Philadelphia off of its perch.

The Phillies have landed left-hander Cliff Lee of the Indians.

FanHouse first reported that, according to a major league source, the clubs were "very" close to deal that would send Lee to Philadelphia Wednesday afternoon. The Phillies also got outfielder Ben Francisco to bolster its right-handed bench, while sending Cleveland will Single-A right-hander Jason Knapp, right-hander Carlos Carrasco, shortstop Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson.

This could mean Toronto hangs on to ace Roy Halladay, at least until the offseason. Halladay seemed to prefer to go to Philadelphia if he was traded. Boston might be a possibility, but the Yankees don't want to add payroll and the Dodgers may not be willing to part with the package of prospects the Blue Jays seek.

For a man that's only 26 years old and has only spent four years in the major leagues, Grady Sizemore has accomplished quite a lot. He had a fantastic 2008 season, one that many thought warranted an MVP award, and had a lot of people thinking the Indians were going to be the team to beat in the AL Central this season.

Well, as Grady goes so goes the Tribe, and it's no coincidence that with Sizemore struggling at the plate in 2009 the Indians find themselves at the bottom of their division. One of the reasons Sizemore may be having trouble is a sore elbow that's been bothering him all season and has caused him to play a lot of DH lately. Well, since the elbow doesn't seem to be getting any better the Indians have decided to introduce Grady to the disabled list for the first time in his career.

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

With a starting rotation containing Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Matt Harrison, Scott Feldman and Brandon McCarthy, it's pretty safe to say many mixed leagues went through draft or auction day without mentioning a single starting Rangers pitcher -- unless it was in jest.

The joke is on us, because the Rangers starting rotation is pretty damn legit right now. After Sunday, the Rangers now sport the fifth-best starter's ERA (4.25) in the American League.

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 that should have more doctors on staff. Lofty expectations turned sour when major keys to the Indians lineup went down with injury in 2008. Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner, Fausto Carmona, and Jake Westbrook all lost significant time to various maladies. The health and or hasty return of these guys, and the continued health of Kerry Wood are crucial to the Indians having any success in 2009.

The Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians may both call the AL Central home, but apparently that isn't going to stop them from trying to work out a trade that would help both teams.

You see, the Royals feel like they need to improve their offense, and while they're at it, they'd like to move David DeJesus to left field, where he's a better defensive option.

The Indians, meanwhile, have a surplus of young outfield talent and have an opening at third base after sending Casey Blake to the Dodgers in July. They were hoping Andy Marte would grow into that third baseman, but it's starting to look like Marte will never reach the potential the Tribe originally saw in him.

Which is why this prospective trade between the two teams makes so much sense.

So now that the Cleveland Indians have shipped C.C. Sabathia off to Milwaukee, we can officially say that the Indians are done trying to win in 2008. The focus has now been moved to preparing this team for the 2009 season and trying to figure out which pieces fit into that picture, and which ones don't.

While none of us can see the future, there is something about this Indians team that most of us have known for quite a while, and that is the fact that Grady Sizemore will not be a lead-off hitter his entire career. When Grady first came up with the Indians, everybody knew he was destined to be a middle of the order type guy, but with the Indians monster lineup the last few seasons, there was no need to do it.

Well, it's time now. Grady has grown up and he's ready to be the guy the Indians build their lineup around. Travis Hafner's power and ability to make contact with the ball have magically* disappeared and there's no guarantee they'll ever come back, so there is an opening.

Eric Wedge is currently batting Ben Francisco third, and Jhonny Peralta in the clean-up spot (where Jhonny's been raking). Meanwhile, Sizemore has an OPS of .914 and leads the American League with 22 home runs, yet he only has 50 RBI. How can that be? Well, since Grady hits lead-off, 16 of his 22 taters have come with nobody on base.