Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
By now we all know of the greatness of San Francisco pitcher Tim Lincecum. He's the best pitcher in baseball this season, with a 2.34 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 233 strikeouts in 200 1/3 innings. But there's another hard-throwing young kid in the Giants organization that, like Lincecum, has a shot to be one of the league's best very quickly. He's a guy you want to burn that No. 1 waiver priority on, in case he sticks in the rotation for the rest of the season. He is Madison Bumgarner.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Before David Price took the mound Thursday, he said he was looking to rediscover his missing edge. "I just haven't had that edge, haven't had that mentality when I was out there," said Price. "I have to get back to the same way I was last year, the same way that got me to this point..."
For one night, at least, the 23-year-old lefty found what he was looking for.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
When you think of Chicago Cubs starting pitchers, you first think of Carlos Zambrano. Next is probably Rich Harden, especially in terms of sheer talent -- plus, the injury woes probably keep him fresh in your mind. After last season, Ryan Dempster should be hanging out in your baseball-knowledge-filled brain as well. The best Cubs' starter of 2009, though, has been Ted Lilly. After yet another quality start Sunday, the Cubs' left-hander is 7-4 with a 2.94 ERA and 1.06 WHIP.
MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
We had to break the trend. Sure, the Dodgers might have a better record than everyone else -- but competition has to count for something, doesn't it? The Dodgers have mutilated the mediocre-at-best NL West to the tune of 26-9. This means they are 14-11 against everyone else. Is that a top-two team in baseball? Hardly, I'll take the heated-rivals: Yankees (who have overcome a slow start to go 19-7 since May 12) and Red Sox (18-8 against the best division in baseball) as the top two.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Max Scherzer, the 24-year-old fireballer for the Diamondbacks, has worlds of talent. He also takes a step back every time you think he's finally hitting his groove. This past week, he was a two-start pitcher in the fantasy baseball world. His first start was pure gold (that's gold, Jerry!). He threw 7 shutout innings and struck out 10 before getting chased in the eighth inning -- after allowing a few earned runs. He followed that up with an absolute catastrophe on Sunday. The light-hitting Braves touched him up for 10 hits and 8 earned runs in only 3 2/3 innings.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That Matt Wieters may one day be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but he's going to have to show a little more than he did in his much-anticipated big league debut. The top hitting prospect in baseball, Wieters went hitless in four at-bats in his first game with the Orioles on Friday.
Before the game, Wieters held court for a large contingent of media, while Orioles veterans shook their heads at the hype. Adam Jones, a former hyped prospect, said the media should not expect too much of him too soon.
For those of you who keep up with minor league prospects, you'll know the significance of the Brewers promotion of Mat Gamel yesterday. If his name is unfamiliar to you, familiarize yourself with one of the top 100 prospects (Baseball America #34, MLB #23 & Baseball Prospectus #58) in all of baseball.
Through 33 games (119 at-bats) Gamel is batting .336/.428/.647 for the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. He also has 11 doubles and eight home runs. This kid can really mash the ball and he's been doing it his whole career.
Since being selected in the fourth round of the 2005 First-Year Player Draft, Gamel has never hit below .288 for a season and has a career minor league batting average of .308. Last season he hit 20 home runs and 35 doubles while driving in 99. So, as you can see, Mat Gamel can hit the ball.
The Brewers reached the postseason for the first time in 26 seasons last year and looking at how they've started the 2009 campaign, it seems they are hell-bent on waiting another 26 years to get back. They're 4-8 after their first 12 games and are combining for a .224 team average with a 5.14 ERA. In other words, they're slumping.
Well as baseball players are wont to do when they're in a funk, J.J. Hardy and Corey Hart are looking for something to do that can change their luck. That's why after losing their first two games against Mets this weekend in New York they headed to a salon to get their hair dyed jet black.
Fanhouse's own Matt Snyder has already discussed Spring Training stats and when they matter. Today I want to talk about a few players who are tearing it up this spring. The big question remains; will they be able to keep up the pace once the season begins?
Derek Lowe, Braves - Lowe has been given the honor of starting in the season opener for the Braves. In fact, he'll start both that game and the home opener. A lot of that has to do with his seniority, but his 2-0 spring with a 3.27 ERA didn't hurt either. What's been really special about Lowe this spring is his strikeout to walk ratio. In 22 innings he's struck out 24 batters and only walked two. That's a phenomenal ratio. It's a certainty that he won't keep that rate up all season, but what this shows is that Lowe is dominating hitters this spring and has close to pinpoint accuracy (read: control). Lowe's Opening Day history isn't great (he's 0-3 with 8.44 ERA in Opening Day starts) but fantasy GM's can feel good about owning this ground ball specialist. He's not known (most ground ball pitchers aren't) for a high strikeout rate. If his spring numbers translate into more strikeouts per innings pitched and Lowe keeps the ground ball magic going, he could prove to have great value.
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.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
For those of you who keep up with minor league prospects, you'll know the significance of the Brewers promotion of 
The Brewers reached the postseason for the first time in 26 seasons last year and looking at how they've started the 2009 campaign, it seems they are hell-bent on waiting another 26 years to get back. They're 4-8 after their first 12 games and are combining for a .224 team average with a 5.14 ERA. In other words, they're slumping.
