FanHouse Dallas Braden

OAKLAND -- Infielders and former infielders around the majors have long admired Adrian Beltre for his Gold Glove play at third base.

Now, many of them are looking at Beltre with a different kind of disbelief.

"I can't believe a guy is playing third base without a cup," said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, a former All-Star shortstop. "That's ballsy. That's a dangerous place, especially third base."

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

You Oughta Know ...
The New York Yankees started the season 0-8 against their despised rival Boston Red Sox. After a 5-0 win Saturday, the Yankees have now won three straight against Boston and six straight overall. They have built a commanding 5-1/2 game lead in the vaunted AL East. As much as the games count, the mental gain made this series for the Bronx Bombers has to be immense.

As for the Red Sox, talk about a role reversal. They went from owning the Yanks to not being able to score a run. In fact, they've now gone 24 innings without crossing the plate.

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

In 2005, Tom Gorzelanny pitched in the majors for the first time. He was just 22. Two years later, he went 14-10 with a 3.88 ERA -- logging more than 200 innings in 32 starts for the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates. He did allow too many hits, but he was only 25 years old, so it appeared he would settle in as an anchor for the ever-rebuilding Pirates.

Instead, he had a disastrous past two seasons and had been relegated to the minors. Last week, Gorzelanny was traded to the Cubs, and Tuesday night he passed his Cubs debut with flying colors.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

It's finally time for real baseball again, where the NL actually has a shot of winning some games. Stream Teamer Dallas Braden will be taking the hill tonight against the Angels, and we'll review how he did tomorrow in this space. If you're new to the Stream Team, the idea is to find one pitcher each day that will give you a good strikeout total (and hopefully a win) while posting solid ERA and WHIP ratios.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

Welcome back from the lull that is the All-Star Break. We wrapped up the first 12 days of Stream Team by nabbing four wins and 36 strikeouts, while posting a 5.78 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP. Love the first two totals, but the ratios are high. I'm wiping the board clean to see how well we can do post-All Star Break, so consider that first dozen days a warmup. So who is the first member of the post-ASB Stream Team?

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

No one said recovering from a torn pectoral muscle would be easy. And for Vladimir Guerrero's fantasy owners, many of his 130-plus at-bats were pretty painful to watch. But on Wednesday night, Vlad came back to life in a big way.

Categorically Speaking is designed specifically for Rotisserie GM's. The information is great for all fantasy baseball formats, but for those of you who could use some help bolstering a specific roto category, this is for you. We're going to pay close attention to players who might be readily available on your waiver wire or who you might target in non-blockbuster trade talks.

Keeping your team's ERA down is something of a fine art.

It's easy when you spent money early and guessed correctly on guys like Tim Lincecum and Dan Haren. But what happens if you guessed wrong on Francisco Liriano or are having injury issues with a few starters?

You'll need to run to the waiver wire and find starting pitching that won't kill your ERA and hopefully pay dividends in other categories as well.

Here are three options.

With only two games on the schedule for Monday, the two-start pitchers for week 11 of the fantasy baseball season aren't plentiful.

The hottest pitcher on the planet goes twice for the Tigers this week. Justin Verlander gets tested as he's going to have to face some big-time sluggers in Albert Pujols on Tuesday and Prince Fiedler and Ryan Braun on Sunday. However, there's no way you can sit Verlander and his 4-and-0 record over the last month.

In all, there are 31 pitchers throwing twice. The first game on Monday doesn't start until 7:05 PM ET. So, put some extra thought into those lineups before they lock tomorrow night.

Must Start
Felix Hernandez, Mariners - Tuesday at SD (K. Correia) and Sunday vs ARZ (D. Davis)
Justin Verlander, Tigers - Tuesday at STL (A. Wainwright) and Sunday vs MLW (Y. Gallardo)
Kevin Millwood, Rangers - Tuesday vs HOU (W. Rodriguez) and Sunday at SF (B. Zito)
Carlos Zambrano, Cubs - Tuesday vs CWS (J. Danks) and Sunday vs CLE (C. Pavano)
Gil Meche, Royals - Tuesday vs ARZ (D. Davis) and Sunday vs STL (A. Wainwright)
CC Sabathia, Yankees - Tuesday vs WAS (S. Martis) and Sunday at FLA (C. Volstad)
Yovani Gallardo, Brewers - Tuesday at CLE (J. Sowers) and Sunday at DET (J. Verlander)

OAKLAND -- The future has arrived a little early for the A's pitching staff.

A team that looked awful as recently as a few weeks ago is suddenly on a roll, having won six games in a row, largely on the strength of the youngest rotation in the majors.

"It's extremely exciting, not just as a player, but as a fan of the game, to watch what these young guys are doing, " 25-year-old lefty Dallas Braden, the senior member of the group, told FanHouse.

And that was before 22-year-old Vin Mazzaro, the most recent addition to the rotation, pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings on Sunday. Mazzaro, who pitched 6 1/3 innings to beat the White Sox on Tuesday, is the first pitcher in Oakland history to start his career with consecutive scoreless starts.

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

Ben Zobrist has transformed from a run-of-the-mill slap hitter into one of the most powerful middle infielders in baseball. Right when you thought he might be cooling off, SMASH! -- a grand slam against Kansas City for his 10th home run of the year. He's slugging .659 with a 1.073 OPS for crying out loud. And he's somehow still available in over 35 percent of mixed leagues. So the question becomes: Is it time for you to believe in the man Joe Maddon nicknamed "Zorilla" or will his power eventually fade just like Marco Scutaro's did?