FanHouse David Dejesus

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.

The Phillies weren't expecting much when they signed Pedro Martinez right around mid-season. Well, let me rephrase and say the Phillies weren't expecting this much.

On Sunday, Martinez pitched eight scoreless innings and struck out seven while walking two. But those aren't his most amazing numbers. When Martinez pitches the Phillies are a perfect 7-0. Think about that. Every time Pedro runs out there to take the mound the Phillies win.

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

It's rare that I lead Roto Rush with news not from the field, but this saga is too good to pass up.

Jake Peavy, newly acquired by the Chicago White Sox, on Thursday declared himself ready to start. He said that pitching Saturday in New York would be fine by him.

The Sox, on the other hand, feel Peavy needs one more Triple-A rehab start before he's ready for major league action. That final rehab start will happen for the Charlotte Knights on Saturday. If all goes well...

Our weekly fantasy baseball podcast topic on Tuesday night was gaining ground in a rotisserie league. It was a good listen, as most Cram Sessions are, but a topic that I wanted to expand upon today is streaming hitters into your lineup on Mondays and Thursdays.

We've all heard of streaming pitchers, in fact if you've listened to R.J. White in his Stream Team column every day since the All-Star break you now have an extra 17 wins on your fantasy team. R.J. has streaming pitchers down to a science. It's really no different to stream in hitters. You just only need to do it two days a week.

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

About eight years ago, the hardest part of Lee Banks' job as coach of a youth travel team based in southeast Virginia was picking a shortstop.

"It was a lot of fun," Banks recalled to FanHouse last week. "You just sat back and let 'em play and try not to mess it up."

Back then, the team (now known as the Tidewater Orioles) had on its roster B.J. Upton, David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman and Mark Reynolds.

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 finished above the hype-machine Tigers last season. In fact, finishing only 12 games below .500 in a division that was expected to be very strong had to have exceeded expectations in the first year of Trey Hillman's managerial stint. After all, it was the first year since '03 the Royals didn't finish in last. They still have holes, but they also have a good group of young, talented players.

Ah, the annual rites of spring. The snow starts melting, trees start finding themselves populated by leaves and singing birds, and Mark Teahen gets ready for a position change. I tell you, you can set your watch to it. In 2007 Teahen moved from third base to right field to make room for Alex Gordon before moving from right field to left field last season to accomodate Jose Guillen. Of course, now that the Royals have Coco Crisp in centerfield that probably means David DeJesus is going to start seeing more time in left field.

So if Teahen wants to keep getting at bats this season, that means he's probably going to have to change positions again, and he's planning on doing just that. Get ready to become acquainted with Mark Teahen, second baseman.

Dayton Moore's busy offseason continued on Wednesday as he made another trade, acquiring outfielder Coco Crisp from the Red Sox in exchange for reliever Ramon Ramirez.

Crisp had been on the trading block for awhile, ever since the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury in the Boston outfield. He's a career .280 hitter, who draws a decent amount of walks, doesn't have much power, and is a threat to run, with 20 or more stolen bases in each of the last three seasons. He had a brilliant year defensively in 2007, but was just in the years before and after; overall, it looks like he's a slightly above average center fielder.

Crisp goes from one crowded outfield to another, as the Royals already have Mark Teahen, David DeJesus, and Jose Guillen. This move, which comes three weeks after Kansas City picked up Mike Jacobs from the Marlins, suggests that Moore has yet another transaction in mind, and that Teahen, or even DeJesus, could be traded to free up an outfield spot.

The Red Sox dealt from a strength -- they still have an excellent starting outfield of Jason Bay, Jacoby Ellsbury, and J.D. Drew -- and received an asset you can really never have enough of, in a quality bullpen arm. The 28-year old Ramirez has an excellent season in 2008, with a 2.84 ERA in 71.2 innings. Some of that success won't continue though, as he allowed just two home runs despite allowing an average number of fly balls.

He was very good in other areas, notching 70 strikeouts, a rate of 8.8 per nine innings. Ramirez joins an increasingly strong Boston bullpen; Jonathan Papelbon is one of the best closers in baseball, and they now have four above average relievers to bridge the gap to him, with Ramirez, Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, and Justin Masterson.

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.

Joba Chamberlain certainly did a better job against the Royals on Sunday than in his first start against Toronto. He cut his walks to one, struck out five and made only one big mistake. He hung a slider to Jose Guillen who deposited it into the seats but, otherwise, he did a pretty nice job.

Nothing to make you renounce your god and worship at the altar of Joba, perhaps, but pretty good stuff and it must make the Yankees breathe a bit easier. Don't expect to hear any praise coming from the opposition, though. The Royals, who know a thing or two about being shut down by good or even mediocre pitching, were not impressed.

David DeJesus : "Nothing like we haven't faced before, Just a guy throwing hard."

Mark Teahen: "More or less the same as he was as a reliever...Nothing special."

Hard to know what to make of this news. On the one hand, the Royals have been shut down by the likes of Kevin Slowey, Sidney Ponson and Steve Trachsel this season so if Chamberlain doesn't impress them, it's hard to feel too chuffed about his future.

While you might like to hear "I contemplated retirement rather than getting back into the box against that guy," it's important to remember that Chamberlain is still putting it all together as a starter. Rushes to judgment are a New York specialty but some restraint is well-advised for Joba's near future.