Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.
Looking Forward ...
FanHouse's Jay Mariotti proclaimed last week that the Yankees would not be beat. He probably didn't mean every game, though. Yet here we are. The Yankees are 5-0. Not even the 1998 Yankees -- winners of 125 games that year -- started out the playoffs that well.
No one is suggesting that New York will literally run the table, but perhaps the most amazing thing about this run in October is that the Yankees haven't been at their absolute sharpest.
NEW YORK -- Of course it would end this way, in such classic, expected fashion. What, you didn't have Jerry Hairston Jr. scoring the winning run for the Yankees in the bottom of the 13th inning, after the Angel infield completely lost its heads? Join the club with millions of other baseball fans who watched Saturday's American League Championship Series melt into Sunday morning, and still aren't sure how and why this astonishing Game 2 concluded as it did.
NEW YORK -- In China, the next year of the goat is not until 2015.
In the U.S., 2009 is the postseason of the goat.
Think about it: the most memorable moments of the playoffs so far have been screwups.
By watching a first-inning popup fall to Earth faster than a Colorado hoax balloon during the Angels' 4-1 loss to the Yankees in Friday's ALCS opener, Erick Aybar added his name to the list.
Tuesday, FanHouse had the opportunity to discuss the MLB Playoffs with Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, who currently serves as a studio analyst for TBS. TBS will be broadcasting all four Division Series and also the NLCS again this season. Ernie Johnson is the studio host while Dennis Eckersley and David Wells join Ripken as studio analysts for these playoff games.
Of all the things Ripken discussed Tuesday, the most intriguing subject, not surprisingly, was one Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod is an oft-maligned regular season superstar, in that he's put up extremely gaudy regular season numbers throughout his career, yet has never played in a World Series and has pretty sub-par numbers in the playoffs overall -- especially of late.
For a number of major league teams Mondays and Thursdays are travel days. Every Wednesday and Sunday, Fantasy Fill-Ins finds guys who should be widely available on the waiver wire and can step in for the day, helping you gain ground or hold off the pack.
Monday is a big travel day as only ten teams are seeing action. It's time to dig deep to find fantasy baseball fill-in hitters as there isn't much time left to catch the front-runner in your league.
Erick Aybar, Angels - Over the last week Aybar is hitting .333. But, it's his career mark versus Andy Pettitte that makes Aybar a good fill-in on Monday. Against Pettitte, Aybar is 6-for-13 (.462) and is only owned in 24% of fantasy leagues.
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.
The Nationals of all teams are the hottest club in baseball. They've won five straight games, scoring no fewer than five runs in each of their six games in August. Mike MacDougal recorded saves in four of those five wins, but the real hero in Washington is Ryan Zimmerman.
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.
The second half of the season is in full swing and lo and behold if capitalism hasn't reared it's ugly head once again. Billy Beane was spun off Matt Holliday (as expected of course) and the eleventy billion dollar payroll machine that is the New York Yankees are in first place in the AL East. (Of course, that can't explain why the Mets are horrible but that's a whole other thing.)
Will the Yankees' surge be enough to propel them into the critically important No. 1 slot of the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings? Find out after the jump.
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 about to win about 15 less games this season. Teams in their division have closed the gap on the Angels, who are aging in some spots and not yet developed at others. The biggest factor to consider in fantasy is how many less games their starting pitchers will likely win.
From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.
Michael Young's time with the Texas Rangers has been punctuated by him making personal sacrifices to help better the team. After years as a good second baseman for the team with both the stick and the glove, he didn't have a problem when he was asked to move to shortstop in the wake of the Alex Rodriguez trade and the subsequent arrival of Alfonso Soriano. Sure, Young's offensive numbers didn't quite stand out at short quite like they did at second base, but it was about the team, not Michael Young
Since his move he's won a Gold Glove and has been named to the AL All-Star team five times. Well, now the Rangers would like him to make another sacrifice and move from shortstop to third base so they can make room for prospect Elvis Andrus. Only this time Young isn't down, and he's told the Rangers he's stood all he can stand and that he can't stand no more. He wants to be traded.
Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.
NEW YORK -- In China, the next year of the goat is not until 2015.
Tuesday, FanHouse had the opportunity to discuss the 
For a number of major league teams Mondays and Thursdays are travel days. Every Wednesday and Sunday, 
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
MLB Power Rankings
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
