FanHouse Joel Zumaya

When Nolan Ryan returned to the Rangers organization as the club's president much was made about the impact that move would have on the team's pitchers. No more pampering of young arms was the new touchstone, and it has been music to the ears to a certain generation of baseball fans and writers who have never stopped remembering when Ryan and his peers would throw 300 innings in a season.

To help establish their new system, the Rangers have allowed Alan Jaeger to start working with many of their young pitchers. Jaeger espouses a philosophy that encourages throwing more and resting less than the established norm around the major leagues.

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

Sure, he gave up a home run to Joey Votto on Sunday, but that's about all the Cincinnati Reds got facing the Cubs' Rich Harden.

For Harden this was his third consecutive start where he showed the potential of being a front-line ace. He struck out eight in only six innings and that home run was the only hit and only run he allowed the Reds in route to earning his seventh win.

Over his last three starts Harden has struck out 21 while walking only two batters in 19 innings. His ERA over this time is 0.47 and he has two wins to show for great pitching.

This is the first time in 2009 Harden has put together this kind of run. He's been able, on a number of occasions, to put two good starts together, but never three as he seems to get shelled every time he's about to take that next step towards becoming the solid number one guy the Cubs desperately need him to be.

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

We've seen our fair share of no-hitters and perfect games get busted up in late this season, maybe even more then our fair share. In fact, if Jonathan Sanchez hadn't finally made it all the way through nine innings back in early July, I'd think there was some sort of conspiracy against the no-hit bid in 2009.

Sunday, Brett Anderson took a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Angels. But, just like most of the attempts for perfection this season, the Angels found a way to play spoiler. This time it was Bobby Abreu in the seventh inning.

Abreu also was responsible for breaking up Anderson's perfect game, grounding a clean single through the left side with two outs in the seventh. Anderson promptly picked him off.

Here is what we know so far about the most exciting news story of the summer: Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Joel Zumaya felt a "slight pop" in his shoulder following his one inning of Farnsworthian-quality pitching that lost the lead for Detroit and gave a victory to the Yankees. I would've already expected a Facebook status update and at least half a dozen Tweets about this by now, but we at The Dugout promise to stay on top of the media-unsaturated story until we find out it was caused by "anxiety" and not RBI Baseball '92 or whatever, and everyone forgets about it.

Tonight's Dugout is after the jump. Don't hurt yourself.

With the race in the AL Central so tight it's entirely possible that the team who will emerge victorious will be the one whose bullpen does the best job over the second half of the season. On Friday night, this was not the Detroit Tigers.

Reliever Joel Zumaya came in to start the seventh inning with the Tigers holding onto a 3-2 lead. Zumaya then gave up consecutive hits to Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon before Mark Teixeira lined a frozen rope into the right field stands to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead. Unfortunately for the Tigers, it wasn't just Zumaya's pride that was hurt. The fire-balling reliever said after the game that he felt a "slight little pop" -- never reassuring words from a pitcher -- in his right shoulder and he's headed back to Detroit for an MRI.

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

Hahaha. Get it? The Who? Tommy? Yeah. Dated cultural references mixed into fantasy baseball news FTW, eh? Sorry. Anyway, Tommy Hanson made his debut yesterday for the Atlanta Braves -- and while he was perfect through two innings, yeah, notsomuch the rest of the way: Hanson ended up getting knocked around for six hits and six earned through six innings (sign?) while striking out five and giving up three gofer balls.

Throughout the history of baseball, fans of the game have always sought out the players they could relate to. Sure, the superstars of the game receive a lot of love and adulation from their fans, but those fans also realize that they're never going to be able to hit 755 homers or hit .400. That's why there are always those cult favorites on every team. The scrappy guy who doesn't have the most talent, but through his hard work and dedication he gets the job done.

(For an example of this, just look at all those general managers who keep giving David Eckstein a job.)

Now in Detroit there's a pitcher who just about every baseball fan outside of the Bronx can relate to, not just Tigers fans. Turns out that like most of us, flame-thrower Joel Zumaya isn't much of a fan of the New York Yankees. In fact, he can't stand them.

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

You Oughta Know ...
That the Red Sox and Yankees seem almost incapable of playing a game in under three hours and 30 minutes. Boston and New York met for the first time in the regular season Friday night, and, predictably, it was a long one. Four hours and 21 minutes after Jon Lester threw the first pitch, Kevin Youkilis launched a Damaso Marte offering over the Green Monster seats to give the Sox a 5-4 win over the Yanks in 11 innings.

That was after Jason Bay hit a two-out, two-run home run off of Mariano Rivera to knot the game at 4-all in the ninth inning, and long after Lester and New York starter Joba Chamberlain were worn down and driven from the game by two of the most patient lineups in baseball.

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

You Oughta Know ...
That the Royals are fortunate to be 2-3, since they have been outscored by Toronto's Marco Scutaro and Florida's Emilio Bonafacio. Those two players have touched home plate nine times; Kansas City has scored eight runs total, batting .198 as a team. Billy Butler is 1-for-17 with seven strikeouts, David DeJesus is 4-for-21 with six strikeouts, Coco Crisp has a .211 average, Alex Gordon is batting .133, and Miguel Olivo and Mike Jacobs are at .214. Crisp leads the club with three RBI.

Oh, and sore hips forced Jose Guillen to the DL and Gordon out of yesterday's game.

It's inevitable. Injuries are going to take a toll on Major League rosters as players get ready for the grind of a long regular season. It's not terribly relevant whether the injury was Spring Training related or the effects of World Baseball Classic games. All you need to know is that most teams are headed into play next week without a few of their key stars.

The Los Angeles Angels have three of their starting pitchers (Escobar, Lackey and Santana) on the disabled list. Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus suffered a setback and Yankees Alex Rodriguez, while apparently ahead of schedule in returning from Labrum surgery, will be out for a good portion of the early months of baseball. But, those are old news stories.

Let's take a look at the players who have been placed on the disabled list just this week.