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.
On Sunday, Ichiro Suzuki became the second fastest player to ever reach the 2,000 hit milestone as he doubled in the first inning and later scored.
It took Suzuki 1,402 games to reach 2,000 hits. The fastest was Al Simmons who did it in 1,390 games. Suzuki needs five more hits to reach 200 for the season, which would break the record he shares with Willie Keeler at nine consecutive seasons with 200.
As milestone talk goes, Ichiro is playing second fiddle to what's about to happen in New York.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That it's probably going to take some time to sort out the NL wild-card race. The Rockies, 34-15 since the beginning of June, are two games up on a mass of teams, including the Giants, the team they beat Sunday and the team that was leading the race just a few weeks ago.
There are six teams within five games of the wild-card lead, the same number of clubs that are more than five out, and it's hard to ignore any of them. The Cardinals, trailing Colorado by 2 1/2 games, added Matt Holliday on Friday, for example. And the Braves, who made a big trade of their own in acquiring Nate McLouth from the Pirates, have won eight of 11 since the All-Star break.
So far this year, Owings is 0-1 with a 7.20 ERA as a pitcher and batting .400 as a hitter – including the game-winning double Sunday for the Reds. His pinch hit broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning, and Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News isn't alone in wondering if maybe a Cincinnati team batting .210 overall could use his bat more than a few times a week.
As we head into the third week of the fantasy baseball season we have 34 starting pitchers throwing twice. When setting your lineups, remember that tomorrow is Patriot's Day in Boston, so first pitch is at 11:05 AM Eastern Time.
Must Start Roy Halladay, Blue Jays - Tuesday vs TEX (B. McCarthy) and Sunday at CWS (J. Contreras) Derek Lowe, Braves - Monday at WAS (J. Zimmermann)and Saturday at CIN (B. Arroyo) C.C. Sabathia, Yankees - Tuesday vs OAK (B. Anderson) and Sunday at BOS (J. Beckett) Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers - Tuesday at HOU (R. Ortiz) and Sunday at COL (J. Marquis)
Cincinnati Inquirer beat reporter John Fay is reporting that Reds manager Dusty Baker is toying with the idea of using Homer Bailey in the bullpen.
On another subject, Jocketty said, he, like Dusty Baker, is open to the possibility of Homer Bailey making the team as a reliever. "It's something we talked about," Jocketty said. "There's a possibility that (Bailey or Micah Owings) could be in the bullpen." Owings and Bailey are competing for the fifth spot in the rotation. Baker announced earlier today that Masset was out of the race. Speaking of Bailey, a scout said he was consistently at 93 mph in his last start. "He looks more free and easy," he said.
The Homer Bailey as a big league starting pitcher idea is obviously failing. He was 0-6 in eight starts last season and had 18 strikeouts and 17 walks in 36.1innings. His 7.93 ERA also goes to prove the point that running with Bailey in your rotation is a bad idea.
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 definitely won't be clogging up the bases. That joke never gets old, but, seriously, this is a team who has the potential to make some noise. Their lineup and rotation are both good, and there are several solid fantasy players here. If you want stars, though, keep on moving. There are lots of really good players here, just no great ones.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.
Chicago Cubs (88-58) "at" Houston Astros (80-67) - 8:05 PM ET
When is a home game not a home game? Well, when Hurricane Ike (and Bud Selig) force you to go to a domed stadium located conveniently in Milwaukee for a Houston Astros home game against the Chicago Cubs, who reside about 90 minutes away from Miller Park and will no doubt be represented well in the crowd for games there tonight and tomorrow afternoon. And it's not like Brewers fans are going to show up in droves to support the Astros, who are 2.5 games behind them in the wild card. If anything, Brewers fans will show up and they'll root for the Cubs too. Too bad the Packers aren't playing the Sunday night game ... then maybe Brewers fans would all have their portable TV's handy to watch the Pack and cheer at completely random times during the baseball game and confuse everyone involved.
In April, this guy was their best pitcher andtheir best hitter. But in September, the Diamondbacks have made him the player named later in the Adam Dunn trade.
It was a poorly kept secret, so the actual announcement is a bit anti-climactic. But Micah Owings has moved on to the Cincinnati Reds after an injury initially kept him from being moved as part of the Dunn trade. He went 4-0 to start the season with a 2.42 ERA. But since then, he's gone 2-9 with an ERA of 7.09 before going down with a shoulder injury. Now that he's healthy, Dusty Baker gets to put him in the rotation (Dusty should be very familiar with pitchers who have had shoulder issues.)
Owings is going to the perfect division, where three teams have batted their pitcher eighth. With five career home runs in a season and a half and a career .895 OPS, Owings could raise the bar for NL Central pitchers and bat sixth.
Shortly after the news of the Adam Dunn trade broke last week, word leaked out that one of the players to be named later would be pitcher/slugger Micah Owings. He's an interesting pickup for the Reds (or anyone, really) because of his varied abilities, but he won't be with the Reds for a while. If you thought trade waivers were complicated, they get even more complex when an injured player is involved.
Any player on the 40-man roster has to be passed through waivers at this time of year to be traded. Owings would probably make it through with the knowledge that he's going to be traded to the Reds eventually and the D'Backs would pull him back if anyone tried to claim him. The problem is that he's injured and injured players can't be placed on waivers. That means that the Reds may not get him until the season ends.
I have no idea what the Reds' plans for Owings are, but given the way that he pitched this year I almost think they should just put him in the outfield and see if he can do an Adam Dunn impression as a left-fielder. I'm sure the Reds won't do that, though, and they'll hope that Owings can approximate the form on the mound that he showed in April while also providing them with some pinch-hitting duties.
One has to imagine that Micah Owings and the Arizona Diamondbacks take umbrage to Hank Steinbrenner's ludicrous rants about the National League needing to "grow up" and embrace the Designated Hitter rule.
After all, Owings has a career batting average of .302 and a career OPS of .890. Sure it's only 102 at bats, but he's also got five homers. All of which have garnered some really ridiculous comparisons, and maybe landed him a spot as the Snakes DH during interleague play.
"It's always an option," Melvin said.
Known just as much for his work with the bat, last season Owings won the Silver Slugger Award at the pitcher's position. Owings has slumped at the plate recently, but still owns a .302 career batting average with five homers and 18 RBIs in 102 at-bats.
"It's just not his best stretch going for him," Melvin said. "We'll monitor it going forward."
Yeah, what are you gonna do when one of your pitchers, who bats generally every fifth day, is in a slump. And how do you even know it's a slump with that much time off -- the guy's not supposed to be taterjackin' every time he gets to the plate.
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.
Starting Five
As we head into the third week of the fantasy baseball season we have 34 starting pitchers throwing twice. When setting your lineups, remember that tomorrow is Patriot's Day in Boston, so first pitch is at 11:05 AM Eastern Time.
Cincinnati Inquirer beat reporter John Fay is reporting that Reds manager Dusty Baker is toying with the idea of 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
In April, this guy was their best pitcher and 
Shortly after the news of the 
One has to imagine that 
