FanHouse Wandy Rodriguez

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.

For about five months of the season, Diamondbacks outfielder Chris Young was a draft disaster. Those who picked him in fantasy leagues suffered through the nausea of a sub-.200 batting average and anemic power numbers. Where was the dude who hit 32 homers in 2007 and 22 in 2008? Absolutely nonexistent ... at least until the last four games.

Nice of you to show up Chris, where have ya been?

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

When you select Carlos Pena in fantasy baseball, you know you aren't getting batting average help. Still, his career-low .223 mark this year was well below expectations, and up until August 5, the power numbers weren't nearly high enough to console disappointed Pena owners.

Well, that has all changed. Since that date, Pena has slugged 11 home runs and driven home 22. His average has been respectable (.286) and his OPS is ridiculous (1.307). On the season, Pena now has a six home run lead on the rest of the AL with 37. He's also third in RBI (91).

There is a pretty even distribution of talent this week as 43 pitchers will be two-start pitchers for the week.

Of the 11 "Must Start" options I really like Yovani Gallardo who gets the enviable task of facing the Nationals and the Pirates. Roy Halladay has it the worst of the bunch as not only does he have to face the Rays and the Red Sox, but he has to face two starting pitchers with sub-four ERA's.

Fifteen of the 43 two-start pitchers are "Solid Starts". Dan Haren has it rough facing Matt Cain and Wandy Rodriguez while Gil Meche faces two very beatable opposing pitchers in Jeremy Sowers and Ian Snell.

The other 17 pitchers are "Risky Business". You should only be considering these guys if you're in super-deep leagues or just massively desperate for strikeouts. None of these are viable options.

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 must be nice being a Phillies pitcher.

The Philly sluggers put 12 runs on the board in yesterday's game against the Diamond- backs, giving them a total of 25 runs scored in the three-game sweep. Joe Blanton went eight innings and allowed three runs, which is going to be enough to earn a W on most nights when you're on the same team as these hitters. The team has now won eight of their last nine games and look to be the favorites to repeat as NL champions.

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

Ervin Santana went 16-7 with a 3.49 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 214 strikeouts last season. The promising 26-year-old has yet to rekindle the success in 2009, though, due mostly to arm injuries. Still, we know the potential he possesses, which is why there's no reason to give up on him halfway through the season. Any sign of a turnaround is sure to give fantasy baseball owners hope.

Thursday night, we got a glimmer. Santana dominated the A's. He worked 8 innings and struck out 4, while only allowing 3 hits, 1 earned run and 2 walks -- garnering the win in the process.

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

The most remarkable thing about this season as we hit the not-halfway halfway point of the All-Star break isn't Albert Pujols' RBI total. Or Zack Greinke's ERA. Or the PED suspension of one of the game's biggest stars.

It's the standings. And they not only reflect the season so far, they give us a clue as to the weeks head leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline.

The Phillies and Dodgers are the only first-place team with a lead of more than 2 1/2 games. And 21 of the 30 teams are within 7 1/2 games of a playoff spot: nine of 14 in the AL and 12 of 16 in the NL.

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

With Chris Davis safely tucked away in Triple-A Oklahoma City, Andruw Jones feels that he deserves more at-bats for the Texas Rangers. The way he's been hitting over the last month proves his point.

Jones belted three home runs on Wednesday and has 11 RBI and five home runs over his last four games.

Over the course of the past month, Jones has hit nine homers and driven in 19 runs. If his batting average were higher than .224 over that time period Jones would really be forcing the hand of Rangers' management. As it sits right now, Jones will see more playing time at DH, but may not see every-day at-bats, yet.

"He swung the bat well against Tampa Bay," manager Ron Washington said. "He's swinging the bat very well right now. It doesn't mean he'll be in there [Friday]. He may or may not be. But he's productive right now and I'm going to play him as much as I possibly can."

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, I didn't lose a bet to Matt Snyder (although he is running roughshod over our fantasy league right now) and he hasn't stolen my log in information to write favorable posts about the Chicago Cubs. I feel it's just necessary to expound a bit about what's been happening on the north side lately.

The Cubs won their second game in a row and made it back to .500 on Thursday. They did so with a scoring barrage led by Derrek Lee. If Lee's two home runs on Thursday weren't enough foreshadowing for a breakout, imagine that we're only two games into July and Lee already has three homers and nine RBI. He had six homers and 20 RBI in June. Is Lee a 30-home run player again?

When you're truly dialed in as a fantasy GM you tend to see things coming before everyone else.

You drafted Raul Ibanez in the middle to late rounds and now you're looking to sell high. You jumped on Albert Pujols instead of Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez with your first round pick and you even took a late-round flier on Mark Reynolds. Things are looking good for your push forward to the championship.

To stay on course, you need to keep finding those hidden gems; those players who will out-produce the rest in the second half. You also need to stay ahead of injuries and slumps. But, and this is something that not every fantasy GM does, if you really want to show off your stuff (and this is an especially effective tactic in daily leagues) you should be looking at splits every single day to get the biggest bang for your buck with your lineup.

Here are some players with statistical splits to keep in mind when locking your lineup.

Maybe I'm being a bit hard on these guys, but almost 59 percent of the 41 pitchers who are starting twice this week are being placed in the "Risky Business" category.

There are a couple of touted rookies who make up the 59 percent like the Rays' David Price and Atlanta's Kris Medlen. There are also some big-named pitchers who should never be placed among the "Risky Business" pitchers who just are throwing well, or their teams aren't winning behind them. Jon Lester and Francisco Liriano come to mind immediately.

Like I said, in all there are 41 two-start pitchers this week. Make sure that you get your lineups locked early today as there are a bunch of afternoon games. The first is 1:10 PM ET when Houston plays Cincinnati.