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.
There are nine games scheduled for Thursday. That means we may need to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find some solid fill-ins. Here are five of the best options.
Jack Cust, Athletics - Cust hasn't been the model of consistent hitting this season and as of late he's been less then stellar batting .221 over the last month. But, he has a pretty good track record against Scott Feldman (five hits and two home runs in 15 at-bats) so could fill-in nicely on Thursday. Cust is only owned in 16% 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.
What a fantasy season it has been for Prince Fielder. Of course, we must thrown the "fantasy" before season, as I'm sure Fielder pictured himself squarely in the middle of a playoff race when looking ahead to September 21st earlier in the season, but his owners must be pleased by their second-round pick's production. Fielder launched his 40th homer of the season Sunday, making this year the second (2007) in which he's reached the 40-HR mark. His average is still trucking along near .300 (currently at .299), which is a pleasant surprise, and his 128 RBIs tie with Albert Pujols' total as the best mark in baseball.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
Every Hot Stove season, each team reshapes its roster in an attempt to better themselves. After each transaction, whether a free agent acquisition, trade or something else, writers and bloggers everywhere provide knee-jerk reactions on each particular move. Though the majority of the analysis is educated, it's still just conjecture. Today, we'll take the long view and look back at some of the maneuvering this past offseason and see how it played out on the field.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
I had no idea I had these kinds of powers. Just one day after I made Johnny Cueto one of the headliners for All-Star Game snubs, he took the ball against the Philadelphia Phillies. The result was an absolute massacre, the likes of which we rarely -- if ever -- see from a starting pitcher. This outing so was horrifying it scared the hell out of Ugly.
The line? 49 pitches, 5 hits, 3 walks, 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 9 earned runs ... all with just two recorded outs. Two.
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.
There are soooo many things to argue about in the world of fantasy baseball these days. It felt like we waited forever to get our hands on Matt Wieters. Now we have to ask did we get ahold of him too soon? If Robinson Cano is going to hit .300 in the first half, what can we expect from his normally mega-productive second half? But, the argument that I want to touch on today, and I won't be able to hit all of the points in this short space, is about Big Papi. Do you buy low on David Ortiz right now or can you actually sell him high at this point?
The struggles of David Ortiz this season have been well documented. It wasn't until May 20th that he hit his first home run and except for his first two games of the season where he went 1-for-3, Ortiz has never seen his batting average spike above .237. It currently sits at .198.
As you might have heard, defense is the new big thing. It's not a revolutionary idea to suggest that having good defense can help you win baseball games, but the improvement the Rays made from 2007 to 2008 was quite a wake-up call around the majors. They had essentially the same pitchers, and they actually scored fewer runs, but they won 31 more games with good defense.
Which brings us to the Seattle Mariners.
The Mariners were a train-wreck of a team last year, despite what we all thought was supposed to be pretty good pitching. Now, the Mariners are riding high in the AL West, with the best ERA in the league. Most of their pitchers are the same (granted, Erik Bedard has been healthy).
FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Seattle Mariners.
The Mariners of 2008 provided a case study in why overachieving isn't always a good thing. The team won 88 games in 2007, which could be looked at in one of two ways. You could say the team was close to contending and should go all in for a run at the postseason, or you could look at their expected record and say that the team outperformed expectations and shouldn't do anything drastic.
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.
FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Kansas City Royals.
The 2008 season was a lot like every other season for the Kansas City Royals lately, with one major exception. They didn't finish in last place of the AL Central. No, that honor went to the Detroit Tigers instead. Still, while fourth place isn't really anything to get excited about in any baseball city other than Pittsburgh, in Kansas City it has bred hope for better things in 2009.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
The Mariners went into 2008 as playoff contenders in the eyes of some, and a sub-.500 team that wasn't going to be able to score enough runs to compete in the minds of others. The latter camp was closer in its expectation, but nobody could have foreseen just how far Seattle would fall.
The offense was bad, as expected, finishing 13th in the AL in runs, OBP, and SLG. The more surprising issue was that the pitching, a unit which looked to be solid at the outset of the year, fell apart as well. Offseason acquisition Erik Bedard and previously dominant closer J.J. Putz both battled injuries, and weren't particularly impressive when they did pitch. They also got some abysmal performances from the back end of the rotation, with Carlos Silva, Ryan Feierabend and Miguel Batista combining for a 6.55 ERA in 308 innings.
It's worth noting that all the blame for the run prevention issues shouldn't fall solely to the pitchers, as the Mariners were 13th in the AL in defensive efficiency.
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.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
As you might have heard, defense is the new big thing. It's not a revolutionary idea to suggest that having good defense can help you win baseball games, but the improvement the Rays made from 2007 to 2008 was quite a wake-up call around the majors. They had essentially the same pitchers, and they actually scored fewer runs, but they won 31 more games with good defense.
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
