FanHouse Wladimir Balentien

Two good things happened to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates and emerged from their one-day stay in last place in the NL Central. That coincided with Scott Rolen's return from the disabled list. Unfortunately with the Reds, their two pieces of good news were balanced with two more players hitting the disabled list. Aaron Harang will miss the rest of 2009 after an appendectomy on Saturday night and Chris Dickerson badly sprained his ankle during a pick-off attempt during Sunday's game.

The list of Reds' injuries this year is staggering. John Fay at the Cincy Enquirer has a good run down of all of them; every opening day starter except Brandon Phillips has spent time on the DL while Harang joins Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto there, making up 3/5ths of their opening day starting rotation. It's an incredible run of bad luck that's certainly part of the reason the Reds are battling the Pirates for last place. I also think it's creating an easy excuse for a team that has deeper running problems.

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

Adam LaRoche, he of the longest swing in the majors, is starting to heat up. In the last 9 games, he's hit .387 with 3 home runs, 5 RBI, 4 runs, 2 doubles, a .444 on-base percentage and 1.186 OPS. If his career history is any indicator, we can expect things to continue along this pace.

It's just that he's starting things up a bit early. In LaRoche's career, he's been two different players per season. Just look at his splits. He's a decent hitter with good power in through June. From July on, though, he's a good hitter with great power.

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 someone predicted would win the World Series last year. Seriously. When you stop laughing, you can check out the link (he's the top one listed -- though when you see his other atrocious picks you won't be surprised). Was I any better? Glad you asked. I actually took Mr. Downey to task before Opening Day. You can check the rest of my stuff if you wish, as there were some misses in there.

Anyway, it's safe to say expectations are a slight bit lower heading into '08.

Left on Base is MLB FanHouse's link dump.

-- Seattle teammates Wladimir Balentien and Adrian Beltre couldn't play in this year's World Baseball Classic -- Balentien, a native of Curacao, because he is fighting for playing time and Beltre, a native of the Dominican Republic, because the Mariners forbid him.

But, as old friend Larry Stone points out, just because neither is playing doesn't mean Balentien has been sparing Beltre from trash talk in the wake of the Netherlands' shcoking elimination of the D.R.

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Los Angeles Angels
It turns out the Angels only rented Mark Teixeira for a few months. Now it's time to find a replacement. Kendry Morales tore up the Dominican Winter League to the tune of a .404 batting average with eight home runs and 29 RBI in only 26 games. He's also 6-17 through six Spring Training games. Nobody expects, or even asks, Morales to fill Teixeira's shoes, but the Cuban defector could blast 18 to 20 home runs and bat upwards of .280 if given full-time at-bats. He's a great late round fantasy draft flier in mixed-leagues and should be grabbed in AL-only leagues of any depth.

While Monday was already a great day of change in Seattle with the deserved firing of general manager Bill Bavasi, it wasn't the only thing that changed with the Mariners yesterday. For the first time since August 19th, 2006, Ichiro Suzuki started a game in right field.

Right field was where Ichiro spent his first five years in Seattle, and after the team sent Wladimir Balentien back down to Tacoma in favor of Jeff Clement, there was an opening in right and John McLaren says he'd been thinking about making the move for a month or so. Still, this may not be the last move that Ichiro makes this season, as McLaren also said he's toying with the idea of dropping him out of the lead-off spot in the Mariners lineup.

McLaren said he's also spoken to Ichiro about a move out of the leadoff spot in hopes of jump-starting an offense that ranks last in the American League in runs scored and second-to-last in team batting average.

Such a move does not appear imminent, however, because McLaren said there is currently no other obvious candidate to hit leadoff.

"Ichiro is on board with anything we want to do to help the club, and I think most of these guys are from the same school in that clubhouse," McLaren said.

Big changes went down with the Seattle Mariner starting lineup on Wednesday evening, as the M's cut Brad Wilkerson and Dan Norton (no, no seriously, this is important) while calling up Jeff Clement and Wladimir Balentien. This seems like totally irrelevant news, but with the Mariners already 4.5 games behind the Angels, it shows some sense of desperation, but also a notion to trust the farm system that the team has built up. Although it's mostly desperation.

Following Tuesday night's 7-2 win over Cleveland, Mariners manager John McLaren suggested changes were imminent.

'It was time,' he said before Wednesday night's game. 'We haven't had much going. We felt it was time to bring new blood in. I'm anxious to see these kids play.'

Clement and Balentien are both top prospects -- Baseball America ranks Clement first and Balentien fifth overall in the Mariners system -- and Wilkerson and Norton are nothing but possibly-possessing-of-upside journeymen at this point.

But before dogging this as a win-now at all costs strategy, it's worth pointing out that both guys are ready for the Show. Clement was posting .397/.535/.692 with five home runs and a 22:12 BB:K ratio in the Pacific Coast League, while Balentien, a Curacao native, was hitting .254/.329/.619 with six homers, three of which came in one game on Monday. He's also already homered in the big leagues.

Fantasy Spin: Clement is going to get full time work, combining to play DH and catcher every day. Balentien is going to start full time in right field. Both guys are fantasy worthy, especially in deep and keeper leagues. Clement is actually the more valuable prospect, simply because of his C eligibility and because Balentien might be a little closer to fellow Curacao native Andruw Jones. That's a good or bad thing depending on whether you're looking for power or average.

The Mariners may be in the midst of blowing their chance at the AL West title by losing the first two games of their series against the Angels, but that doesn't mean they don't like the way the team is made up right now. Nobody expected the Mariners to be this good this season, though I did say they had a shot, but here they are. The surprise of the American League.

One of the reasons the Mariners have played so well this season was the addition of Jose Guillen. Guillen was in Washington last season, fresh off of shoulder surgery, when he had to shut it down in July for Tommy John surgery. So when the Mariners signed him this season, he was damaged goods and it was a risk for Seattle. A risk that's paid off for both sides so far, and it looks like it could pay off even better for Guillen.

The Mariners and outfielder Jose Guillen are close to completing a contract extension.

The deal, apparently for three years, would replace the one-year mutual option that would have kept Guillen in Seattle for the 2008 season.

"We've been talking and we've been making very good progress," Guillen said Tuesday. "I really don't want to talk about it, but I'm pretty sure it will be done soon."

It's amazing how winning can make a team change it's philosophy. Before this season started, a lot of people wondered whether or not Ichiro would be back in Seattle next season. Now he has that sweet deal. There was also the fact that Seattle wanted to make room in their outfield for Adam Jones and Wladimir Balentien. So you thought there would be definite changes in the outfield, and with the signing of Ichiro, I thought that meant Jose Guillen wouldn't be back next season.

Now Seattle sees that the future may be now, and they'll go into 2008 with the same outfield they used this season, with Ichiro, Guillen, and Raul Ibanez.

Jose Guillen has always been a talented baseball player. He's also always been a bit of a distraction thanks to his temper. It's a temper that's seen him feud with about 10 teams, I lost count on who he hates, most especially Mike Scioscia and the Angels. It's his less than cheery disposition that's caused him to play for eight different teams in his 10 seasons.

A lot of that has changed for Guillen in Seattle. Aside from his pre-season war of words with Mike Scioscia, Guillen's been a model citizen for the Mariners, and is enjoying his time there. So much so that he wants to exercise his option for the 2008 season. But on one condition.

But before he agrees to do that, he wants the Mariners to extend him beyond next season.

"I want to stay in one place and try to build a nice career," Guillen said. "I don't want to be here for one year. I love these people and I love this town. It's a baseball town. I love the enthusiasm of people. And the people have been respecting me here."

Guillen also goes on to say that he'd rather not talk about it anymore for fear it will become a distraction. Though, the way he's hitting at the moment, now might be the best time. He's hitting .431 in July with 12 RBI.

Of course, even though Guillen wants to stay in Seattle and has been a good teammate, that doesn't mean the Mariners will want to extend him. They've just locked up Ichiro for five more years, and they have two corner outfielders in Adam Jones and Wladimir Balentien. Keeping Guillen would stunt the growth of both of their prospects, and the way the team feels about Jones, Guillen may end up being the odd man out.

Previously at FanHouse:
Jose Guillen Does Not Forgive and Forget
Jose Guillen Wants a Piece of Brendan Donnelly
Jose Guillen Is Ready to Hurt Somebody