Jake Peavy May Return Next Week While Nyjer Morgan's Season Is Over

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's rare that I lead Roto Rush with news not from the field, but this saga is too good to pass up.

Jake Peavy, newly acquired by the Chicago White Sox, on Thursday declared himself ready to start. He said that pitching Saturday in New York would be fine by him.

The Sox, on the other hand, feel Peavy needs one more Triple-A rehab start before he's ready for major league action. That final rehab start will happen for the Charlotte Knights on Saturday. If all goes well...

Success on Saturday for the Knights means that Peavy could face the White Sox' cross-town rivals, the Cubs, on Thursday, September 3rd. But don't expect that to happen either. The White Sox will probably wait until September 4th and let Peavy start against the Red Sox.

The ankle injury that Peavy is recovering from occurred while he was running the bases back while he was still pitching for San Diego. Since the Cubs game would be played using National League rules, Peavy would have to hit and likely run the bases. To shield him from having to run the bases, Peavy will be skipped over and start a day later against the American League Red Sox.

That is if all goes well in Charlotte.

Bits From the Box Scores:
• Coming back from four days away with the flu, Mark Reynolds belted his 39th home run of the season on Thursday. Can anything stop this guy? (Anything other then the flu?)

• Nick Green was the latest fielder to take the mound for his team in a blow out. His results we're better then expected. Green was asked to pitch for the Red Sox Thursday night and surprisingly threw a scoreless inning. He did so well, he was asked to do it again in the ninth, which he did. All in all, Green threw two scoreless innings giving up no hits and walking three. He even touched 90 MPH on the radar gun.

• Ian Kinsler drove in four and hit two home runs against the Yankees on Thursday. Kinsler had been in a nine-game RBI drought that stretched back to August 18th, the last time he hit a home run.

• Chris Davis also hit a home run for the Rangers. It was his first since be recalled from the minor leagues. He also struck out twice reminding everyone of the great potential but obvious reasons why he was sent down in the first place.

• Jeff Francoeur went 2-for-4 on Thursday and is hitting .305 in 42 games since joining the Mets.

• Grady Sizemore his his 18th home run on Thursday and stole his 13th base. He's hitting .311 with four home runs and four stolen bases over the past month flashing glimpses of the kind of hitter everyone thought they were drafting in the first round this year.

• Adam LaRoche belted his 8th home run since joining the Braves (all in 23 games) and is batting .390 with a 1.187 OPS since returning to Atlanta.

• David DeJesus extended his hitting streak to eight games on Thursday going 1-for-5 with a home run. Over the past month he's batting .330 with four home runs and can easily be added in fantasy leagues since he's only owned in 8% of leagues.

• Trevor Cahill pitched seven scoreless innings on Thursday allowing on two hits as he earned his seventh win of the season. This was Cahill's fourth consecutive quality start and has a 2.33 ERA over those last four starts.

• A.J. Burnett struck out 12 Texas hitters on Thursday in only six innings but took the loss as he allowed three earned runs and the Yankees could only muster six hits against Dustin Nippert and the Rangers bullpen.

The Afflicted: The Red Sox are hopeful that Jacoby Ellsbury will be able to return to the field on Friday evening. He left Thursday's game with mild left ankle sprain. Athletics closer Andrew Bailey tweaked his left knee fielding a bunt on Thursday. It's the same knee that's been giving him trouble all season. Bailey plans to, "battle through" the injury. Carlos Gonzalez, the hottest Rockies' hitter since the all-star break, jammed his left thumb diving for a ball Thursday. He also re-aggravated puncture wound on that same hand he suffered after an accident with a steak knife last Saturday. CarGo said he didn't feel like he'd be able to play on Friday, but it would be a game-time decision. Nyjer Morgan opened the game by walking and then stealing second and third base. While sliding into third base, Morgan broke a bone in his hand and will not play again this season.

Lineup Lock Time: It looks like there's an afternoon game at Wrigley Field today. The Met and Cubs play ball at 2:20 PM ET.