We're coming up on the All-Star Game and a day off on Wednesday before Major League Baseball gets back to business. If you squint really hard, you can see the finish line. For those without great eyesight, you've got approximately 74 games until the 2009 season is over. That's about 12 weeks of games, two-and-a-half months of baseball to make that last-ditch effort to push your fantasy baseball team towards the top of the standings.
Do you have what it takes?
Maybe you do, maybe you don't. No matter the answer, everyone could use a little bit of help, right? Here are a few hitters to target in the second half that could really help you on your quest for the championship.
One of the more popular discussions over the past few weeks has been what to do with Jimmy Rollins, whether you own him or not. We've spoken about him on a small scale in one of our recent Cram Sessions, but the topic deserves so much more.
I didn't want to trust just my opinion, so I asked the Fanhouse fantasy baseball crew to chime in on the following question:
Jimmy Rollins, a late first-or early second-round draft pick, is batting .229 with seven home runs and 16 stolen bases as we watch the All-Star Game tonight. However, over the past week he's batting .304 with five stolen bases. Most of us agree that Rollins is a superb buy- low candidate, but what would you give up right now to get him?
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?
In this week's Fantasy Baseball Cram Session Tom Herrera and I spent some time talking about pitchers on most waiver wires. Jordan Zimmerman and Kevin Correia are two of the better options that we mention. We also spent some time on the Pain Train talking injuries to players like Jake Peavy, Jose Reyes and Grady Sizemore. And finally in Fantasy Felony we give a few of our picks to help you out in baseball's second half.
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 one said recovering from a torn pectoral muscle would be easy. And for Vladimir Guerrero's fantasy owners, many of his 130-plus at-bats were pretty painful to watch. But on Wednesday night, Vlad came back to life in a big way.
Can you believe we're almost through three months of the fantasy baseball season? If you're serious about making a push for the title, now's the time to evaluate your roster and make moves. On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to chat with Sid Rosenberg of OPENSports.com on their Fantasy WHIPlash segment to discuss Jake Peavy's injury, selling high on Raul Ibanez, and players you can acquire at terrific prices. Check out the video after the jump.
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 learned how to play fantasy sports 10 years ago from my stepdad, who's been playing it since the days when rotisserie baseball didn't even exist. Back when he was a teenager, it was called Strat-O-Matic, a simulation board game that seemed more laborious than fun to me. Then again, they also had fun flipping baseball cards instead of preserving them.
One of the first things he ever taught me about veteran players was the basic tenet of: "Look on the back of the baseball card." Sure, there are outliers, but seeing career statistics is comforting, and can often tell you a lot about a batter's peak performance.
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 no secret we here at Fantasy FanHouse were not a fan of Matt Holliday for your fantasy baseball team this season. We told you to avoid him several times in the draft kit, and still more in chats. This wasn't because we thought he was a terrible player or a bad guy. Quite the contrary, he's a good player and seems like a swell enough guy. It's just that he was so overvalued and we knew his numbers would take a hit departing Colorado for the Bay area.
Well, now is the fun part of fantasy baseball. Now we're telling you to trade for him.
I drafted Matt Wieters in a lot of leagues. That's mainly because I think he'll be freaking awesome; and he very well might be this year's Evan Longoria, the type of rookie who storms the bigs at full speed upon his call up. OR ... well, he could not.
Rookies are hit and miss a lot of times. They don't always dominate and a hot start can lead to a really cold streak and vice-versa. But regardless of how Wieters performs, you're going to have some sort of play to make in terms of trading (depending, of course, if you own him).
One of the more heated position battles this spring, and a contest with huge fantasy implications, came to an end this morning as Giants manager Bruce Bochy informed Kevin Frandsen that he was being optioned to Triple-A Fresno.
Kevin Frandsen was called into Bruce Bochy's office this morning and left in street clothes. The Giants just gave the official word: he has been optioned and will begin the season at Triple-A Fresno. All signs pointed to this yesterday.
This opens the door for Manny Burris to be the every day second baseman. As a fantasy owner, this is the move you were hoping the Giants would make. With full-time at-bats, Burriss could make a run at stealing 25 bases this season.
Burriss has a .357 batting average with 25 hits this spring (second on the team) and has stolen four bases in 70 at-bats. Don't expect him to stay above the .300 mark this season, but you can see that his stolen base totals if projected out to 550 at-bats or so will provide a great source for cheap steals.
We're coming up on the All-Star Game and a day off on Wednesday before Major League Baseball gets back to business. If you squint really hard, you can see the finish line. For those without great eyesight, you've got approximately 74 games until the 2009 season is over. That's about 12 weeks of games, two-and-a-half months of baseball to make that last-ditch effort to push your fantasy baseball team towards the top of the standings.
One of the more popular discussions over the past few weeks has been what to do with Jimmy Rollins, whether you own him or not. We've spoken about him on a small scale in one of our recent 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
In this week's Fantasy Baseball Cram Session 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
One of the more heated position battles this spring, and a contest with huge fantasy implications, came to an end this morning as Giants manager Bruce Bochy informed 
