Brad Evans is launching a new brand of cologne Saturday and is unavailable for Weekly Rundown duty, so yours truly steps in. My path will be a little different, but the aim is the same - we want you to crush everything in your path during Week 24. Lace up the cleats, put on the eye black and let's get to it.

September is baseball's silly season. MLB clubs go into experiment mode and add players en masse to the roster. Player shut-downs get announced on a daily basis. Postponed games between also-rans don't always get made up. And of course 72 percent of the fantasy crowd leaves the room, captivated by the machine that is the NFL.

I'm glad you're still with us, though. You're either in the hunt for end-of-year glory or too competitive to settle for your current standing, and I like that. I'm wired the same way. Let's run by some people on the final lap.

Here's what you need to know about Week 24, starting Monday:

It's a very unbalanced schedule, that's the big story off the top. The

Forget the stats and the standings for a moment - let's go to the weather satellite. Our normally-full Saturday slate is about to be compromised.

Tropical Storm Hanna touches down the Eastern Seaboard this weekend and could wash out the double-header with Baltimore and Oakland Saturday (in addition to action in other parks). Sunday isn't an option for the Baltimore games (the Ravens opener is the reason Saturday's twin-ball came in the first place), so our cutesy plan to stream like crazy here might wash down the drain. Make a couple of extra minutes if you can and be alert with those last-minute choices.

If you have to set things up in advance, I'd assume they won't play two in Baltimore, and they might not even play one. But I'm no weatherman and I never played one on TV. I'm not promising anything. (If the games do float away, make sure you don't blame this chick. She had nothing to do with it.)

Okay, let's head back to the field:

• I feel a little cheesy burying the Brandon Morrow

The Athletics are in a miserable 12-35 funk right now and could be the AL's worst team. They've got the worst offense in the majors. There's not a ton to be optimistic about.

Oh, except the schedule. The A's played a double-header Thursday and get another one Saturday, a boon to fantasy players looking to double-dip at this time of the year. A run here, an RBI there, a sneaky steal, these things decide fantasy championships.

Doubleheader streams were on the menu in the Y! Friends & Family League into Thursday, as Rajai Davis, Jack Cust, Mark Teahen, Eric Patterson and Bobby Crosby all got a 24-hour contract. The Oakland side of that was a bit frustrating for fantasy players because Bob Geren submitted two very different lineups (stripping us of the extra at-bats), but you get the idea Geren will be less rest-conscious with Saturday's twin-bill in Baltimore, given that the A's have Sunday off.

I was the guy who rostered Davis, and I'll give him some run through the Baltimore series. He

Some players grab your attention and pique your interest from the jump, and that was the case when I first caught Andre Ethier back in 2006. I saw a young hitter with power potential, a keen eye, a good stick against breaking pitches, unfazed by lefties. Smart enough to eventually steal 12-15 bases a year, too. I scribbled in my notebook that LA had found an outfield staple into the next decade.

A few bumps in the road have hit since then. Ethier's numbers took a mild hit across the board in 2007, and he entered this year fighting for a job (the Dodgers couldn't help themselves when Andruw Jones hit the market; they quickly tossed a bloated contract to the bloated outfielder). Ethier has managed to stay in the lineup for most of 2008 nonetheless (a monster spring staked his claim), but the production against lefties has fallen through the floor. Mixed leaguers haven't been sure what to do with Ethier, in part because the LA outfield seems to be in constant flux. The trade for Manny

It's Labor Day on the calendar, but if they're playing on the sandlots, we're here to talk about it. Let's do a quick holiday lap and see what's up, starting in the ninth inning and working backward.

• What do we make of Luis Ayala, anyway? We saw a nice, clean save from him Monday at Milwaukee, a solid bounce-back after Friday's messy conversion at Florida. He's now got four saves and a win since joining the Mets a couple of weeks ago, and as any save-chaser knows, opportunity is the key in this pursuit. At the end of the day it comes down to how badly you need the stat he provides - if you're desperate for it, you ignore the red ink on the stat profile. If you're not in a saves-bind, the big picture should steer you away. (Billy Wagner might be ready for a rehab assignment later this week, but there's nothing guaranteed with him, as you know.)

• I made a lot of Brandon Lyon's struggles in August, but here's the catch - none of his four nightmare appearances in that span came in a

You're barbecuing, you're moving into the dorms, you're drafting a slew of football teams, you're spending a holiday weekend with the family. Ah, but there's still a bunch of fantasy baseball happenings to keep tabs on, and that's where I come in. Here's your weekend briefing:

• The Cubs have a solid 4.5-game lead in the NL Central (and 10 games clear of the next NL club), and that enables them to play it safe with the precious arms in their rotation. A "dead arm" got Carlos Zambrano pushed back from Sunday to Tuesday, and the team is going to skip a turn with Rich Harden (his next start won't come until Sept. 9). Zambrano had a 7.43 ERA in August, and keep in mind he was on the DL back in June due to shoulder soreness.

• Jeff Kent is headed for a knee scope and will miss most of September, though a return late in the pennant race is possible in a pinch-hitting role. In a redraft league, this is drop-city. Blake DeWitt played second base the last two days and presumably will stick

Kevin Gregg's struggles were discussed in Friday night's closing time; today we have an explanation. He's been battling left knee soreness according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and the club has decided to shut him down indefinitely (3-5 days of rest, then side work, then hopefully a return).

Matt Lindstrom becomes the head of the bullpen committee in Gregg's absence, though lefty Arthur Rhodes might get some matchup-driven looks and Joe Nelson is another option. If you have one shot to take here and really need saves, go with Lindstrom, but he's still very much a work in progress and your expectations should be modest.

Man can't live on Fantasy Football alone - we've still got pennants to chase on the sandlots. Here's a summary of what you may have missed from Friday night:

• Kevin Gregg has been walking a tightrope for much of the summer, but the other cleat appears to have finally dropped on the Florida closer. He suffered his third blown save and fourth loss of the last two weeks in Friday's stomach-puncher against New York (Carlos Beltran's grand slam sealed the deal), a devastating loss that pushed the Marlins seven games back of the division-leading Mets. Gregg's ERA has jumped a run and a half over his last seven appearances, and you have to wonder how long the Fish will wait before they go to someone else.

A ground-ball spike has limited some of the damage for Gregg in 2008, but there are plenty of red flags at play: a strikeout dip, a walk increase, more line drives. And heck, a league-high nine blown saves speak for themselves.

Perhaps Fredi Gonzalez would have made a change a while back if