Joe Mauer was my man.

Now, Gordon Beckham… I love you.

Obviously, this is in the pure fantasy-sports sense of love, but still, Beckham is just ripping the cover off the ball.  Remember, in late June, when Beckham finally crossed the .200 mark?

Of course, from that point on, it took him all of two days to jump from .206 to .267 when he went 6-for-his-next-7.  In July, he hit .330.   In fact, Beckham’s gone hitless in only 1 for his last 11 games.  The man is sick.  He already has surpassed former BGSU star Nolan Reimold for the American League rookie lead in RBI.  Beckham’s numbers, as of Tuesday night, are a .316 average with 6 home runs and 38 RBI.  Expect him to have about 75-80 RBI when the year is done.

By the way, fantasy sports aside, Reimold is a tremendous individual.  I had the pleasure of going up to Comerica Park when I did my 1-on-1 interview with him (http://tinyurl.com/ltaqxn).  He’s a quiet guy, but definitely was well-mannered.  His manager, Dave Trembley, was also impressive.  Before we started asking Trembley about Reimold, the skipper was gushing about current Mud Hens pitching coach and former Tigers pitcher/UToledo quarterback  A.J. Sager, calling him “first-class.”  Seriously, talking to Trembley was like talking to a grandfather who had some baseball stories to tell.  All that was needed was a campfire.  Alas, it was batting practice and not a family get-together.

Finally, all you fantasy fans out there are probably wondering when my fantasy football rankings will start coming out.  I just joined my first league, and I’ll be looking at making my unique rankings soon enough.  I’ll keep the blog posted with my updates on my Mr. Fantasy 150.  I will say that, no matter what, Adrian Peterson is my #1 pick overall.  Seriously, if you had the top pick and didn’t take him, you’d be spending the whole season praying for an injury.  Granted, he gets hurt, but you shouldn’t have to pray for that to happen to your opponent.  A good fantasy player makes sure his or her own team is legitimate enough.  No excuses.  I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if AP went through a year injury-free and I missed out on an opportunity to take him in the draft.

A couple of other things- the top fantasy QB to me is New England’s Tom Brady with his three wideouts of Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and former Buckeye Joey Galloway.  Speaking of top wideouts, numero uno is Houston’s Andre Johnson.  The guy just keeps on coming down with balls thrown to him, making him unstoppable in your fantasy football league.

Geez, now I’m itching to work on these rankings.

He’s still batting under .200, but Mr. Fantasy is sold on Chicago’s Gordon Beckham.

It obviously didn’t take much.

The main thing is, I’ve seen this guy play.  He is legit.  I won’t go into detail because I talked about this subject to a degree in my previous blog (or the one before that), but Mr. Fantasy’s only seen Marcus Thames and Jay Bruce dominate at Fifth Third Field the way Beckham did.  Seriously, the guys was spanking minor-league pitching like it was batting practice.

Beckham’s not going to give you home runs, or even much speed.  He’s more of a gap hitter.  He’ll get a bunch of extra-base hits, drive in runs, hit for average, and really help your total-bases category.

Right now, he has hits in 6 of his last 7 games.  Over that time, he’s raised his average 125 points.  He’s hitting .348 over that stretch with 8 RBI.  Get the jump on Beckham now before it’s too late.

And did I mention he qualifies in Yahoo leagues as BOTH a third baseman and a shortstop?

Pick him up if you need guys at those positions.

When Rickie Weeks went down for the Brew Crew in the midst of a breakout year, fantasy fans groaned.

Granted, his replacement doesn’t have the same all-around game, but Casey McGehee is doing pretty darned well.

McGehee qualifies at both 2nd and 3rd base in Yahoo leagues.  That’s a huge plus.  An even bigger plus is that he’s 9 for his last 16, including his first home run of the year last night.

Now, that does go to show that McGehee doesn’t exactly have Chase Utley-esque power, and with no stolen bases so far, he doesn’t exactly have Brian Roberts-esque speed, nor is he a Brandon Phillips combo of the two.  But if you need somebody who can hit for good average (he’s at .338) in a solid winning lineup, McGehee serves a purpose.

Another infielder that I’m really looking at is Chicago’s Gordon Beckham mainly because I’ve seen him in action @ Fifth Third Field, and this guy is legit.  Beckham was a College World Series beast only a year ago, became a first-round pick (8th overall), and already is up in the big leagues.  When he was at the Triple-A level for about a week, he schooled Toledo pitchers.  The last prospect that I saw dominate Mud Hen pitching to that extent, with serious gap power, was Jay Bruce when he was in Louisville, and while Bruce is enduring a sophomore slump, it’s safe to say that Bruce took fantasy nation by storm last season.  Not even Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen dominated Toledo pitching like Beckham did in his short stint, and now Beckham’s up in the bigs.  He qualifies as both a third baseman and a shortstop.  He’ll get increased playing time.  It took him awhile to get going, but he has 4 RBI in his last 2 games, and he’ll only get better.  Trust me.  He’s too good not to improve on his .114 average.

I will say that now’s not the time to pick him up unless you are truly desperate for an infielder.  But there is the EXTREME potential that he will prove more valuable than a slumping J.J. Hardy, for example.