• 1. Adrian Peterson
• 2. Michael Turner
• 3. Matt Forte
• 4. DeAngelo Williams
• 5. Maurice Jones-Drew
• 6. Brandon Jacobs
• 7. Steven Jackson
• 8. Frank Gore
• 9. LaDainian Tomlinson
• 10. Drew Brees (more…)

(more…)

Decided that Brian Westbrook didn’t warrant being a top-fiver… but his potential for a HUGE year is still there because he is so good catching balls out of the backfield!

• 1. Adrian Peterson
• 2. Maurice Jones-Drew
• 3. Michael Turner
• 4. Matt Forte
• 5. Brandon Jacobs
• 6. Tom Brady
• 7. DeAngelo Williams
• 8. Pierre Thomas
• 9. Brian Westbrook
• 10. Clinton Portis

I promised it, and here it is.  I haven’t gone through EVERYBODY yet, and there are defenses to add too.

PLUS… not all these guys are deserving of a top 100 spot.  They’re just here for now because I saw their name, first come first serve, and I ranked them compared relatively to other players who were ranked.

(more…)

I’ve been procrastinating, I know, but I’ll be working on Mr. Fantasy’s 150 tomorrow (Wednesday) before the first football version of Mr. Fantasy’s Weekly Watch hits the air.

THAT, I PROMISE.

A preliminary copy will be online tomorrow night.

Holla.

In a past blog (http://blogs.foxtoledo.com/2009/05/18/berkman-building-momentum/), I wrote about how Derrek Lee’s progress was there, but wasn’t quite Lance Berkman-esque.

Fast forward a little over a month, and Lee has surpassed Berkman by leaps and bounds.

While Berkman’s still getting used to whatever spot in the lineup Cecil Cooper puts him in, whether he’s in front or behind Carlos Lee, Derrek Lee is developing a rhythm in Chi-town.  Of course, it helps when the Indians come to town, but fantasy owners frankly could care less.  Bottom line – he’s producing.

Lee’s currently on a 20-game hitting streak.  Over that stretch, he’s hitting .370 with 6 home runs and 18 RBI.  As long as the Cubs start winning, Lou Piniella’s going to stick with what works: Lee batting cleanup.

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.

Cleveland’s Travis Hafner hasn’t been the same since he bashed 42 home runs in 129 games in 2006.  The next year, he had 24 bombs and 100 RBI in 152 games, which is solid, but not the same.

Since then, 24 bombs from him would be a Tribe fan’s dream.

Now, Hafner is FINALLY showing signs of life.

Pronk has a hit in each of his last five games.  What really caught my eye is that he has consecutive games with home runs AND he was intentionally walked twice on Tuesday night.  Pitchers are actually respecting him again!!!

Hafner isn’t pick-up worthy yet, but he’s getting close to it.  If he continues this for about 4 more games (consistent hitting), pick him up if you’re in a league that has at least 10 teams.

It’s also good to see Toronto’s Ricky Romero rounding back into his pre-injury form.  If you had any doubt at all, even at his young age of 24, pick him up.  He shouldn’t be available in the first place, but if somebody dropped him, take full advantage of it.

Speaking of injury comebacks, one half of my man-crush duo – Tampa’s Jason Bartlett – didn’t miss a beat in his first game back.   Bartlett went 2-for-4, has an 11-game hitting streak, and now has hits in 17 of his last 18 games.  Or you can also say, 21 of his last 23 games.  The guy’s a stud.

Another stud, that other half of my man-crush duo – Minnesota’s Joe Mauer – is seriously off the hook.  4-4, .429 average… Mauer’s the hottest fantasy hitter in baseball right now.  No question.  Even over Pujols.  Over Longoria.  Over Jason Bay.  Over Mark Teixeira.  Mauer’s flat-out SICK.  ILL.  I WISH I HAD HIM ON MY TEAM.

I’ll settle for Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Inge though.  Life’s not bad with those two, but Mauer is, quite simply, THE MAN.

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.