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The first week of baseball for 2007 is in the books. We’ve seen snow in Texas, the 103 million dollar roll of the “Dice” by the Red Sox begin to pay off, (BTW, my favorite play on his name so far has been “Dice K is Nice K”) and the schizophrenic Yankee faithful have more reasons to cheer ARod than jeer him (although that was a close call).

I wanted to throw out my positional MVP’s and also give you some players who aren’t in the upper echelon, but played like it in week 1.

Catcher: Brian McCann (ATL) - McCann hit .368/.400/.737 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI while leading the Atlanta Braves to an early NL East lead. We knew McCann was the best fantasy catcher in the National League, and he didn’t disappoint in the first week of play. Keep an eye on Carlos Ruiz (PHI) who seems to be playing a bit more than “starting catcher” Rod Barajas. Ruiz hit .375/.375/.625 with a home run and 2 RBI while Barajas… didn’t.

1B: Mike Jacobs (FLA) Jacobs may not be showing his 30 home run potential, but .429/.455/.762 with 1 home run and 4 RBI are good enough to top this list for week 1. Keeping up with his kid brother, Dmitri Young (WAS) showed us that maybe all fantasy eyes shouldn’t be on Delmon. Dmitri hit .304/.385/.565 with a home run and 4 RBI while hitting in the heart of the Nats lineup. Dmitri may be a good short term pickup, but remember that the first base job is Nick Johnson’s when he’s finished with his rehab.

2B: All the Cubs fans who were anxious to see what Ryan Theriot could do after his short term ‘06 audition at second base are going to have to wait for a while. Mark Derosa (CHC) sizzled this week going .412/.474/.882 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI. His past numbers show that these power numbers we are seeing out of him are very uncharacteristic and shouldn’t last too long. But hell, pick him up and ride the rocket ship until it runs out of gas. Kazuo Matsui (COL) hit .462/.500/.615 with 3 RBI and 2SB and may finally be ready to show the Mets why it was a bad idea to give up on him.

3B: Alex Rodriguez (NYY) lost his best bud in the off season (sorry, I couldn’t resist), but didn’t lose his bat, going .389/.450/1.056 with 3 home runs and 9RBI with a stolen base to boot. He also struck out in the 8th inning with the bases loaded while trailing and botched a foul ball pop fly to earn his first error of the season. ARod is gonna hear a lot of booing this season, but if he continues with these power numbers, he shouldn’t. Japanese “rookie” Aki Iwamura (TB) wants some love from the American press too. He hit .615/.706/.923 with 1 home run, 1 RBI and 1 stolen base.

SS: There is no doubt that Jose Reyes (NYM) earned his first round pick status in just about every fantasy draft on the planet. With numbers .318/.423/.720 with a home run, 7 RBI and 2 stolen bases Reyes owners’ are giggling at the guys who took Pujols and Howard in front of them. Could this be the rebound year Khalil Green (SD) and Padres fans have been hoping for? If he keeps hitting .333/.333/.762 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI each week, I guarantee it.

OF: Vlad Guererro (LAA), .524/.560/1.048 with 3 home runs and 10 RBI, is a stud! ‘Nuff said. Grady Sizemore (CLE), even in a snow shortened week for the Tribe, showed .429/.467/1.071 with 3 home runs and 4 RBI numbers, and gave all of us a look at what he can do when it stops snowing in July and he gets to play 6 games a week. Adam Dunn (CIN) is always hot in April. But his K’s are down, he’s stealing bases at an alarming rate and still tearing the cover off the ball. He went .353/.500/.882 with 3 home runs, 6 RBI and 2 stolen bases in week 1. If you haven’t already noticed the 4 stolen bases, 2 home runs, 6 RBI and .385/.448/.731 numbers from Eric Byrnes (ARI), do so now!

SP: King, Felix Hernandez (SEA), had one start threw 12 strikeouts, walked 2 and held opponents to a .115 batting average. He’s 1-0 with 0.00 ERA and 0.63 WHIP. John Maine (NYM) showed that the Mets were right in handing him the #3 spot in the rotation. He pitched 7 innings, struck out 6, walked 2 and held opponents to a .045 batting average against him. His ERA and WHIP are 0.00/0.43. How many Mets fans have stopped bad mouthing Maine?

RP: Joe Nathan (MIN) recorded 2 saves in week one to take the relief pitcher top honor. His K/BB ratio was upside down as he walked 2 and struck out 1. The only thing that kept Salomon Torres (PIT) from being the only relief pitcher listed here, was his 3.00 ERA. Which is kind of unfair to Torres as he’s only given up 1 hit so far, albeit a home run. Torres has 3 saves and a 0.33 WHIP to go with that 3.00 ERA. He’s also the owner of 3 K’s and 0 walks.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 8:17 am and is filed under Fantasy Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.