Sliders: Apologies to my American League brethren

They came without warning.

E-mails of great fury from far and wide, asking how my first Fantasy Sliders column didn't mention a single player from the American League. They thought maybe I had excluded it on purpose.

Vernon Wells, left, is proving that his shoulder injury was the cause of his struggles in '07. (US Presswire)

You know it.

Yeah, I turned my back on the American League, and I did it with spite too. From what I can tell, it has no redeemable qualities, what with its two fewer teams and 50 fewer players, not to mention the DH being the biggest D-O-H since the Black Sox Scandal.

Which, by the way, happened in the American League.

If we had a magical matter machine that could shrink the American League into something tangible, it'd probably spit out some kind of lumpy paste that smelled like almonds and tasted like rat poison.

And looks? Let's just say that when I take a timeout to procreate, if my kid looks good, I'm naming him Dale. If not ... American League.

So with all that said, I guess the whole point I'm trying to make here is ... no, of course I didn't exclude the American League on purpose. There's no reason, other than the list of inanes I spouted off at the top of this column, why I'd have a vendetta against either league. Both play baseball, as far as I know, and both have players capable of contributing in Fantasy.

Plus, I don't want any accusations of being unpatriotic.

So I apologize to anyone in any AL-only league who read my column last week and found it totally useless. I'll try to represent both leagues evenly in the future. Live and learn, right?

Unless I drink a vial of that stuff that came out of the magical matter machine, in which case I probably shouldn't expect to live, much less learn.

Just to show there's no hard feelings, I'll lead off with a member of my favorite -- er, my other favorite -- league, that one I so callously slighted last week.

Sliders

These guys' recent performances have caused their Fantasy appeal to slide either positively or negatively.

Brian Bannister, SP, Royals

I'll say it flat out: I didn't like Bannister going into this season.

Sure, I saw the appeal. He had that 3.87 ERA as a rookie last year, that 1.21 WHIP -- nothing wrong with either of those. But I also saw that strikeout rate of 4.2 per nine innings and felt a little queasy.

Look, I'm the type of guy who likes to build a pitching staff on strikeouts, but I can't just ignore a pitcher who's manhandling the rest of the league. And I chose that verb carefully -- manhandling. Through three starts, Bannister has a 3-0 record with a 0.86 ERA and a 0.71 WHIP.

And he refuses to slow down. His last time out, he threw a three-hit complete game against the Twins -- and that was after allowing only two hits to the Tigers in his first start.

I didn't like Bannister largely because his low strikeout rate last year suggested his ERA and WHIP fared better than they probably should have. But now, I see the light: The guy just has unhittable stuff.

I'm on the bandwagon -- or should I say the BANNwagon. Count on Bannister as a No. 4 Fantasy pitcher.

Andruw Jones, OF, Dodgers

If you want to win people back over after hitting .222, coming out of the gate hitting .100 is never the way to do so. I don't care how recently you hit 50 home runs.

That's right: .114. Through Monday, Jones had five hits in 44 at-bats -- and only two of them for extra bases.

As a follower of the Braves growing up, I appreciate all of the contributions he's made over the years, but I'm not going to sugarcoat this one: Andruw is washed up -- think Mike Cameron without the steals -- and if you want more than a .240 average and 30 home runs, look elsewhere.

Lance Berkman, 1B/OF, Astros

Berkman is a guy Fantasy owners know well, so I'm not going to spend much time gushing over his abilities. Why he looks like he's wearing eyeliner, though, is definitely a matter open for discussion.

Did somebody get into Mommy's Caboodle?

We all know Berkman is good, but if we could predict when he'll be 45 homers good instead of 30, we could really clean up in Fantasy. Some quick stats for you on the right, omitting his injury-shortened 2005:

Berkman is known for his streakiness, so it's almost like if he starts the year on a hot streak, he's able to fit in an extra one entirely, thus distinguishing those great years from the good ones.

If that's the case, then Berkman owners picked the right year to buy. He's come out of the gates blazing, with a .311 average and four homers (and three stolen bases!?) through Monday. If the trend continues, he'll work his way back into elite company (otherwise known as 45 homers good).

Vernon Wells, OF, Blue Jays

Meet Berkman's ugly cousin -- and I say that only because he doesn't wear makeup -- Vernon Wells. Wells has a couple of .300-30-100 years scattered within a career that otherwise makes him look like a poor man's Jermaine Dye.

But even the most pessimistic of Wells followers couldn't have seen last year coming: .245-16-80. That kind of line makes him look like a poor man's Brandon Inge.

But Inge he is not, and with his hot start this season -- .333 with three home runs and six multi-hit games -- that torn labrum in his left shoulder that cut short his 2007 now clearly looks like the reason for his poor performance last year. He's back playing like a No. 2 Fantasy outfielder, so treat him like one.

Derrek Lee, 1B, Cubs

This week must be the week for retreads because Lee is the latest of three objects in the mirror being closer than they appear.

His near-MVP 2005 -- .335 average with 46 home runs -- kind of came out of nowhere in his age-29 season, considering he had never before hit higher than .282 or more than 32 homers. So when he came back to hit .318 with 22 home runs last year after missing most of the previous year with a broken wrist, we all kind of just figured, eh, back to normal, right?

Wrong!

Lee's hot September (.365, seven homers) has carried over into April, making me think his 22 homers last year were more the fluke than his 46 in 2005. Through Monday, he has four homers and six doubles in only 52 at-bats. The power's back, baby!

Remember how Jimmy Rollins won the league MVP last year? He got off to a hot start for once and didn't have to make up so much ground later in the season. Well, Lee, normally a slow starter himself, might be treating us to the same sort of deal. If so, he belongs in the elite class of first basemen.

Ted Lilly, SP, Cubs

Finally, we can all take a chill pill on 'Lil.

Don't get me wrong: the left-hander has been nothing short of disastrous so far, and I certainly wouldn't expect the trend to continue. But his struggles serve as a well-timed reminder of just how much he overperformed last year.

If you look at his 3.83 ERA and 1.14 WHIP in 207 innings last year and compare them to his statistics in every year before then, you start to understand what I mean. Counting only the years in which he made at least 20 starts (five), he had never before had an ERA lower than 4.06, a WHIP lower than 1.32 or pitched more than 197 1/3 innings. And yeah, he pitched in the AL then -- see? I don't look down on the AL -- but an extra hitter in the lineup can only impact numbers so far.

Lilly is still a decent pitcher for Fantasy purposes, but you shouldn't count on him as a critical part of your staff in mixed leagues. Think of him more as a matchups type.

Hanging Sliders

These guys look like sliders, but not so fast! Their recent performances might cause you to misinterpret their Fantasy appeal.

Raul Ibanez, OF, Mariners

I see the upside in Ibanez -- I do. He had 33 home runs and 123 RBI in 2006, and I don't think those numbers are totally out of reach. I just want to contain my enthusiasm for now.

Yes, he's on top of the Fantasy world right now with five home runs -- four of them last week -- but two came in the same game against a pitcher he usually destroys, Jered Weaver, so let's not project him for 62 blasts just yet.

Aside from that one glorious 2006, Ibanez has been nothing more than a 20-home run hitter. Am I saying we should totally ignore what he's doing now? No, but I'm not ready to upgrade him just yet.

David Ortiz, DH, Red Sox

Everybody wants to pop off on Big Papi, but I think two weeks into the season is a little early to abandon ship on one of the top five hitters in baseball over the last four years.

I can understand the Mo Vaughn argument -- that playing on all that bodyweight has accelerated the degeneration of his knees -- but he is only 32, and as well as he hit last year, the dropoff would have to be pretty abrupt.

Just give him some time. He won't hit .104 all season.

Change-up

Every week, I make terrible errors in judgment. It happens to us all, and if it didn't, Fantasy wouldn't be a game worth playing. Fortunately, I permit myself the opportunity to correct one of my mistakes by throwing a change-up.

Jason Bay, OF, Pirates

He's baaaaa-aaaaack.

No sooner had I finalized my argument on how Bay's right knee had damaged him beyond repair than he popped three homers in the span of five games. Through Sunday, he was sporting an OPS of .978 -- right around his norm during his Fantasy stud years of 2004-06 -- and making me look like a gosh-darn fool. I suppose that's why I invented the change-up.

Think of Bay as no less than a No. 3 outfielder in mixed leagues.

You can e-mail Scott your Fantasy Baseball questions to dmfantasybaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Attn: Sliders in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state.We'll answer as many as we can.