TheBaseballStars

I went into this year’s fantasy draft with one thing on my mind: offense.

With four starting pitchers as keepers, I knew my team would depend on the offensive players I was able to acquire early.

My first three off the board were Nick Markakis, Carlos Guillen and Brian Roberts — all of which I was happy with. But it was the fourth player that I was unsure about at the time. Today, though, I’m elated with him.

He’s a name fantasy owners might be familiar with: Derrek Lee.

Lee has been both stud and dud — take his 2005 of a .335 average, 46 HRs and 107 RBI, which was followed by a 2006 with only 50 games played 8 HRs and 30 RBI. Last year, Lee showed glimpses of being the player he was in ‘05, so I felt it could go either way coming into this season.

Lucky for me, dude has been on his game. He’s in the top five for hits, runs and homers, and his 23 RBIs are ninth best.

And I’ll tell ya, I’m not sure where I’d be offensively otherwise. My offensive keepers have been underwhelming. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Carlos Beltran. And the cornerstone of Team Oz, A-Rod, went from underperforming to the DL.

Thank goodness I got another D.L.