By Zack Cimini

notjustagame23@gmail.com

Jumping out the gates in April is always great. If you’re an owner that has shot to the front of your league, you can further yourself from the pack with proper moves. Deciding on the right players to deal out and capitalize off their hot start is the tricky part. Being in a competitive league, you almost have to nowadays play your leverage to further differentiate your team. If not, owners can capitalize off their waiver position and gain on you by August.

In every league there are going to be owners quick to make changes that are suffering out the gate. Making a sneaky proposal just to break the ice is the norm. A good percentage of the time no deal is going to be done after the first offer. If a guy has a major need and he continues to see your offered players do well, he will bend. Give it some time.

Here are some players that have started off very well, that you may be able to get high value for before they dip back down to reality.

Lance Berkman– Berkman seemed buried alive with the New York Yankees last year. The notion figured to be another overpaid big name turned bust. Age seemed to have caught up to Berkman. He went undrafted in many leagues and figured to be an after thought with the St. Louis Cardinals. While other big names on the Cardinals started off rocky, Berkman was the bat the produced. An owner with him is probably thinking when will he slow down? It’s going to happen, and his numbers will likely tail off drastically. Offering him up for desperate owners on the other side, may be the route to go.

Travis Hafner- Injury issues sometimes just never leave a player, until it causes the exit of his/her career. That seems to be the number one issue for Hafner. Health. Cleveland as a whole has exceeded April’s expectation with their start. Hafner is widely available in 46% of Yahoo leagues, which is a troubling number in itself. This is a guy that can produce and if he can sustain for another month, will be worth dealing to give yourself extra depth in a necessary area.

Ike Davis- Talk about a guy having a career year. When a young player has a start like this, it’s hard to project if he can sustain it. Often times though, it’s just a streaky run. Pitchers and managers will figure out Davis’s weaknesses and expose them. Once a rut begins, Davis could tail back off to his earthly averages of a year ago. Which were abysmal. Davis already has five home runs, when he only hit nineteen last year. Every statistical category he is on pace to crush exponentially. With Davis’s age, leveraging should figure better for the fantasy owner.

Ben Zobrist- The key with Zobrist now is that he is getting on base and the whole Rays lineup is delivering. With Evan Longoria returning to the lineup, numbers could continue to soar. On the contrary, Zobrist has never been a great hitter. A career .253 hitter. His power numbers have never jumped out at you either. There’s no questioning that he could be on the brink of a career year. Will he turn that corner completely, and shake off career averages?