Wow, did anyone have Cardinal management savvy and ignore Berkman's pre-season rank of 279 and draft this guy?  I did!  In my most important draft league I took a late round flyer on the perennial All-Star from his Houston days.  What a payoff that was.  You can see his numbers in the Spotlight I just wrote.  It was one of my most savvy moves in 6 years of fantasy baseball, as I got 2nd round production from my 15th round draft pick.  Sure, he tailed off as the season wound down, but he helped catapult my team to the #1 seed, where I enjoyed not having to sweat out round one of the playoffs because of the bye week.

Keep an eye out next season before your draft for guys rated a little too much lower because of their dismal 2011 performances.  Some names that come to mind:  Hanley Ramirez, Joe Mauer, Shin-Soo Choo, David Wright, and yes, Carl Crawford.

Wish I could of given the award to Pablo Sandoval, but Berkman's numbers were too overwhelming to not give him this award.  Just don't expect a performance like this next year.  And even if he does repeat this feat at age 36, you'll have to burn too high a draft pick for my taste.  Thanks for the one stud season Lance!