The Three Hottest Hitters: Week One

     With the first week of baseball just about finished, the three hottest hitters are very framiliar names. All had concerns (for different reasons) which made people pass on them during the draft and all three have had huge fantasy seasons in the past. Ryan Howard is a guy whose career was trending downward, and with Chase Utley out for a considerable time, people were worried he might not get anything to hit. Ben Francisco has been a nice surprise for the Phillies protecting Howard. His stat line after the first week is 2 HR's 8 RBI's and a .524 Avg.
    Mark Texiera owners usually get a productive season out of him, but never at the beginning of the season. Texiera has been a notoriously slow starter whose batting average plummeted last year. The fact that he's torn the cover off the baseball thus far is great news for many fantasy owners. His stat line is 4 HR's 10 RBI's and a .333 Avg.

     Carlos Quentin was having an MVP-caliber season in 2008 after coming to the White Sox in a trade with the Diamondbacks. He's since been plagued with heel problems but has still put up decent home run numbers (21 in '09 and 26 in '10), but has struggled with his average. If he can stay healthy, I see no reason why he can't give you 30 HR's and 90 RBI's. If he hasn't been picked up yet, go ahead and ride this hot-streak out for a couple of weeks until his average comes back down to earth. His stat line is 2 HR's 10 RBI's and a .500 Avg.