More top 10 love/hate: Brandon Funston love | Andy Behrens love | Andy Behrens hate | Brad Evans love | Brad Evans hate | Scott Pianowski love | Scott Pianowski hate

Like my disdain for spiders (no, that's just a straight-up fear) … Like my disdain for black olives, left-lane governors and Oregon Ducks (save Steve Prefontaine), here are 10 fantasy football players I hate more than you for '11

Kevin Kolb(notes) – This is a case where the community has it right and my fellow experts are drinking the Kool-Aid. Kolb is going 17th at QB in average Yahoo! drafts, but he's ranked no worse than 13th by my three cohorts. I'll agree that it's nice that he's found himself a starting gig, but Arizona is not Philadelphia. The Eagles have finished in the top 10 in fantasy scoring at the QB position in each of the past seven years, twice finishing first and four times finishing in the top three. Kolb threw an underwhelming 11 TDs to 14 INTs in 20 games played in that very friendly system. Taking Kolb

More top 10 love/hate: Andy Behrens love | Brad Evans hate | Scott Pianowski hate

Like my affinity for cribbage, all things Ron Swanson, and fantasy novelists with the middle initials R.R., here are 10 fantasy football players that I love more than you for '11.

Tony Romo(notes): Romo's per game fantasy average in the five games prior to his collarbone injury last season was good enough to rank him third among all quarterbacks. Romo's weapons remain elite heading into '11. And his Strength of Schedule, based upon '10 numbers, ranks as the second easiest in fantasy at QB. In my mind, there are seven quarterbacks with the upside to finish No. 1 in fantasy scoring among quarterbacks, and Romo is one of them – the cheapest of them, going at least a round later than the others.

Matt Ryan(notes): I don't count Ryan among the seven with No. 1 potential, but that's only because Atlanta is a bit too run heavy. Ryan certainly has the talent (his and supporting) to move into that mix, though.

If you've followed along with us the past week, you've already gorged yourself on fantasy spins involving the A-listers that traded places – Hunter Pence(notes), Michael Bourn(notes), Carlos Beltran(notes), Ubaldo Jimenez(notes), Colby Rasmus(notes), et al. So for this week's Skinny exercise, I thought I would touch on some of the lesser-publicized players on the move in addition to trade-induced roster developments that may have gotten lost in the shuffle.

With that said, here's what caught my eye as the trade deadline week unfolded:

CORNER INFIELDERS
	Pirate booty –> Derrek Lee(notes): In the past month, Lee has been a top 100 player in the Yahoo! game. After hitting just .230 with four home runs through the first two months of the season, even his most staunch supporters could no longer stomach his meager production and his ownership rates dwindled to bargain bin territory. Now, after hitting six home runs with 19 RBIs in the past 30 days, both top five numbers among eligible

It's a great week to be a fantasy sports player if you enjoy musical chairs. The final week before the MLB trade deadline has aligned perfectly with the opening week of a condensed NFL free agency period following the new CBA agreement. While several hundred NFL free agents scramble to secure a paycheck for '11 and beyond, MLBers like Carlos Beltran(notes), B.J. Upton(notes), Colby Rasmus(notes), Carlos Quentin(notes), Hunter Pence(notes), Michael Cuddyer(notes), Aramis Ramirez(notes), Ubaldo Jimenez(notes), Hiroki Kuroda(notes), Heath Bell(notes), and many others, will be subjected to daily trade rumors leading up to the Sunday trade deadline. If you fashion yourself a baseball/football fantasy combo plate, you're sure to have a lot of fun this week. Enjoy the ride!

You can count on next week's Skinny to deal with at least some of the post-deadline aftermath. But until then, let's take a look at some of the players that have recently caught my attention for their on-the-field

After a welcome three-day rest stop along the six-month fantasy highway, it's time to get back out on the road. The good news, as play starts back up again for the stretch run, is that there are many DL-designated players on the verge of a return to action. In the next week we should see Carl Crawford(notes) (hamstring), Jose Reyes(notes) (hamstring), David Wright(notes) (back), Shane Victorino(notes) (thumb), Martin Prado(notes) (staph infection), Jon Lester(notes) (back), John Danks(notes) (oblique), Carlos Zambrano(notes) (back) and Ryan Madson(notes) (hand), among others, back on the diamond. For many fantasy owners, their returns offer something to look forward to.

Another thing for owners to look forward to is any time they have a pitcher facing the Mariners or the A's. Derek Holland(notes) pitched a complete-game shutout against Oakland heading into the break and pitched a complete-game shutout against the Mariners in his first game coming off the break. And while Holland

Monday started off with a bang in Wrigley as out-of-the-gate slugs Carlos Gonzalez(notes), Aramis Ramirez(notes) and Carlos Pena each hit two home runs. I had CarGo No. 1 on my preseason cheat sheet, and after a .228 April (1 HR, 3 steals), he's starting to look the part of an elite fantasy talent once again, hitting more than .300 with 11 home runs and nine stolen bases in his past 52 games.

As for the Cubs contingent, Ramirez was someone I was preaching patience for back at the beginning of May. Power outages in April and May are nothing new here. And second-half power surges are the norm. Ramirez now has six home runs in June and I fully expect him to perform to the level of a top 5 third baseman the rest of the way.

As for Pena, he's a much tougher case. He's now hit 16 home runs in a 51-game span, and he definitely needs to be picked up in every league (63-percent owned), great or small. But monster streaks by Pena are almost always bookended by monster slumps. If there's a reason

Of course, the big news of the new week was that Albert Pujols(notes) is expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks with a forearm injury. This development was especially tough considering that, after a slow start, Pujols was finally delivering like a consensus No. 1 overall pick should – his 10 home runs in the past 30 days were second to only Michael Morse(notes) (yes, that's right, Michael Morse).

Colleague Andy Behrens addressed Pujols in our Roto Arcade blog, ranking Seattle's Justin Smoak(notes) as the best available 1B replacement among those available in more than 50 percent of Yahoo! leagues. And I concur with his Smoak nomination. The Mariners' sophomore produced a .900-plus OPS in April and is above .900 for June. He's more than capable of another half-dozen home runs with solid run production (especially if Ichiro(notes) stays hot and Dustin Ackley(notes) gets bumped up the lineup) while Pujols is on the mend.

Of course, Smoak isn't an available option for all our Pujols owners,

The June youth movement is underway. MLB's amateur draft kicked off Monday afternoon, with Gerrit Cole going No. 1 to the Pirates and top hitting prospect Anthony Rendon falling to Washington at No. 6 – Stephen Strasburg(notes), Bryce Harper(notes) and Rendon in the past three years is some serious good fortune for the Nats.

Also, the Dodgers called up Dee Gordon(notes) on Monday. He's nowhere near the most-anticipated of the expected post-Super Two arrivals, but at least it's a start. As colleague Andy Behrens notes, Gordon has plenty of speed to offer from a premium position, but perhaps not much else at the moment. It could be as soon as next week that we are talking about the arrivals of Brett Lawrie(notes), Dustin Ackley(notes) and Anthony Rizzo(notes), among others. Rob Steingall has all the top on-the-verge prospects laid out in his NL and AL call-up primers.

While we wait for more of the youth infusion, let's take a look at what grabbed my attention this past week around the