Yesterday, the current leader of the Yahoo! Friends and Family League, Michael Gehlken, enjoyed a 11.5-point gain in the standings despite team hitting and pitching numbers from Sunday that were really not all that special. Let it serve as a reminder that it's still incredibly early and slow starts should not be considered an indictment of your team. If you are still struggling mightily a month from now, you might want to start thinking about a major overhaul. But for now, regular fine-tuning can still go a long way.

With that in mind, I give you my fine-tuned Skinny, with a slight changeup in format compared to last week. Here's what is grabbing my attention this week across the virtual diamond:

CORNER INFIELD

Davis singled in his first big league at-bat.
(Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

• The first base production (4-for-28) has been woeful for the Mets so it's no surprise that the team called up top hitting prospect Ike Davis(notes), who was scorching hot (1.136 OPS) for Triple-A

Our nightly Roto Arcade Closing Time blog feature does a good job of keeping fantasy owners apprised of the need-to-know situations on the fantasy diamond, which was the goal of the MLB Skinny in the past. Since we're now covered in that regard on a daily basis, I thought I'd keep my focus for Mondays this season mostly on the waiver wire – I may throw a changeup every so often.

The plan is to only recommend players owned in less than 50 percent of Yahoo! leagues (with rare exceptions). And I'll try to cover every position on the fantasy diamond, although I make no promises for what I'll do with the catcher position from week to week.

Alright, let's get it started … here are the players that have caught my eye this week:

CORNER INFIELD

Over the hill? Konerko already has three homers.
(Paul Beaty/AP)

Paul Konerko(notes), ChW, 1B – 53 percent owned: I think the tendency in fantasy circles is to look at Konerko as someone who is getting dangerously close to his expiration date, but in

The opening of the 2010 MLB season is just days away and I think all fantasy baseball owners would agree, that fact definitely deserves a high five of the hand slap variety. And I got to thinking that a High Fives of the Yahoo! variety wouldn't be a bad idea, either. In our version of High Fives, myself and fellow experts Brad Evans and Scott Pianowski reveal the players that are growing on us, the ones that we're growing apart from, the cream of the Yahoo! waiver basement, the farmhands that we need to have on the radar and some fools in honor of April Fool's Day. Play ball!

Big Boards: Football | Baseball | Basketball | Hockey

The Big Board takes into consideration past returns, current performance and expected future gains in determining who should be included among the top 50 fantasy basketball players. Essentially, the Big Board is a cheat sheet designed for a fantasy owner who is planning to participate in a draft today. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Basketball default scoring settings are used as the baseline for the Big Board, which is updated on a regular basis.

We – that's you and I – have spent the preseason trying to impress anyone who would listen with what we know about fantasy football, from sure-fire busts to guaranteed sleepers. When it comes to preseason fantasy football analysis, there is no shortage of opinion. But in one fell swoop, Week 1 will assuredly shake many of those confidences to the core. The first week of the regular season tells us what we didn't realize we didn't know. With that in mind, here's a player in each of the first week's games that could emerge as an unexpected breakout surprise. I want to emphasize that these are Hail Mary picks, and most fantasy owners have much better options to choose from. But if you are in a deep enough league, or have depth issues that have you throwing darts in Week 1, here are some players to think about.

Note: Upside projections are the numbers that the players could reasonably post if things break in their favor.

Week 1 wild cards
A snapshot of each Week 1 matchup

TENNESSEE TITANS @

More top 10 hate: Brad Evans

Last week, we spread the love here and here. So this week, it only seems fair that we give the devil inside an opportunity to speak his mind.

Like my disdain for olives, Brad Evans' thesaurus and Charlie Kaufman movies "Adaptation" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," here are 10 fantasy football players that I hate more than you for '09.

Note: with the exception of the first player mentioned (below), this list does not include any of the players on my previous "Hate" list

Eli Manning(notes): The younger Manning is a holdover from my previous "Hate" list because there's just too much love for him still in Yahoo! average live drafts, where he is the 13th QB taken off the board. This despite the loss of receivers Plaxico Burress(notes) and Amani Toomer(notes), as well as top RB receiving threat Derrick Ward(notes). Last season, Manning finished 15th among QBs in fantasy points. And now he's supposed to be even better? Considering the inexperience of

More top 10 love: Scott Pianowski

Yes, to answer the question forming at the tip of your tongue, we already did this exercise back in June. But that was a lifetime ago in fantasy years, so it's time to update the man-crush manifesto.

Like my affinity for Tim's Cascade Jalapeno Potato Chips, the movie "Dazed and Confused", and the novels of David James Duncan, here are 10 fantasy football players that I love more than you for '09.

Note: with the exception of the first player mentioned (below), this list does not include any of the players on my previous "Love" list

Ray Rice(notes): If this was middle school, I would be challenging Andy Behrens to a fight behind the supply shed after school for honing in on my territory. I've been crushing on Rice for a while now and, with his sterling summer and ascension to the top of the Ravens' backfield depth chart, it's finally starting to look like I'm not so crazy after all.

Ryan Grant(notes): There's a very strong possibility that he'll be the

I'm playing in just three leagues this season, and in two of them – the Yahoo! Friends and Family League and the LABR NL League – I'm solidly in the third-place mix. Of course, it'd be nice to win those leagues, but the current leaders in both leagues have had great seasons and now hold, barring total collapse, insurmountable leads. Still, at least being a part of the upper tier of the standings is enough to keep me battling for silver or bronze respectability.

My third league, however, is a different story entirely. In the Funston Blog League, I'm dead last. And I've been in that spot for a mighty long time. It's an AL-only league, and five of my top eight picks were Carlos Quentin(notes), Alex Rodriguez(notes), Matt Wieters(notes), Howie Kendrick(notes) and Brandon Morrow(notes), all of whom have been disappointments for varying reasons. There's been other foils on my roster, including John Smoltz(notes) and … well, I guess the man in the mirror deserves his share of the blame as