Prince Charming

The Prince Fielder Show continues to make his case for NL MVP, batting .305 with 19 HR and 58 RBI.

Prince Fielder has been hitting major league pitching like it's slow-pitch softball as of late, belting 6 HR, driving in 13 runs and hitting .500 with a season high for a week 2.143 OPS. The Prince Show is in full effect and he is certainly becoming the favorite player of fantasy owners around the globe. Prince is not only hitting home runs, but he is hitting important home runs, which is why he is my early favorite for NL MVP. Last week three of Prince's 6 HR were to put the Brew Crew ahead for good. It has been said that every other year Prince has put up MVP numbers and guess what folks: This is the other year.

Another hitter seeing softballs these days is Boston's David Ortiz. Papi looked like his old self again this week, hittin' four bombs and tying Prince for the weekly lead with 13 RBI. Big Papi is locked in and, to the disbelief of many, is showing no signs of age. Ortiz is also a good source of OPS, finishing the week with a 1.294 in that category. Speaking of ageless wonders, Paul Konerko put together yet another solid week, launching 4 HR while hitting .393 in the process. Many thought that last season would be the final hoorah for Konerko, but he seems to be silencing the critics with his 16 HR and 52 RBI on the season. Paul is also hitting .322, which to me is the most surprising part of his campaign.

On the mound, Cliff Lee was amazing this week posting a 2-0 record with a 0.63 ERA and stellar 17:3 K/BB ratio. Lee has had a few rough starts this year, but two start weeks such as this one make us realize why he was one of the first pitchers taken off the board. Another pitcher who keeps missing bats is Braves starter Tommy Hanson. Tommy also went 2-0 this week while striking out 20 batters, including a 14 K effort on Sunday against the Astros. Hanson has elite control, and with the run support could be a candidate to win 20 games. Tom gets the Rangers in his next start, and it will be interesting to see how his fares against the heavy hitting AL opponent. And how can we forget Twins lefty Fransisco Liriano. This guy puzzles me. He had an amazing week with a 16:3 K/9 ratio, a win and a 0.69 ERA. Yet Liriano remains a very streaky pitcher and his game log over the course of this season shows it. Fransisco is either really bad, or really really good and this week he happened to be really good. It will be interesting to see if he can keep up the hot arm as he gets an easy matchup this week against San Diego.

3 Players Up: Brennan Boesch (DET), Mark Reynolds (BAL), Dustin Pedroia (BOS)

3 Players Down: Russel Martin (NYY), Jed Lowrie (BOS), Vlad Guerrero (BAL)