Per yourdictionary.com, fantasy baseball is defined as “a competition in which participants select combinations of baseball players in a real league and score points according to their performance.” I define it as pure strategy, madness and excitement, wrapped up in a bundle of fun. If you play in any roto format, you understand the importance of winning categories, because that is how you earn points. This would be a rather neat time for a deep, inspirational quote or anecdote, or even a clever pun, but who has time for that? You have games to watch and lineups to set before you celebrate some wins by going on a bender. Okay, I couldn’t resist.

Home Runs and RBI

Mark Reynolds, COL 1B – Certainly it’s early in the MLB campaign, but Reynolds hasn’t shown any signs of rust here in the early going. Through the first couple games of the season, he’s slashing .545/.615/1.091 with one home run and five RBI. His 15.4 strikeout percentage is half of his career mark, and while that certainly won’t remain, he’s a more-than-adequate source of power at the moment. He’s locked into regular playing time while Ian Desmond recovers from a hand injury and given what we know about hand injuries, it could take Desmond some time to get back into the swing of things. Need more reason to play Reynolds? Coors Field. There you go.

Travis Shaw, MIL 3B – Shaw didn’t attract much attention heading into the MLB season, but he’s poised to become an integral part of this Milwaukee lineup. He has four doubles and a home run through four games this season and he’s proving to be an extra-bases machine. He’s slashing .357/.438/.857 through the first four games and serving as the team’s cleanup hitter is going to be huge for his fantasy numbers. He’s owned in just 24 percent of fantasy leagues, which is ludicrous if you ask me. Shaw is going to be an everyday player in this lineup that plays half of its game in hitter-friendly Miller Park.

Stolen Bases

Chris Owings, OF ARI – No matter what, this guy always ends up on my fantasy teams. I swear that the site just knows he has to be on my team and even when I try to draft someone else, they just throw Owings my way. Hey, I’m not complaining. While he doesn’t really have a spot that is entirely his, he’s going to get consistent playing time in the Arizona lineup. Through the first three games of the season, he’s hitting .417 (5-for-12) with three RBI, one run scored and two stolen bases. He’s a threat for 20 stolen bases this season and Arizona doesn’t mind letting its guys steal bases. Owings is likely going to move around the order a bit, but he’s hit in the two-hole or five-hole in three of the first four games this season. Owings had just three home runs in 329 at-bats against right-handers in 2016, but there’s plenty of room to believe that won’t be the case in 2017. It’s a small sample size, but he’s generating hard or medium contact 100 percent of the time against right-handers thus far. Owings is your guy. Go get him.

Orlando Arcia, SS MIL – He’s got potential, the ability to hit for a decent average, and of course, speed. He swiped 15 or more bases each season from 2013-2015, not to mention that he stole eight bases in just 55 games last season. If you extrapolate last season’s results to a full 162-game campaign, Arcia would have swatted 11 home runs and stole 22 bases. Obviously, he would steal more bases, but that’s a heck of a baseline for a kid who is just 22 years old. In dynasty leagues, he’s likely already owned, but he should be on the radar for re-drafters as well. He sprays the ball around the field, especially against lefties. In the second half of the 2016 campaign, Arcia went opposite field 50 percent of the time against southpaws. That was third highest of 187 full-time players and more than 20 percent above the league average. Arcia is a special young player.

Wins and Quality Starts

Clayton Richard, SP SDP – Pitching in Petco park is nice, but Richard’s skillset would honestly play anywhere. Sure, he only recorded five strikeouts in eight shutout innings in his first start this season, but let’s focus on the eight shutout innings he fired against the Dodgers on April 4. Richard is a groundball extraordinaire, which is why he can sustain long term success. He stays out of the air, which will keep his home run total down, most of the time. He was solid with the Cubs in 2015 and was pretty good last season, despite no one paying any attention to him. In the second half of last season, lefties struck out 35.1 percent of the time against Richard. His career mark is 18 percent and in his first start of the season, two of his five strikeouts came against southpaws. Richard isn’t a sexy pick up, but he gets the job done.

Strikeouts and K/9

Tyler Anderson, SP COL – 5.2 innings with five earned runs isn’t something that is typically going to be praised. However, Anderson finds himself in this week’s article. He struck out eight batters and walked just one, and unfortunately for him, he was done in by a .500 BABIP and 25 percent HR/FB ratio. Over the course of an entire season, those numbers will regress to the mean. Also, don’t forget the fact that he is pretty streaky, but keep in mind that he didn’t post an ERA above 4.00 in any month of the 2016 campaign. Pitching at Coors Field isn’t exactly ideal, but his ERA at home (3.00) was well below his road ERA (4.71). His offspeed stuff wasn’t great in his inaugural 2017 outing, but when he gets back into last season’s form, he’s going to be valuable.

Mike Dunn, RP COL – This waiver wire addition isn’t going to be sexy by any means. You know that, your league mates know that, just about everyone on earth knows that. However, his early season success can’t be denied. Sure, he’s pitched just two innings, but five of his six outs have come via the strikeout. Only one guy has put the ball in play on him this season. He relies rather heavily on his slider, and has shown the willingness to throw it at any point of an-bat. Over the last 30 days of the regular season in 2016, he threw his slider 55.3 percent of the time, which was just over double the league average. This year, four of his five strikeouts have come by that slider. The southpaw is in a groove right now and he’s a sneaky addition that will make an impact early on.