Today's Fantasy Rx

Despite discussing well over a thousand MLB, AAA, and AA players over the past six months, a few dozen big leaguers still escaped in-season review in our 2004 Hitting and 2004 Pitching articles. With the fantasy season winding down this week, we'll take a look at one overlooked batter and pitcher on each team following our normal pattern.

Anaheim: Ben Molina, C
90/320 for .281/.314/.416 with 10 HR, 53 RBI, 36 R, 0/1 SB%,
and a 15:33 BB:K.

The eldest of the Amazing Catching Molina Brothers remains surprising productive for fantasy teams despite unimpressive skills. A career-worst 1.33 G-F hasn't kept Molina from posting double-digit homers for the third times, and only falling well short of 400 at-bats will keep him from reaching 70 RBI. Unfortunately, slipping from a .92 to .90 contact rate portends approaching batting average problems that a rising walk rate won't offset for roto owners. With Molina's power, average, and playing time all potentially set to decline, heavily shop him at your first opportunity.

We'll continue tomorrow with National League surplus batters.

Today's Fantasy Rx: Don't assume that the Sunday transaction deadline in most leagues automatically means you won't need to reset your rosters one more time this season. While the Athletics, Cubs, and Dodgers appear likely to secure the last three playoff spots, the Angels, Astros, Giants, and even the Rangers and Padres remain viable contenders. We easily could see the first one-game playoff since San Francisco played Chicago in 1998. Since these games count as regular season games in almost every fantasy league, keep close track of the standings this week to see if activating anyone on Sunday could provide a needed quantitative boost next Monday.