Player who will make me punch the screen when he gets drafted in front of me: Felix Hernandez

Everyone has had their heart broken by King Felix. Every one. He burst on to the scene in 2005 and didn't disappoint. He struggled in '06. Then, he was surprisingly mediocre in '07, resurfaced in '08 and delivered in 2009. I think this is the season that King Felix becomes elite. If he's going to become a legit dominant starter, shouldn't that happen soon? He throws in a pitcher's park with one of the better defensive outfields in baseball. He's  a lock for 200 Ks and his K:BB is right where it needs to be (3.06 last year). I could see him making another run at 20 wins with another sub-3.00 ERA next year.

As fantasy baseball guru Michael Jackson once sang, take a look at the man in the mirror and make a change. Any astute keeper leaguer should realize there are only a handful of contenders heading into auction, and chances are you’re not one of them. Here’s a clue: if I hand Ray Charles your league’s rosters and he spots Your League’s Yankees (YLY), then you should be able to do the same. You know, because Ray’s blind ... and dead.

It’s lovely that Tim Lincecum’s yours for $20, but does that make you YLY? Well, if Boss Steinbrenner Jr. has a $15 Joe Mauer, a $10 Ryan Braun, a $5 Wandy Rodriguez, and buck Tommy Hanson, you are not YLY. So, look in the mirror and stop chasing unicorns.  At best all you’ll find is a pony with an elephant tusk stapled to his forehead. Reality tells us that you've got as good a chance at catching all that pre-auction value as Giant Panda Pablo Sandoval does of needing just one plate at Sizzler. You need to listen to reality. She's a bitch.

Player who will make me punch the screen when he gets drafted in front of me: Brett Anderson

Anderson wins this slot by default. He's one of maybe three A's worth having on a roster this season. There is no way I'm punching the screen when Rajai Davis "flies" off the draft board in the 15th round. Normally, I wouldn't touch a 22-year old second-year starter on a cruddy team, but Anderson does two things that I really, really like. He's capable of striking batters out, and he doesn't walk that many guys. He struck out 150 batters in 175 innings and his K:BB was at 3.33. I'm worried about his draft position. He's going around the 15th/16th round. I like him in the 16th round or later for pitching depth. I'm concerned that someone in my league is going to talk himself into Anderson as a 12th or 13th rounder.

Rounds one through three were kind of boring. Round four is where things start to get interesting. Notice that I'm not mentioning every player being drafted regularly in these rounds. You can assume that I believe those unnamed players (the Justin Morneaus and Brian McCanns of the world) to be solid picks -- nothing spectacular, but nothing that's going to kill your team, either.

PLAYERS TO TARGET:

It'll be difficult for Ben Zobrist to again reach his lofty '09 heights. But the lineup he hits in is good, and in daily leagues, it's hard to argue against that 2B/SS/OF eligibility, even if the numbers drop a bit. As far as pure second baseman go, I believe Robinson Cano absolutely can repeat his '09 successes. (I'm certainly taking Cano over Brandon Phillips)

Curtis Granderson will probably bat second for the Yankees. The sky's the limit here. Bill James is predicting a 106-27-76-17 season, which is more than doable in that lineup. He's being drafted, on average, in the fifth round. I don't think it's a terrible move to grab Curtis in the fourth, just to make sure he's on your team. Hell, you could probably take him in the late third and still not be laughed out of the room. If you don't get Granderson, Andrew McCutchen is an awesome five-tool consolation prize you can likely snare in the sixth round.

Most fantasy draft guides break players down by position. And when they're all mixed together, it's usually in a nondescript Top 100 list. I wanted to try something a little different this year, so for the next week or two I'm going to be breaking fantasy drafts down by the individual round. (Or, more accurately, by chunks of individual rounds, assuming a 12-team league.) Every year, I encourage our readers to hold their fantasy drafts as late as possible, but enough early draft results are in that we can begin to see which players are being draft when. Utilizing Yahoo's current Average Draft Position rankings as a reference, I'm going to use these Draft Breakdowns to suggest players worth targeting at their current ADP, as well as point out guys you'd be best served by avoiding altogether. Let's get this party started with rounds one through three ...

PLAYERS TO TARGET:

Most of the round-one guys are gimmes, so there's no need to name them here. Although I will say that if you have the eighth overall pick or later and Prince Fielder is still available, for god's sake, man, grab him. His current Yahoo ADP is 14th overall, which is ludicrous. Troy Tulowitzki is the first guy who I'm really curious to see where he goes in my leagues. Last year, he put up the kind of numbers you dream about from your shortstop, and Yahoo users are currently taking him ninth overall. That seems a tad early, but I've got no problem with jumping on him at any point in the second round.

Fantasy baseball auction strategies are a lot like strip clubs -- variety is the spice of life. You want to pay top dollar for that Paris Hilton look-a-like? Go for it. Hell, if your wallet is fat enough, I’m sure Paris is willing to listen. But blow your wad early and you’ll find yourself sitting in the corner, drowning your sorrows in a $1 draft while your buddies have all the fun.

The fact is, there are no perfect auction strategies. A large part of being successful during an auction comes in being flexible, knowing your opponents and playing the Yin to their Yang (no, this is not another strip club reference). If you’re in a league where you see quality starting pitching going early for cheap, going all relievers isn’t playing towards the market inefficiencies. It doesn’t matter what all your spreadsheet geekdom said going into the auction, your strategy has to change on the fly.

With that in mind, here are some common auction strategies:

Stars and Scrubs

Pretty self explanatory and a lot of fun. Imagine an infield with Albert Pujols at first, Chase Utley as second, Hanley Ramirez at shortstop and A-Rod at third. You want to do that at auction, you can. Now imagine an outfield of Will Venable, Kyle Blanks and Scott Hairston. If you’re a Padres fan it’s not that hard to do. (And as any Padre fan will tell you, it’s not all that pretty to watch for 162 games.) The key to any good stars-and-scrubs squad is your ability to unearth sleepers. Find a couple of Ben Zobrists and you’re sitting pretty. Find too many Khalil Greenes and you’re looking at the 1962 Mets with envy. So, in the immortal words of Clint Eastwood ... do you feel lucky, punk?

As promised, here's the second half of our examination of players who shined during the last half of the 2009 season. Listed below are seven pitchers -- five starters and two closers -- who displayed some marked improvement over what they posted during their first halves.

I tried to focus on guys who are actually drafted among the top 30 or so at their position. As you may have noticed from the hitter post, there may be glaring omissions if you start looking back at split stats to try and find a hidden gem.

Again, what you will notice is that, in most cases, these guys are underrated because their full season stats belie the talent they likely possess, which we can get a better grasp for by looking at what they figured out as the season wore on. I repeat the caveat that I mentioned with the hitters, which is that these are fairly small sample sizes. All figures below will be based on less than 100 IP. The main point is to get everyone a little more familiar with splits and how they can give you a bigger picture to a player's value, because a lot of drafters can be lazy and just look at the full season stats. Looking deeper is where you'll often find the hidden advantages.