Well so much for the New York Yankees landing A.J. Burnett.  Newsday reports the Boston Red Sox are "fully engaged" in discussions with A.J. Burnett.  (The New York Daily News also says the same.)

The last major award will be announced later this afternoon. The Fake Teams voters have nailed every one, but the AL MVP is going to be iffy. See we voted for Boston Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia, and scrappy middle infielders are not amongst the most popular vote getters. However, Pedroia's totals were far and away better than the runner-up, Carlos Quentin of the Chicago White Sox.

Unless Boston Red Sox fans ran the equivalent of an ACORN vote campaign for Pedroia, I won't be surprised to see us nail the 6th and final major award. There is wisdom in crowds, and the Fake Teams crowd voted for Pedroia.

George A. King III of the New York Post reports in this morning's paper that the New York Yankees are going to make another big contract offer to a free agent pitcher.  This time the lucky pitcher and his agent is A.J. Burnett.

After opting out of a five-year, $55MM deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, Burnett is getting ready to receive another five-year deal.  This for upwards of $80 million if Mr. King's sources are right.  To boot, he also reports the offers to C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett does not mean the Yankees are out on the Derek Lowe front either.

With Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain already in the rotation, adding three big dollar free agents seems to signal one of those three are not long for the rotation.  Is there a trade for a young pre-prime hitter in the future or is one of them more of an injury worry than has been let on?

With the correct top 3 in the AL Cy Young results, Fake Teams' readers have predicted at least the top two finishers in every major award. Today the NL MVP is announced, and our results show Albert Pujols winning easily over World Series champion, Ryan Howard. After that, our voters held nothing against Manny Ramirez as he finished 3rd ahead of Ryan Braun and Chase Utley.

Will Carroll offers up his injury assessments over at Si.com.  Amongst those players everyone is worrying about is Clinton Portis of the Washington Redskins, Steven Jackson of the St. Louis Rams, Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints,  Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Frank Gore of the San Francisco 49ers.  Of these, only Roethlisberger and Frank Gore appear to be starting and slated for their regular workloads.

Ben Roethlisberger has been replaced mid-game by Byron Leftwich.  This is disconcerting enough to override the favorable match-up Big Ben has against a weak San Diego Chargers pass defenses.  I can see sitting Roethlisberger in favor of Tyler Thigpen.  Just keep in mind this is a decision based on the risk of not receiving four quarters of production from Big Ben versus four quarters of another QB.

Frank Gore is the type of decision that worries fantasy football owners all day.  Following a 99-yard effort, Gore was expected to produce strongly against a pee-poor St. Louis Rams' defense.  Then Gore tells the press he is suffering from a concussion as a result of his failure to score a TD from one yard out at the end of Monday night's loss to Arizona.  A couple days later, his head coach Mike Singletary refutes Gore's self-assessment.  Gore is again ready to play.

Just as a lawyer says something in front of a jury that the judge instructs the jury to ignore and it can't, fantasy owners cannot forget what Gore said.  Now we worry that Gore will take a hard hit and be lost for the game.  I am sticking with Gore despite the option of starting Steve Slaton or Ladell Betts.

Other start/sits:

RB Earnest Graham, Tampa Bay Buccaneers:  The recent activation of RB Cadillac Williams doesn't worry me in the slightest.  He was activated from the PUP because the Bucs didn't want to be compelled to place him on IR and lose him for the season.  Graham's knee and the presence of RB Warrick Dunn are the issues with Graham.  After a season's worth of splitting carries with Dunn, I'm sitting Graham if another viable option exists.  For me, "viable" means Kevin Smith of the Detroit Lions.  Even Ladell Betts or Peyton Hillis would quailify.

RB Willie Parker, Pittsburgh Steelers:  Fast Willie is playing with a torn labrum in his shoulder.  Following his earlier knee injury and the broken leg from 2007, FWP appears to be injury-riddled and a seeming sit this week.  However, WR Chad Johnson has played all season with a similar injury and has been relaitvely productive all things considered.  I'd start Willie Parker as a RB2 with the understanding he may lose 25% of his touches to Mewelde Moore.  If for some reason he is slotting as your RB1, then start him without concern for his injury or touches.

Clinton Portis of the Washington Redskins will miss this rematch with the Dallas Cowboys. That is too bad as the Cowboys have ranked as one of the worst ten rush defenses over its past three games. However, this match-up bodes well for RB Ladell Betts who is returning from an MCL injury and who wouldn't surprise if he does a Kevin Smith imitation at worst (40-60 yards rushing with a TD and 3 and 30 receiving.)

Seeing the Cincinnati Bengals on the favorable end of the rushing match-up gets ideas of Cedric Benson starting. Could he possibly repeat his 100+ yard effort of a couple weeks ago? Maybe, but his team would have to keep the game close, and the Philadelphia Eagles should be able to score enough points to keep the Bengals playing catch-up. But just the thought of starting Cedric Benson was unthinkable until very recently.

Michael Turner faces the Denver Broncos' rush defense and should be good for 100+ yards and a TD or two. Given the prolific nature of the Broncos passing game, the Falcons will have every reason to run the ball to keep the clock moving. As a result, Jerious Norwood could even find himself with 100 total yards.

Ten Worst Rushing Defenses:

The worst passing defenses cause joy for those fantasy owners who have the opposing QB. In that category this week is Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, Kurt Warner, and Donovan McNabb. One can logically conclude that any of the main receivers who will be on the other end of those QBs' throws will also do well.

The question comes when a fantasy team doesn't have one of those QBs but has one of the QBs facing a bad pass defense who is not a marquee fantasy name. In this category is Trent Edwards, Tyler Thigpen, Shaun Hill, Brady Quinn and Daunte Culpepper.

Should a team with one of these five QBs start him over a more established fantasy QB like Philip Rivers, Tony Romo, or Eli Manning when those marquee QBs have very unfavorable match-ups? I know I like Kansas City Chief Tyler Thigpen to produce against a weak New Orleans' Saints pass defense, but would I sit Rivers or Romo for him? No, I would not. I would be tempted, though, to sit Eli Manning.

Ten Worst Passing Defenses:

This week offers one of the tougher start/sit decisions for the RBs facing the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens head to New Jersey to face the New York Giants. Can any Giants' RB be expected to produce against a defense that has not allowed more than 76 rushing yards in any game this season? Is there is enough yards to be split amongst the three Giants? I answer no and would sit Brandon Jacobs and company while consider starting WR Plaxico Burress as the Giants will need to move the ball through the air.

San Diego Chargers RB LaDainian Tomlinson may find himself struggling once again to accummulate stats worthy of the #1 overall pick. The Steelers have one of the best defenses in the NFL, and their offense will face one of the worst passing defenses in San Diego. A couple quick scores through the air will put the Chargers in passing mode. LT is a part of the passing game, but 100+ yard rushing efforts is what made him #1 overall.

Top Ten Rushing Defenses:

This week's winner for proving statistics lie is the Oakland Raiders. Their PYA comes in as the second-best over the past three games at a misery 147 yards allowed. That exists because teams have rushed for more than 200 yards per game over those same three games. Starting RB Ronnie Brown is much easier to do despite his time share with Ricky Williams thanks to the Oakland Raiders "stingy" pass defense.

The runner-up to Oakland is the Houston Texans with an almost as stingy PYA of 162.3. Do not be afraid to start Indianapolis Colts' QB Peyton Manning regardless of the status of WRs Reggie Wayne and Anthony Gonzalez. I wish I could be as pithy with starting RB Joseph Addai as I was with Ronnie Brown, but the Colts' rushing game scares me. Pithiness notwithstanding, if Addai is going to breakout, the Texans passing defense will do its best to leave open plenty of holes.

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