Alex Rodriguez sits atop Imaginary Diamond’s first player rankings list, largely out of respect for what he did last season. Hanley Ramirez, Chase Utley and David Wright are all nipping at his heels, especially with A-Rod parked in the garage with a sore quad.

Rising on this week’s list are Lance Berkman, who has gone on a five-category tear to start the season; Rafael Furcal, who looks fully healthy after an injury-plagued 2007; Chipper Jones, who’s hitting everything that moves; Carlos Zambrano and Miguel Tejada.

Some of those falling down the board are Ryan Howard, who’s missing everything that moves; Adam Dunn, for the same reason; C.C. Sabathia, who dug fantasy owners a huge hole in the pitching categories; Eric Byrnes, who has two sore hamstrings; and others. Read more »

Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury has just about put veteran backup Coco Crisp in his rearview mirror for good. He is in the same form now as when he burst onto the scene in 2007, igniting the Red Sox offense with an array of skills and carving out a huge piece of the team’s outfield time share.

First point in his favor over Crisp, Ellsbury is quickly becoming an adept leadoff man for the Sox. Look no further than his 12 walks and just four strikeouts in 43 at-bats to gauge that progress. For comparison’s sake, he had just eight walks and 15 strikeouts in 116 at-bats in his debut last season. The production results have been much the same; Ellsbury has scored 15 runs over the last 11 games, and Boston has been victorious 10 times over that stretch. Read more »