Making your picks

The Major League Baseball season begins Sunday, and most fantasy leagues will hold their drafts this week. These picks should help you a bit:

FIRST BASE:
 1. Albert Pujols, St. Louis
 2. Ryan Howard, Philadelphia
 3. David Ortiz, Boston (sure, he's mostly a DH)
 4. Lance Berkman, Houston
 5. Justin Morneau, Minnesota
 Overrated: Derrek Lee, Chicago Cubs
 Underrated: Lyle Overbay, Toronto

SECOND BASE:
 1. Chase Utley, Philadelphia
 2. Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati
 3. Robinson Cano, New York Yankees
 4. Julio Lugo, Boston
 5. Jeff Kent, Los Angeles Dodgers
 Overrated: Brian Roberts, Baltimore
 Underrated: Marcus Giles, San Diego

SHORTSTOP:
 1. Jose Reyes, New York Mets
 2. Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia
 3. Rafael Furcal, Los Angeles Dodgers
 4. Michael Young, Texas
 5. Miguel Tejada, Baltimore
 Overrated: Hanley Ramirez, Florida
 Underrated: Carlos Guillen, Detroit

THIRD BASE:
 1. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees
 2. David Wright, New York Mets
 3. Miguel Cabrera, Florida
 4. Aramis Ramirez, Chicago Cubs
 5. Ryan Zimmerman, Washington
 Overrated: Scott Rolen, St. Louis
 Underrated: Troy Glaus, Toronto

OUTFIELD:
 1. Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay
 2. Vladimir Guerrero, Los Angeles Angels
 3. Carlos Beltran, New York Mets
 4. Andruw Jones, Atlanta
 5. Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle
 Overrated: Alfonso Soriano, Chicago Cubs
 Underrated: Bobby Abreu, New York Yankees

PITCHERS:
 1. Johan Santana, Minnesota
 2. Roy Oswalt, Houston
 3. Roy Halladay, Toronto
 4. Jake Peavy, San Diego
 5. Brandon Webb, Arizona
 Overrated: Chris Carpenter, St. Louis
 Underrated: Cole Hamels, Philadelphia

CATCHERS:
 1. Joe Mauer, Minnesota
 2. Victor Martinez, Cleveland
 3. Brian McCann, Atlanta
 4. Mike Piazza, Oakland
 5. Ivan Rodriguez, Detroit
 Overrated: Jason Varitek, Boston
 Underrated: Josh Bard, San Diego

Different kind of bracket contest

 In just a little bit, we can all print out our NCAA tournament brackets and begin to study them for our own office pools. Yes, I'll probably do two brackets. I usually pick one with my head and one with what I want to happen and then watch both of them fail.
 But there is another way to enjoy the NCAA tournament beside the typical feeling in of the brackets and picking winners of each game.
 About 15 years ago a friend of mine relayed a new way to do an NCAA tournament contest, and we have continued to do it to this day.
 What we do is get eight people to be involved (there are usually more who want in and we have to leave them out), and we have a draft the day after the brackets are set.
 The way it works is we each get to draft eight teams (the person with the last pick of the draft has been stuck with the winner of the play-in game the past few years), and those are each person's eight teams for the entire tournament.
 With each win, we receive points based on our teams' seedings in the tournament: A No. 1 seed gets one point per win, a No. 2 gets two and so on.
 The setup leads us to try to find those upstart teams that are going to pull off an upset or two and it discourages us from just picking all the favorites. That said, if we miss on an upset, it really can hurt your chances to win.
 But if you're lucky enough to get one right, it really can help. The one year I won, I had Valpairaso, and it was a No. 13 seed and won two games, and I also had a No. 12 seed win two games that same year, so the contest was just about over after the first weekend.
 But that's rare. Usually, every game counts, and all eight people in the contest have to worry about the other seven and all of the games in the tournament. And that adds to an already exciting time.