Two hours later, you're resting comfortably on your favorite couch, snacks and beverages within arm's reach and the on-screen guide shows 11 straight hours of baseball on tap. By this time, breakfast is cooked and brought over to your cushioned throne. It's going to be a great day, right? How can things possibly be going this well? Is this Beer Heaven?

You reach over to grab a beer from the table beside you, only to find a half-empty water bottle and an assortment of pill bottles. Fair enough, you'll just get up and get a cold one from the fridge. But as you start to get up, a quick jolt to your midsection quickly changes those plans and sends you back into the couch, as you recall why you're the king of the living room today.

You just had a hernia repaired.

Logically, your next move is to ask your caretaker if she'd be so kind as to retrieve a frosty brew in your behalf. Instead, you're reminded that the doctor said alcohol isn't happening until you stop taking the Vicodin. Tough break, right? It actually depends pretty heavily on how the rest of your day unfolds.

With time to burn and nowhere to go - walking around like a 90-year-old man with a hip replacement doesn't constitute moving - you settle for the water and start tracking your teams' progress for the day. NL-only league pickup Gabe Kapler hits a two-run homer in the first inning. Your Tiger-heavy AL-only squad gets kicked around and sputters to just six hits in an 11-0 loss to the White Sox. Chad Billingsley finally looks like himself, rather than Chad Orvella, against the Padres.

The daily rollercoaster is enough to make you pull your hair out and reach for the extra pills, but your sanity is maintained as the good manages to outweigh the bad for another early-season day.

A slow start's painful for everyone, and seeing your team in 10th place even after just two weeks is frustrating no matter how long you've been playing fantasy. But if you can look at your roster and see reliable names producing surprisingly poor numbers, you're already rolling out of the operating room and back into the recovery unit. The key is knowing which players are worth the early-season pain train and which ones are just going to keep on bringing the hurt.

The Worst is Over

Prince Fielder, 1B, Milwaukee - To think there are owners worried about Fielder's power is borderline comical. Even last season when he went deep 50 times, he started slowly in April and homered just once in the first 15 games, experiencing a similar power outage from July 14-31. Worrying about the Big Fella is energy wasted, and if you're in a league with a Fielder owner terrified of his vegetarian diet or some other superfluous issue (i.e. manager Ned Yost moving him from the three to four-spot in the lineup, you should be the proud owner of a new slugger by the end of the weekend.

In-column Live Update: Fielder just sent a two-run shot into the right field bleachers to win the game for the Brewers 5-3 over St. Louis in the 10th inning.

C.C. Sabathia, SP, Cleveland - As much as I endorsed Sabathia this spring as one you'd do well with atop your rotation, I don't own him in any leagues (in fairness, he was kept in the Staff Keeper league, and I play in just two other leagues where he's in the player pool). That might change, depending on what it costs to make a play for him - just had a colleague give up Johnny Cueto for Sabathia in a shallow mixed league - looking to find the place where selling high and buy low intersect. It really depends on the format, this particular league was a one-year shallow mixed league, so there are decent pitchers often available on the waiver wire, and there's little risk. The biggest concern with Sabathia is that he might be hiding an undisclosed injury, because he's in a contract year. He's been surprisingly erratic in three starts, posting a 14:14 K:BB ratio in 18 innings after typical Sabathia numbers (16:4 K:BB, 22 IP) during spring training. I'm not ready to buy into the conspiracy theory, so I'll bypass the scalpel.

Roy Oswalt, Houston - Is he still a fantasy ace? The trends say no, and the price on the trade market should be well below that, even after he bounced back with a nice outing against the Phillies on Wednesday night. In fact, you might find a paranoid owner joyfully shopping him after his first good start of the year. Concerns about his tumbling strikeout rate are legitimate, but he's still got productive innings in the tank and as long as his command holds up (16:4 K:BB ratio thus far), he should manage. He was touching 93 mph on the radar gun, so Rapid Velocity Loss syndrome (RVL) isn't the culprit here. He'll make a fine No. 2 fantasy starter, especially if you're able to scoop him up on the cheap.

Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, Washington - At .200 with two homers and seven RBI, Zimmerman hasn't been awful, but he's been a shade on the disappointing side thus far. Through the first 15 games, he's walked 50 percent less than his career rate. Not seeing the ball well is a big part of the low average, but there's nothing in his track record that suggests anything other than a fluke for his slow start. In fact, he homered just once during April last season, and if you include all of his regular season March and April at-bats from his first three years in the league, he's gone deep once in every 37.9 at-bats during March and April, compared to once in every 28.7 during the other months. Given his place in the middle of an improving lineup (far from great) and his consistency through two full big league seasons, make a push for acquiring him before he starts to heat up.

Andruw Jones, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers - Pulling the trigger on my first NL Tout Wars trade, I parted ways with Bronson Arroyo and welcomed Jones aboard starting on Saturday. Weening myself off the Vicodin on Monday was a risky move, but Jones appears to be turning a corner at the plate, producing numbers that aren't inflicting the hurt on his owners. Since Saturday, he's gone 4-for-15 (.267) with six runs scored and an RBI. Those are hardly great numbers from a player expected to drive in runs, but an improvement over his first two weeks nonetheless, and he's drawing walks again. He believes he's corrected a mechanical flaw in his swing that was causing his front shoulder to open up, and manager Joe Torre doesn't see the benefit in pulling him from the lineup, so Jones will get the chance to snap out of his funk and start driving the ball again soon.

Jim Thome, DH, Chicago White Sox - Much akin to the lack of respect Frank Thomas was given in drafts this spring, Thome was available at a very nice price. Outside of his .184 average entering Thursday, he's proven to be a nice value in the power categories with three homers and 10 RBI. Like Jones, his eye at the plate has been a little off thus far, as he's fanned 15 times in 49 at-bats, while drawing just four walks. We've seen enough of Thome by now to know he'll probably buck that trend and start taking more free passes. Look for him to start finding better pitches to hit and the average to creep back into the usual .270-.280 range before too long.

Refill the Vicodin

Jose Valverde, RP, Houston - I'm not the type who jumps ship after a blown save. But I am the type who gets concerned about a closer who gives up a run in four of his first six outings and can't keep the ball in the park. Valverde might not fall apart completely and lose the job, because there really aren't many other quality options available to take over in what figures to be a mediocre bullpen. He posted an impressive 69:22 K:BB in 2006, but still managed a 5.84 ERA and 1.459 WHIP, which is reason enough not to think of his current 8:3 K:BB ratio as a security blanket. The difference between good Valverde and bad Valverde is hit rate. The 2006 version was ripped to the tune of a .386 BABIP, before a .274 BABIP in 2007. Let's say it just normalizes and falls into the .310-.320 range. There's just no way he'll replicating last year's numbers.

Hank Blalock, 3B, Texas - The latest on Blalock is that he'll turn up on the DL if his back doesn't feel better in the next day or so. It's hard to believe this is a guy who never missed more than 10 games in a season during his first three years in the bigs, given how banged up he was last season. His .302 average with two homers and four RBI don't look apocalyptic, and he's doing a nice job with his plate discipline (7:5 BB:K), but it's time to trade him and go in another direction. He was involved in a car accident in March, and the early reports were whiplash and soreness in the back of his shoulder, but it's hard not to wonder if there's something else lingering around in there.

Ted Lilly, SP, Chicago Cubs - Mysterious drop in velocity? There's really no such thing. Either something changed with his off-season preparation, or he has an injury sapping his arm strength. Or maybe he's suffering Barry Zito syndrome? There comes a point where all pitchers lose velocity. Is it possible both Lilly and Zito - who drank the same bottled water with the A's in 2002 and 2003 - are simply wearing down young? Other than being teammates for a year-plus and being left-handed, they don't have enough in common - age (Zito, 29; Lilly, 32) and workload (Zito, 1,649.0 IP; Lilly, 1,155.2 IP) - to draw any conclusions. Bottom line, trading Lilly won't net much, and if outpatient surgery was an option to resurrect the 2007 version of Lilly, you might as well get comfortable and enjoy the anesthesia. A turnaround isn't out of the question, but the ride could be very bumpy.

J.J. Hardy, SS, Milwaukee - Sure, the upside of hitting seventh is that you'll get more RBI opportunities, but when the manager pencils the pitcher in as the No. 8 hitter 80 percent of the time, you're looking at a guy who's simply going to see a lot of bad pitches when there aren't runners on base. Having Corey Hart in front of him would be more beneficial if Hardy could hit pitches other than fastballs, but unless opposing pitchers consistently falling behind and serving up heaters, he's got no chance of hitting more than 15-20 homers this season. On top of that, he's going to have a hard time scoring runs since the pitcher/Jason Kendall duo behind him won't be driving in too many.

Joe Borowski, RP, Cleveland - You had to be on something if you though Borowski would make it through another full season as the closer on a good club with plenty of capable options ready to replace him. If you set the over/under on his saves for the rest of the season at 5.5, I'd bet the under. Stick a fork in him. Salvage anything of value for him via trade while you still can.

Article first appeared 4/17/08