The Market - Week 4 Sep 27, 2007 | More

Now is about the time in the season to begin to aggressively pursue the trading market.  Whether you’re off to a hot start and need to sell off some guys who have over-produced early in the season to obtain more talented guys who haven’t played up to par or are injured, or if you’re off to a slow start and need to make some moves to get back into contention the next two-three weeks are some of the most important in the trading market.  Now, onto the players…

Stephen Jackson – hold

I equate this situation to Sean Alexander’s foot injury of last season.  Yes, your season may be sunk without him, but if you sell now you’re likely assuring yourself of sinking the ship. Alexander went down this same week last year, missed six weeks, and returned for the stretch run to put up the following numbers week 15 and 16:

23 carries, 73 rush yds, 1 TD

31 carries, 140 yds, 2 rec, 2 rec yds, 2 TDs

I do realize a broken foot is not the same as a partially torn groin, but you see my point.  SJax may be fantasy playoff gold…if you make it there.   I don’t know what you’d be expecting to get in return for a broken SJax, but whatever it is likely won’t be enough to repair your playoff chances regardless.  Hold steady, hope to get lucky the next few weeks, and if you’re still in contention come season’s end ride the SJax train to a potential title.

Ronnie Brown – SELL SELL SELL

If I were a Ronnie Brown owner, this is exactly the game I’d be looking for to sell on this guy.  The entire Miami team is a disaster, it just so happens the Jets’ defense is slightly worse. He has owned the Jets in all of their last three meetings, that doesn’t take away from how much of a mess they’ve been in their first two games and the schedule looks to get significantly more difficult after the Oakland tilt this weekend.

Brandon Jacobs – sell high

It appears as though he may be back for this weekend and will be back the week after that.  His value is peaking right about now. When he comes back the Giant backfield is going to turn into a RBBC with Jacobs settling into a similar role as he had last season. When that happens, his value will once again plummet to that of a spot starter and little more. With so many owners scrambling to shore up their RB situation Jacobs could be the perfect trade bait for a desperate owner.  As much as I love to watch the man-beast rumble, he’s simply not built for feature back duties.

Marc Bulger – get what you can

The second Orlando Pace was ruled out for the season the likelihood of Bulger getting injured increased accordingly, he now has a broken rib; expect this to only get worse.  He is now without his #1 RB to boot. He looked abysmal last week and he had SJax to keep defenses honest, now with a rookie out there?  I could conceivably see him crumbling under the pressure and the hits are going to keep coming, can he handle it?  I’m afraid not. The Rams may only be a few weeks away from beginning to plan for a top 5 pick in 2008’s draft.

Plax – sell high

It appears as though his ankle problems won’t be going away anytime soon, this seems to be something that will linger throughout the year and will require offseason surgery…unless the GMen put him on the shelf before the season ends, something I could see happening.  The GMen do not have the makeup of a playoff team nor even a team that could compete for a spot, they’ll be well out of contention by the time December rolls around and if that is the case it would not surprise me one bit to see the GMen put him on the shelf to get Plax some extra time to rehab before next season. Is all this a bit crazy and wild speculation? Yea, probably. However, given his production over the first few weeks I’ll bet you could find a pretty good deal in dangling Plax out there on the block.

LT – buy low

Thought I’d wrap up this week’s article with the consensus preseason #1 and the guy I’ve been pursuing most aggressively in my leagues this week. LT’s current situation seems eerily similar to this same time last season…then he exploded.  The porous Kansas City defense would be the perfect remedy for the LT blues.  It’ll take a lot to get him, but this is the lowest his value will be for the rest of the season.  After LT starts playing like LT again Sunday you can expect his status to elevate back to that of a superior to the rest of the fantasy world.  For those with two top 10-15 RBs on your roster [and if the LT owner is experiencing injury/under-achieving problems] it would be a good idea to dangle those two RBs out there to the LT owner and see if he bites.

Good luck to everyone in week 4!