Full Disclosure: All it takes is one gem

Every year in my oldest, friendliest, nearest and dearest league -- the one that gets all of my heart and soul and at least two-thirds of my left kidney -- I like to pick a team MVP.

It's never the kind of player you'd think. The studs like Chase Utley and Hanley Ramirez obviously make the biggest impact, but they're just doing what they're supposed to do, what I expected them to do when I drafted them. No, it's the surprises that make all the difference -- the players, most often waiver claims, who instantaneously transform a team from a mediocre hopeful flirting with a playoff spot to a juggernaut on the verge of securing the No. 1 seed.

And so far this year, the frontrunner is obvious. Folks, let's take a moment right now to give it up for Ben Zobrist.

If anything, we haven't said his name enough, which might explain why he remains unowned in six percent of Fantasy leagues. But you can't argue with the impact he's made in my 10-team Head-to-Head league. In the three weeks I've started him, I've jumped from sixth place to third and would've had a three-game winning streak if Jonathan Broxton had secured Sunday night's save without taking any damage.

Zobrist has done so much good in so little time that at the most recent update of the player rankings, I placed him 20th among outfielders, sixth among second basemen and third among shortstops. And those are conservative estimates. The stats say he should rank even higher.

Just imagine where he'd rank if the Rays had made him a full-time starter in late March instead of late May.

But the point of this spiel isn't to bask in his greatness or even to certify his place as a must-start Fantasy option from now until the end of time, though both exercises would have some value in their own right. The point is to remind you to keep the faith if you currently reside in sixth or seventh place and find yourself rapidly losing interest. More Fantasy MVP candidates will undoubtedly emerge in the coming weeks, meaning the tides of your season could turn with one timely trade or waiver claim. All it takes is a high attention span and a little foresight.

Now then, who's next?

12-team mixed Rotisserie (8th; 5x5 Score: 67.0)

Well ... that was a rather dramatic change, wasn't it? I went from comfortably bouncing between third and fourth place every week to dropping to the bottom third of the league.

I guess it's not too surprising. My pitching staff was carrying me, and I always had the feeling it wasn't as dominant as it looked. My offense stinks, and unless I can make dramatic improvements to it, I don't have an honest chance of contending.

Fortunately, I made a slew of changes over the last two weeks that should hopefully move it in the right direction. Gone are Jack Cust, Pat Burrell, John Baker and Emmanuel Burriss, replaced by Luke Scott, Michael Cuddyer, Kurt Suzuki and Gordon Beckham. I just couldn't afford to wait for Burrell anymore. I'm confident he'll have a monster streak eventually, but when I'm already so far behind, I can't take all the zeroes until it happens. Beckham doesn't necessarily thrill me, but he has gotten hot lately. Besides, it was either him or Willie Bloomquist. What did I have to lose, really?

Get well soon, Jose B. Reyes.

More notable than any of the hitters I added, though, was the one pitcher. For a couple weeks now, I've wanted to add Gavin Floyd, believing he'll pitch like an ace down the stretch now that he's found his curveball. Scott Downs finally gave me the opening I needed by getting hurt. Of course, I have no idea what I'll do when he returns. Maybe then, Jair Jurrjens will have struggled to the point that I can justify cutting him.

Yup, I want one of my own pitchers to struggle just so I can keep Floyd. That's how much I like him.

10-team mixed Head-to-Head (3rd; Record: 6-5)

Who's next indeed.

I want to throw out the name of a guy who has gotten a fair amount of hype already, but when you actually stop and look at his numbers, you realize he deserves even more.

Nolan Reimold might end up having a more productive year than teammate and fellow rookie Matt Wieters. That doesn't mean I'd rather have Reimold than Weiters in Fantasy right now, but here I am adding Reimold in my shallowest league.

It's about plate discipline. Rookies usually strike out too much, which leads to inconsistency and often poor batting averages. But not Reimold. He has 18 strikeouts compared to 14 walks and is homering at a pace that would give him 36 in 500 at-bats. You know who had numbers like that before becoming an everyday player? Ben Zobrist.

Of course, Reimold is just a preemptive stash right now with him getting somewhat spotty playing time at this stage of his career. My starting outfield appears settled with Zobrist, B.J. Upton and Shane Victorino. Upton has definitively come around now, batting .329 with three homers and 11 steals in June. I don't suspect I'll bench him again this year.

I can't help but wonder if Adam Lind deserves must-start status as well. He had that little slump at the end of May and looked like he might fade into oblivion, but he's come back stronger than ever and now ranks as the 10th outfielder in this league (ninth in standard scoring, where strikeouts don't matter as much). Anyone who thinks it won't last must know something I don't.

Looks like I'll have a dilemma when Denard Span returns from the DL. I don't want to have to sit Todd Helton either.

Sure enough, as soon as my offense comes around, my pitching begins to falter, led by former must-start Matt Garza. I still have confidence in him over the long haul, but he has become my first choice to sit whenever I work up the nerve to start Wandy Rodriguez, which I did this week since he pitches at home and is coming off seven dominant innings against the Twins.

So why am I still starting Garza? Kevin Slowey has a strained rib cage that might force him to the DL. The Twins simply pushed him back for now, but they'll have a better idea of the injury's severity as the date approaches. I see no reason to take the chance of a missed start in a league this shallow.

I've finally given up on Chien-Ming Wang, dumping him for Reimold. I also cut Michael Cuddyer for Jeremy Hermida, though I did it when Hermida got hot and, quite frankly, would prefer to undo it right now. Hermida ranks right up there with Travis Hafner among players I can't make up my mind about. I keep thinking something will click with him eventually.

Speaking of clicking, Geovany Soto looks like he might have, coming off his second-best week of the year. If someone dropped him in your league and you don't already have a stud catcher, don't hesitate to add him. I dropped Yadier Molina for him, personally.

12-team AL-only Rotisserie (8th; 5x5 Score: 54.5)

Bet you never thought you'd see my AL-only Rotisserie team catch up with my mixed Rotisserie team. Of course, that's just as much a condemnation of the latter as an exoneration of the former, but credit goes where credit is due.

All those little offensive upgrades at the expense of my supposedly dominant pitching staff look like they might have done the trick, digging me out of the cellar and putting me within striking distance of the top five. And I haven't even gotten anything from Pat Burrell or Xavier Nady yet.

Of course, I pretty much can't hold out any hope for Daisuke Matsuzaka anymore. Too bad I didn't trade him when I was making all those deals. He might have fetched me just as much as A.J. Burnett and Edwin Jackson did. Hard to say in hindsight. I finally did try trading him about two days before the Red Sox placed him on the DL, asking for Marcus Thames and Marlon Byrd from someone who keeps making me offers for Kevin Slowey. It didn't take. I then told the rest of the league I'd trade Dice-K for anyone getting regular at-bats. Nobody made me an offer. Looks like I'll just have to stash him and hope for the best.

I don't have many lineup decisions to make in this league -- not until Nady returns from the DL, anyway -- but I did want to take advantage of Mike Carp's time in the majors, benching the highly unimpressive Trevor Crowe for him. With Endy Chavez's season-ending injury, I'm hoping the Mariners can find a way to keep Carp in the majors, most likely by moving Ken Griffey or maybe even Russell Branyan to the outfield. Carp has the kind of plate discipline I adore.

In the two weeks since I last wrote this column, I've added Randy Choate to my bullpen and Clete Thomas to my bench. Thomas obviously doesn't offer anything right now, but one injury could bring him back to the majors and make him an everyday player again. To clear a roster spot for him, I cut David Purcey. His walk rate hasn't improved in the minors, and he looks like he might end up the way Rich J. Hill did last year.

12-team NL-only Rotisserie (11th; 5x5 Score: 50.0)

Unlike my AL-only team, this one wasn't improving, so I went with the tried-and-true approach I use whenever I have to salvage a bad team:

Fix the offense first. Worry about the pitching later.

So when I had the opportunity to acquire Brad Hawpe, a player who could offer elite numbers in every category but stolen bases, I didn't pass it up, even going so far as to trade my ace, Yovani Gallardo.

The exact deal went down this way: I gave up Gallardo and Garret Anderson for Hawpe and Scott Hairston. I actually think Hairston could end up as big for me as Hawpe. His numbers in his first opportunity as a full-time player this year mirror his minor-league numbers, so I wouldn't exactly call them unsustainable. He could also provide me with stolen bases given the Padres' need to manufacture runs.

That said, I wasn't too thrilled about giving up Anderson. Call me crazy, but I think he has a big second half in him -- he did each of the last two years -- and if I have to give up offense to get offense, what progress have I actually made?

My opponent originally made the offer verbally, and I balked at it, offering Nate Schierholtz instead of Anderson. I think that made him angry. Come on, buddy. Schierholtz has begun stealing more and more at-bats from Fred Lewis. He'll become a regular in no time. I thought about turning the guy down when he made the Anderson offer official, just to see if I could get him to cave, but I thought better of it. I can't afford to dilly-dally anymore.

Besides, the negotiations originally started with me offering Ryan Dempster and Travis Ishikawa for James Loney and Hairston. I think the drop-off from Hawpe to Loney is bigger than the one from Gallardo to Dempster, particularly in a league this deep, so I ended up better off than I had initially hoped.

And even though my starting pitching looks pretty rough now behind Dempster, I could always go the middle relief route and lock up ERA and WHIP. Shoot, with Jose Valverde back and Mike MacDougal holding down ninth-inning duties in Washington, I might even finish near the top in saves.

I immediately moved Hairston into my starting lineup with the expectation he'll return Tuesday, but I made most of my other lineup decisions with interleague play in mind. Micah Hoffpauir and Greg Dobbs both play in AL parks this week, so I figure they'll each get a few starts at DH -- especially Dobbs, who has homered twice in three games. I also had to get Ishikawa back in my lineup because -- wouldn't you know it? -- the one time I benched him, he homered twice. Looks like he has his starting job back.

Once interleague play ends, I'll probably go with Ryan Roberts and Schierholtz at corner infield and designated hitter. They each have a better chance of starting than Hoffpauir and Dobbs do.

In preparation for my excessive use of middle relievers, I added Greg Burke, finally parting ways with catching prospect Angel Salome. His poor performance in the minors pretty much assures he won't arrive until September. I also switched out Craig Monroe for Steve Pearce, following the Pirates' lead. I don't have particularly high hopes for him, but who else would I grab in a league this deep?

20-team mixed Head-to-Head (4th NL-only side; Record: 6-5)
(10 teams NL-only, 10 teams AL-only)

Here's the good news: If the season ended today, I'd make the playoffs. Now, the bad news: I've lost two games in row.

A return of Jose B. Reyes would help, but my pitching staff finds itself in a pretty dire situation with Chris R. Young joining Brett Myers on the DL. Randy Johnson now ranks as my second-best starting pitcher, which is frightening beyond words in a Head-to-Head league. Faced with few options, I almost, almost tried the avoid-negatives strategy, adding middle reliever Dan L. Meyer to use as a starting pitcher. But I chickened out at the last second and went with two-start Russ Ortiz instead.

Ortiz, really? That's just asking for minus-30.

I tried to improve my pitching by finding someone who wanted offense and offering him Randy Winn for Randy Wells. It didn't take. Guess I'll keep looking.

At the risk of sounding like Chipper Jones, I can't help but cite my interleague schedule as part of the reason for my losing streak. Yes, whenever the majors has interleague play, this league does too; isn't that cute? Anyway, I must have drawn the short straw or something because my AL-only opponents so far have a combined record of 26-7. They rank first, second and third among the AL-only teams.

I realize if I have any hope of winning the league, I have to have a team that can beat the best, but even if I eventually build one, those three losses could mean the difference between making and missing the playoffs. Oh well. I'm just complaining now.

I didn't have many lineup decisions to make with my pitching staff already depleted, so I went with two-start Todd Wellemeyer over one-start Braden Looper. Pretty basic stuff there. They both stink anyway.

You can e-mail us your Fantasy Baseball questions to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com . Be sure to put Full Disclosure in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state.