After an injury riddled two years, look for Matthew Stafford to explode. He will likely be easily forgotten among the shuffle of top tier quarterbacks, and while Sam Bradford suffers through his sophomore blues, expect Stafford to fly high, and put up big points for fantasy players.

On the ground look for Felix Jones to finally make good on Jerry Jones’ investment on him in Dallas. He has grown up, and now knows the system in Dallas well, plus he will likely be taking a lot more carries than he has in the past, due to Marion Barber’s decline. Jones will likely slide into the later rounds of many fantasy drafts, and will be a great acquisition for his price.

The biggest fantasy sleeper in the upcoming season will be the New England Patriots defense. They started off as one of the worst in the league last year, and the whole country witnessed their growing pains. Bill Belichick is a defensive mastermind, and with a year under the best of some of the younger players this defense is poised to become the true beasts of the AFC East.

While you can’t make a full assessment until the draft is over and the free agents have been signed, there are a couple of teams who remain virtual “sure things” when it comes to defense. You know that the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens are always going to be good choices. While you might not love them, their defenses are among the most stifling in the league. The defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers have arguably the best defense in the NFC, followed closely by Chicago. And who can forget the New York Jets, who might not get a lot of offense, but whose defense carries them to victory more often then not.

If your preference is to not make very many trades and transactions during the season, then you need to be sure to pay attention to the bye weeks in a fantasy football league. In fantasy baseball, a sit-tight owner should avoid drafting more than two players from any one team, because their fantasy squad will be ruined if that team under-performs as a whole, or makes a lot of lineup changes. It also helps if you watch the highlights online or on TV. In college, my roommates and I split a subscription to MLB Extra Innings online but now I have the service through http://www.fantasyadvisor.com/?p=53 in hopes of avoiding a familiar fate this season.1. Daniel Hudson, SP, Diamondbacks Not the same Mr. Hudson heard alongside Jay-Z on “Young Forever,” despite bursting onto the scene simultaneously, but the young gun made some noise of his own in 2010. Sure, the 2008 5^th round pick out of Old Dominion lacks the pedigree of your Strasburg-types, but going forward few pitchers have shown similar promise at the ripe age of 23. After arriving in Arizona as a part of the Peavy deal, Hudson started 11 games for the Diamondbacks, posting an otherworldly 1.69 ERA through 79.2 innings, while striking out a respectable 70 batters in that span. For the year, Hudson notched an 8-2 record, a 2.45 ERA, 84 Ks, and a 1.00 WHIP in 95.1 innings (all but 1 of his 14 starts came after the break). Batters will certainly adjust as Hudson enters his first full slate as a major league starter, but on the heels of a 14-5 minor league record with a 2.32 ERA, there’s no reason to write the kid off as a one-year wonder. Overall, Hudson is worth a mid-to-early round reach, while leaguemates are preoccupied with the middling, albeit more established, Ted Lillies and John Dankses of the world.2. Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Pirates There’s still not much to like about the Pirates, but Alvarez offers some semblance of hope for wayward Pittsburgh fans, especially considering the dearth of relevant names manning the hot corner. After a slow start to the year, Alvarez powered 13 HRs and 53 RBIs, while hitting a Costanza-esque .270 in the second half right in that meaty part of the curve, not showing off, not falling behind. Looking ahead to 2011, Alvarez would likely produce serviceable numbers were he a 1^st basemen, limited by an anemic Pirates offense. But the relative scarcity at 3B makes him much hotter commodity, as once you get past the A-Rod/Bautista/Zimmerman plateau there are few, if any, third basemen with more upside. At just 24 years old and entering his first full season as a starter, Alvarez could easily project to 25 HRs this year, with a high-end 35 looming in Stretch Armstrong striking distance. In the spirit of full disclosure, buyers should beware of an alarmingly strikeout rate that could place him dubiously among the league leaders in whiffs.3. Jhoulys Chacin, SP, Rockies 2010 was “Year of the Ubaldo,” particularly through the first 4 months of the season, but Chacin quietly had a praiseworthy season while stuck in Jimenez’s shadow (9-11, 3.28 ERA, 9.04 K/9 and a 1.27 WHIP) . The danger Coors Field presents to pitchers is overrated in the humidor era, as Jimenez effectively proved through better home than road splits. As a result, Chacin, like any Colorado hurler, is criminally undervalued in in the fantasy community. Entering the Rockies’ rotation last May, Chacin delivered a mixed bag of results that culminated in a July move to the bullpen. However, a brief stint in relief seemed to fix Chacin’s inconsistency on the mound. He returned to the rotation in August in top form, compiling a 2.13 ERA and striking out 49 batters over 55 innings in his final 9 appearances. Over his final 8 contests, Chacin allowed no more than 2 earned runs in any start, including 4 of 7 innings or more. Worst case scenario: A sophomore slump that sets Chacin back to an ERA in the mid-high 3′s. Best Case: Chacin joins Ubaldo among the league’s elite to create a formidable 1-2 punch in Colorado for years to come (with De La Rosa serving as a strong 3^rd arm admittedly poor word choice to boot). 4. Mike Stanton, RF, Marlins It’s probably been a while since your SAT Verbal analogies section (assuming they still do that), so here’s a quick refresher course Atlanta Braves : Florida Marlins :: Jason Heyward : Mike Stanton. To translate/de-nerd (not that de-nerding is necessary in most fantasy sports circles), the Atlanta Braves are to the Florida Marlins as Jason Heyward is to Mike Stanton. In other words, much like the Braves are highly regarded league-wide as a superior franchise, still riding high on 14 straight division crowns from ’91-’05, Jason Heyward has been heralded as the game’s next great hitter since pro crowds first heard the crack of his business stick in Spring Training. Meanwhile, during the same Braves pennant streak, the Marlins snuck 2 World Series crowns (to the Braves 1) without winning the NL East. Similarly, Stanton, who is 3 months younger than Heyward, actually hit 4 more homeruns in 160 fewer at bats (AVG is the only noteworthy statistical outlier across the 5 standard scoring categories), all while drawing significantly less fanfare. He may not have the refined plate approach that makes scouts lose their collective marbles for Heyward, but at the end of the day, Stanton still produced a favorable bottom line in Year 1, finishing at .259/22/59/5 for the year (.271/17/39/2 post All-Star). 5. The Other Chris Young, SP, Mets Reaching full-body-deep into the pit of despair and emerging with a comatose-grade sleeper, only a fortunate few fantasy owners (still involved enough in late September to be considering waiver-wire pitching pick-ups) took note of Chris Young’s return from injury. Having been sidelined by a shoulder strain since his first start of the season (at which point he had thrown 6 one-hit innings), Young closed out the year with 3 showings straight out of a 2007 time capsule. Though he lasted only 4, 5 and 5 innings in those starts, respectively, Young also allowed just 3 hits in each appearance, never scathed for more than a single run. The sample size may be small, but Young finished the year at 2-0, with a .90 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 15 Ks in 20 innings. He’s had his struggles with injuries over the past few seasons, but when fully healthy, the 31-year old still has the talent to make an impact. As a guy who’s likely to go unmentioned on draft day, a late round flier could pay major dividends if Young can stay off the DL, as he moves from Petco Park to an equally pitcher friendly Citi Field, and gains a little run support in the process.