Before the season started, I wrote my first Playing With Fire column on the legendary Chipper Jones. Basically, I went through and examined simple stat lines of multiple players that were being drafted in the early rounds of these years mock drafts. Chipper Jones was the hidden gem that we discovered that was averaging a mere 66th overall pick at the time just weeks before the major league season started.

Towards the end of the article I mentioned Mark Teixeira who has since left town for LA, and statistically Chipper's average has gone down since he left. That's not to blame for the future hall-of-famer's (we'll get to that in a minute) mere .365 batting average this year. That is much better than we expected.

Sure I am a huge Chipper fan, so I do have bias in this article, and the last one. You can't argue against it though (that's you Brad Stewart, whom I might mention is still losing to my auto-drafted team in the Pros v. Joes league), he was the most deserving MVP candidate for at least the first two months of the season. Back on May 29th, I attended a Brewers v. Braves game in which Chipper was playing and hitting a studly .418 average.

Now, Chipper is hitting .365, still the best in baseball to Albert Pujols who claims a .353 average as we speak. Pujols was also doubted coming into the 2008 season with his elbow problems and many drafts had him falling out of the first round after surgery was pending. I think all fantasy owners learned one thing there, don't doubt Pujols.

Sure Chipper won't win the MVP this year, because he did miss time, and only has 75 RBIs compared to Ryan Howard's 142. His 22 home runs don't compare to Howard's 47 either. What they do compare to however, are Evan Longoria's numbers.

Longoria was called up this year by the Tampa Bay Rays on April 12th and since then has been starting for the Rays on the hot corner. He was drafted by many in the later rounds, in most leagues, at least after the 14th or so. Many had him penciled in to arrive sometime mid-season, hit .280 with 20 home runs and 80 RBIs. They also had the same for Chipper (maybe a little higher average).

This year, Chipper has 437 official at-bats and Longoria has 437 as well. Longoria has hit 27 moon shots to Chipper's 22. The veteran has 75 RBIs, the rookie has 85. Longoria is a lock for the AL Rookie of the Year with numbers like these. To the naked eye, Longoria's numbers appear to be a bit better, but you must keep in mind that Chipper has been in a much weaker lineup this year, especially in the 2nd half. If the switch hitter was in a division winning lineup (we can only hope in 2009) that he could top Longoria's numbers.

When it comes down to it, with the AL ROY hype that will bulid on Longoria next year, it is likely that he will be a higher pick than Chipper. Then again, Chipper's average is .090 points higher than Longo's. Keep this in mind next year when drafting your team.