Following news of his recent knee surgery, is Lance Berkman still a viable fantasy first baseman?
Of course he’s still viable. After all, Lance Berkman’s timetable for recovery is two to four weeks — weeks that, by the way, begin right now, during the middle part of spring training — and there are 26 weeks in the fantasy season. However, one thing Berkman’s surgery does is ensure he’ll no longer tempt people to pick him as a top-10 fantasy first baseman — and maybe that’s a good thing. Berkman had his fourth career knee surgery Saturday, cleaning out debris in his left knee that resulted from a contusion he suffered during an early spring workout. He first had minor surgery on his left knee in 1999, and he had surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee following the 2004 season and another operation on his right knee in January 2006 to clean out scar tissue. Doesn’t sound like the healthiest player, does he? Toss in Berkman’s disabled-list stint due to a Grade 2 strain of his calf last summer and his advancing age (he’s now 34), and there are plenty of
