ERST LESEN! » Rajon Rondo woke up from a long nap W

Third base is a relatively shallow position, giving the best hot corner options even more relative value. Leaving aside now-first-baseman Miguel Cabrera, the best of the bunch has been Texas Adrian Beltre who, over the past five seasons, sits just behind Tampa Bays Evan Longoria in runs, home runs and RBI, but has a batting average nearly 30 points higher, enough to get the nod, particularly since Beltre has stayed relatively healthy throughout his career. Thats not to say that Longoria isnt great; hes hit 30-plus homers three times and he played 160 games last season, but missed 117 in the previous two years, so that hangs over any decision to take him. The injury bug has caught the Mets David Wright in two of the past three seasons, causing him to miss 50 or more games in 2011 and 2013, but hes also a career .301 hitter who has power and has added at least 15 stolen bases per season in eight of the past nine years. Washingtons Ryan Zimmerman has belted at least 25 homers in four of the past five seasons, and that consistency makes him better than most at the position. While those have the longer track record, there are some that are newer to the hot corner that also have put up big numbers. Oaklands Josh Donaldson had a breakout season in 2013 and Seattles Kyle Seager has back-to-back 20 home run seasons. St. Louis Matt Carpenter, who might have more value at his previous position of second base, but he led the National League with 126 runs scored last year, while hitting .318, and that works at any position. Beyond that, there are more challenges involved. San Diegos Chase Headley followed up a breakthrough 2012 season with a dramatic drop-off in 2013, so take your chances. Pittsburghs Pedro Alvarez led the National League with 36 home runs last season, but also whiffed a league-high 186 times on his way to a .233 batting average, so you pay a price to get that power; probably enough to avoid Alvarez unless hes filling a corner infield spot. In his mid-30s and coming an injury-shortened season, Milwaukees Aramis Ramirez can still mash when healthy -- more than 25 home runs in eight of the past 10 seasons. A couple of rising stars may still be a year or two away from being huge fantasy contributors, but its worth keeping Baltimores Manny Machado, coming back from knee injury, and Colorados Nolan Arenado have potential thats worth investing in at some point. Others with upside include Torontos Brett Lawrie, who is still untapped potential, and San Franciscos Pablo Sandoval has dropped some weight, so might be a bit of a sleeper. Really, beyond the top handful of choices at third base, a lot of the appeal is in the eye of the beholder Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. David West Warriors Jersey . "I wouldnt read anything into what happened Saturday at Torrey Pines," Woods said Tuesday after an 18-hole exhibition for past winners of the Dubai Desert Classic. Mitch Richmond Warriors Jersey . Masahiro Tanaka has touched down in the United States and the courting of the Rakuten Golden Eagles stud pitcher has begun in earnest by a bevy of MLB teams interested in the Japanese ace. https://www.warriorsrookiesshop.com/Jordan-Poole-City-Edition-Jersey/ . Yup, he definitely needed this one. Craig homered twice and had three RBIs Wednesday night to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Craig went 4 for 5 and Yadier Molina added three hits for the Cardinals, who salvaged the final game of a three-game set in hopes of staying within shouting distance of front-running Milwaukee in the NL Central. Nick Young Warriors Jersey . -- Challenged for the first time under Major League Baseballs expanded replay system, umpires got it right. David West Jersey . He made another correct read. The Browns, who have been shuttling quarterbacks on and off the field all season, finally got some good news on that front: Campbells ribs are only bruised.(SportsNetwork.com) - The Houston Rockets will try to go 3-0 Saturday night when they stage their home opener against the Boston Celtics at the Toyota Center. The Rockets defeated the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers, both on the road, to start the campaign. Houston won both games by a combined 29 points, marking the first time since the 2007-08 season the Rockets captured the first two games by double digits. Against the Jazz on Wednesday, Dwight Howard scored 22 points with 10 rebounds and two blocks to lead the Rockets to a 104-93 win. James Harden nearly contributed a triple-double, scoring 18 with 10 assists and seven rebounds, and Trevor Ariza finished with 20 points in the win. Kostas Papanikolaou chipped in 12 off the bench. After allowing 50 points to the Jazz in the first half, the Rockets put on the clamps. Utah just managed 43 points over the final 24 minutes and Houston marched to a 2-0 mark. Second half we did a great job of coming out with some defensive intensity, Harden said. Offensively, the Rockets shot 51.9 percent from the field versus Utah and the same percentage from beyond the 3-point arc. Last season, Houston went 26-3 when it shot over 50 percent from the floor, and 25-8 when it converted 10 or more 3-point attempts. The Rockets sttop home will be brief.dddddddddddd They visit the Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat next week. The Celtics opened the season in impressive fashion with a 121-105 home win over the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday. Rajon Rondo woke up from a long nap Wednesday afternoon and decided he was ready to go after he missed the entire preseason with a broken left hand. The decision paid off as Rondo went for 13 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds to lead the Cs to victory. Kelly Olynyk scored 19 points and Jeff Green had 17 for Boston. Eight Celtics reached double figures, and all 10 that took the floor scored at least six points in a balanced attack. I think we still need to do a better job with weakside defense, said Green. We still have things we need to correct. We have to continue to move forward. The Celtics will have to improve defensively just to match up with the Rockets star duo of Harden and Howard. We have to give them different looks, said Green. I think weve done a great job in todays practice as far as communication as far as what we want to do. The Rockets swept the Celtics last season and have taken six of the last eight meetings. Houston has won three straight at home against the Cs, who had previously won four straight in Houston. ' ' '