Yahoo leagues give fantasy GMs access to something they call “MVPs”; check it out if you ever have a chance. This tool looks at how many times a player makes up part of a roster in the top 500 public leagues. They have separate analyses for rotisserie and head-to-head leagues. Since our experts league is h2h, the focus is on that here.

Not surprisingly, a consensus top four pick headlines the list. Consider it an early Christmas if you are currently riding high with Amare Stoudemire packing lots of punch to your team. Interestingly, among the top 500 teams in public h2h leagues, Amare can be found on only 21.0% of them which translates into one in every five teams. According to “MVPs” here is a team of the players most connected to success after two weeks of play.

PG: Jason Kidd, 16.9% ownership among the top 500 h2h teams in Yahoo public leagues
SG: Ben Gordon, 15.0%
G: Jose Calderon, 15.8%
SF: Tayshaun Prince, 18.6%
PF: Amare Stoudemire, 21.0%
F: Rasheed Wallace, 16.0%
C: Spencer Hawes, 19.4%
C: Andris Biedrins, 16.4%
Util: Chris Kaman, 15.4%
Util: Jamal Crawford, 14.6%
Bench: Pau Gasol, 14.4%
Bench: Al Jefferson, 14.0%
Bench: LeBron James, 14.0%

Amare and ‘Bron are self-explanatory. Both play well in h2h play and assuming you did not miss completely on your 2nd and 3rd round pick, a team with either of these guys should be in the hunt early on. Similarly, as long as your first pick wasn’t, say, Deron Williams, i.e. a first round pick who is injured and/or under-producing, Al Jeff has delivered as a second-rounder. So has Calderon, though if you got him as a third rounder, you better be in first place! Prince, ‘Sheed, Biedrins and Gasol are those tried and true solid produces that make up any good fantasy roster. Kidd and Gordon have outplayed their average draft position. Jamal Crawford has had some big games, but also some infuriatingly inconsistent ones. Chris Kaman has already fallen well back of last year’s pace, but unlike his new team mates (Marcus Camby, Baron Davis), he has played in every game. Spencer Hawes was either a good late round flier, or a timely early waiver wire addition.