I've been getting a lot of queries about Chris Carpenter who is set to make his first start of the season Friday for the Cardinals. Do I drop this guy or that guy to add Carpenter? My response, every time, is one that is so simple yet apparently falling on deaf ears. Chris Carpenter hasn't thrown a pitch that counts since October of 2011. If you want to count on Carpenter to lead your team to fantasy glory the final couple of weeks of the season count me out. Maybe Carpenter returns and dominates. We all know that who he has been the majority of the past decade when he has been healthy, but how on earth could you trust Carpenter to be that guy without a single big league inning under his belt this season? That's way too much risk for me. I'm not tossing a guy who hasn't appeared in a game this season into the fires of the fantasy playoffs unless I'm pretty desperate.Logan Forsythe is a name you should be paying attention to (he plays for the Padres if you are searching your memory banks for a team). Logan has hit .297 this season in 266 at-bats with a .367 OBP. He's not a power hitter, he has only five homers and 12 doubles, but he does help out a bit on the bases as he has swiped eight bags. He's also been killing it the last month. Over his last 13 games Logan has hit .412 with a 1.092 OPS as he's hit two homers, stolen three bags, and scored 14 times. That's elite level production from a player who is most likely on the waiver-wire in most 12 team leagues. In a strange twist he's also hit better at Petco (.333) than on the road (.260) this season.Dexter Fowler isn't a fantasy superstar, not even close, but he is an impressive third outfielder in mixed leagues. Fowler is hitting .307 with 13 homers, 53 RBIs, 71 runs and 12 steals this season, all of that in a mere 507 plate appearances (437 at-bats). That's borderline elite level performance. If we extend out his current work to, oh let's say 550 at-bats, we'd end up with a guy hitting .307 with 16 homers, 67 RBIs, 89 runs scored and 15 steals. A .300 hitting, 15/15 outfielder, I'll take that. Wouldn't you?Derek Jeter is washed up. Oh wait, I guess he isn't after all. Jeter is third in the AL with a .323 average while his total of 199 hits leads baseball. With on more hit he will have his 8th 200 hit season. No other shortstop in the history of baseball has more than four 200-hit seasons (Michael Young). If we lower the bar a bit down to 180 Jeter still leads the way with 13 such seasons. He's not nearly doubled all other shortstops in this category but it's awful close – Joe Sewell and Luke Appling are second on the list with seven 180-hit seasons. Jeter also need one steal to reach 10 for the 17th straight season. When he does it he will tie Bill Dahlen and Bert Campaneris for the longest streaks in the history of baseball for a shortstop. Yes, Jeter is still good, and he is still an elite fantasy option, at least for 2012. Another day, another injury for Jed Lowrie who didn't play Sunday after experiencing pain in his right leg. In just 84 games played Jed has gone deep 14 times with 38 RBIs and 39 runs scored, numbers that prorate to a rather healthy season for a middle infielder. At the same time, this will likely be the fifth straight season that he has failed to reach 100 games played which makes the career .252 hitter, who is batting .253 this year, a tough player to lean on as a starter in 2013. Everyone is rightly signing the praises of Kris Medlen who has been the best starting pitcher in baseball in the second half of the season. In 16 outings, including nine starts, Medlen is 7-0 with a 0.85 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, a 9.32 K/9 an a 6.42 K/BB ratio. Amazing doesn't even begin to describe how he has fared. Stupendous may not even be a strong enough adjective. Lost in the hoopla that Medlen has generated has been the strong finishing kick of his teammate, Mike Minor. The somewhat overlooked lefty, who had a terrible set of ratios in the first half (5.97 ERA, 1.42 WHIP), was always someone to target to add on the cheap because of the skills he possessed. Luckily the Braves had faith in those skills and let him work through the troubles he was dealing with. The reward has been a fantastic push to the finish line that has included the following marks over his last 12 starts: 2.28 ERA, 0.93 WHIP an a 3.80 K/BB. He's no Medlen, but that doesn't mean that he hasn't been very impressive in his own right.Brian McCann will miss a couple of more days as he tries to work his way back from tendinitis in his right hamstring. Dude has been a killer to batting average everywhere this season with a .230 mark on the year and .216 in the second half, pretty dreadful for a fella who has hit .280 for his career. McCann does have 20 homers for the 5th straight season and 6th time in seven years. At least he has produced there, though his total of 43 runs scored would be a career worst as would his total of 64 RBIs. Disappointing? Without question. He's still one of the better run producers at the catchers position though, so at least here is that. Since we're talking catchers, how about we discuss the AL version of McCann, and that would be Matt Wieters. He's batting a bit better at .248, and Wieters also has one more homer and 12 more runs driven in while he has scored 19 more times. This effort gives Wieters a second straight season of at least 20 long balls, and he's also scored at least 60 while driving in at least 68 the past two years. The power has been as expected. However, he's yet to show much of anything in the batting average category which is a bit surprising given his pedigree and skill set. A career .260 hitter, Wieters has failed to hit even .265 the past three years. Moreover, his BB/K ratio has settled in just above the big league average as he is sporting marks of 0.50 and 0.57 the past two years and a 0.58 mark this season. That's a bit unfortunate actually given that he current has the best walk rate of his career (the strikeouts are a bit up offsetting the walks). A stable performer though, it's still possible that Wieters could take his game up a notch in 2013 given that he is still just 26 years old.Ray Flowers can be heard daily on Sirius/XM Radio on The Fantasy Drive on Sirius 210 and XM 87 from 7 PM EDT Monday through Thursday, and 9p-12a Friday's. Ray's baseball analysis can be found at BaseballGuys.com and his minute to minute musings can be located at the BaseballGuys' Twitter account.