Forget Ryan Grant, Who Is Next Year's McLovin?

While most fantasy experts love opining about the potential bust out performances for the upcoming season, typically the true sleepers stem from injuries and unexpected depth chart reshuffling. So, while it may seem prudent to focus your attention on uncovering these hidden gems at this point in the preseason amidst the long list of rookies who will probably never play, odds are your guesses will be useless. For the most part, these sleeper picks will produce a minimal impact early in the season and will still be available when they do start to see playing time. In other words, just stay focused on the injury report and stat lines from week to week and importantly, get a new job if you don't have Internet access at work. The real sleepers lie on the waiver wire.

Since we got that all cleared up, I'm taking a day off from real fantasy football analysis and looking into another realm of sleepers. This week, it's time to look at the sleepers for the 2008 fantasy muse. Every year, a number of movie and television personalities - both real people and fictional characters - pique the interest of the fantasy collective and appear at astronomical rates in leagues across the nation via team names. Last year, McLovin ruled the fantasy world and prior to that it was all about Dirk Diggler and Reed Rothchild.

This year, it is a toss up, but the smart money is on these guys...

Heath Ledger - Look, we are all terribly saddened by Heath Ledger's tragic demise and everything, but as a good friend and fellow Fantasy Fanhouse author will tell you, a good fantasy player never passes up the opportunity to crack a good Vicodin joke. If you have a "too soon" issue with this one, I suggest you take it up with your commish. I just call 'em like I see 'em.

Read on for more fantasy team name muses.

Hank Moody - If you are like me and can't afford a pot to piss in, let alone Showtime, do yourself a favor and rent Season 1 of Californication. I say this about a new show about every once a month, but it's the best show on television. Hank is a hilarious washed up writer who drives a crappy old Porsche with one headlight, yet still manages to reel in a totally ridiculous level of attractive mistresses. There is an overwhelming level of "gratuity" that is sure to make Hank a huge hit with the fantasy football set. Plus, he also happens to be a veritable quoting machine gun.

Jeremy Bentham - Lost related fantasy names never get old. At the close of Season 3, I thought for sure "Future Jack" was the must have name for the 2008 season. Now that Season 4 is behind us, Locke's dead alter ego, Jeremy Bentham, looks like the front-runner. Sure, Locke turned into an insufferable wanker in the past couple seasons, but it's not really his fault. The writers are trying really hard with the whole old school John Locke (the philosopher) parallels. I'd like to believe he is still the guy who hunts wild boar with his bare hands at heart.

Dale Denton / Saul Silver - The Judd Apatow contingency shows up in force every year and this year should be no different. While I have yet to see Pineapple Express, there is no doubt in my mind that either the Seth Rogen or James Franco stoners will be a no brainer for many. This is a particularly nice (albeit G-rated for the AOL audience) exchange:

Dale Denton: I'm sorry, that sounded really mean... just to hear that, that sounded really mean.
Saul: No... I see. The monkey's out of the bottle now!
Dale Denton: What? That's not even.. a figure of speech.
Saul: Pandora can't go back into the box, he only comes out.

Kung Fu Panda - It's sorta like the whole Snakes on a Plane appeal.

Feel free to drop a comment if you have any other inspirational team name muses for 2008.