With the demand exceeded only by the buzz surrounding a supposed feud between the celebrity girlfriends of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, let's get one more Pick Three in before football dominates this space for the next five months.

Again, these players must be owned in fewer than half of the leagues on ESPN.com, and they should be assets in deep, mixed leagues.

-- Billy Butler, 1B, DH, Royals (owned in 14.7 percent of the leagues on ESPN.com): If the 23-year-old was eligible anywhere else, he'd be a highly sought commodity. Instead, his .300 batting average, 13 homers, 37 doubles and 59 RBI are good for only one-seventh of the leagues out there. Butler has been raking this month: .375 with two homers and 12 RBI in 48 at-bats. He's had two or more hits in seven of his last nine games, and he'd be a good fit in 12-team leagues in which you need an extra bat.

Butler has hit everywhere he's been (in 1,532 minor-league at-bats, he batted .336 with 73 homers, 333 RBI, 298 runs scored, 110 doubles and a .977 OPS), and not even the Royals can stop him from continuing that pattern.

-- Chris Coghlan, OF, Marlins (5.7 percent): The rookie was acquired on the waiver wire in one of the leagues in which I play, causing the requisite "Who?" from half the owners. Until we checked his stats. Coghlan is batting .285, and his 81-game totals (half a big-league season) are as follows: 48 runs, 16 doubles, six homers, 28 RBI, six steals and a .780 OPS. No. 3 outfielder numbers in a 12-team league? Not exactly, until you look at his August stats. This month, Coghlan is batting .460 (23-for-50) with 12 runs, one homer, eight RBI, a .526 on-base percentage and 1.166 OPS. He's had a hit in each of his 11 games and two or more hits nine times, including an eight-game run to start the month.

Looking at his minor-league numbers, we should expect more stolen bases (Coghlan had 72 in 302 games, including 34 in Class AA in 2008), a solid batting average and OPS, but not much power. In NL-only leagues, he's a definite starter, and he can help you if you're short in the outfield in deep, mixed leagues.

-- Pedro Martinez, SP, Phillies (8.7 percent): As I wrote in a previous blog, the 37-year-old former fantasy stud should not be viewed as a potential answer to any pitching problems your team might have. But I have been surprised with one aspect of Martinez's comeback with Philadelphia: Counting his three rehab starts in the minor leagues, he has struck out 21 batters in 17 1/3 innings. He fanned five in five innings in his 2009 big-league debut Wednesday, when he allowed three runs in a winning effort at the Cubs. Unlike John Smoltz's brief tenure with Boston, Martinez does appear to have something left. But there's also this: From 2007-09, Martinez has pitched 142 innings in 26 games. In that span, he's been an effective source of strikeouts (124, or 7.9 per nine innings), but his ERA (5.00) and WHIP (1.54) are terrible. Because he's backed by a Phillies offense that ranks in the top six in all of baseball in home runs (third), runs (fourth), on-base percentage (fifth) and OPS (sixth), Martinez should be a decent source of wins and strikeouts. If you're hurting in ERA and WHIP, though, you should look elsewhere.

Carlos Guillen is the perfect example of eligibility rules gone haywire, which makes his availability in roughly half of the leagues on ESPN.com even more surprising.

Guillen started 89 games at third base and 24 for the Tigers at first in 2008. Because of that, he is eligible at first, third and the outfield in many ESPN leagues, and Yahoo lists him as a third baseman and outfielder.

The catch: Guillen, who returned Friday from nearly a three-month absence because of a shoulder injury, has only played left field and been Detroit's designated hitter this season.

So why would a .225 hitting 33-year-old with one home run and a bad wing make any impact this late in the season?

The answer is more simple than a SportsTime Ohio poll segment. Third base has been awful from a fantasy standpoint this season -- so much so that Russell "Don't Call Me Dave Kingman" Branyan might be among the top 10 at the position, even though he's currently the Mariners' starting first baseman.

If you can play Guillen at third, even if he's yet to play there this year, that makes his value much more appealing than his current numbers would suggest.

Before you dismiss the move, consider this: In 2006 and '07, Guillen had a combined 40 homers, 187 RBI, 186 runs scored, 33 stolen bases, a .308 batting average and 76 doubles. His OPS in the two seasons: .919 and .859, respectively.

Guillen was far from a fantasy stud last season, but he still batted .286 with 68 runs, 54 RBI, nine steals and 29 doubles in 420 at-bats.

In three games since returning from the disabled list, Guillen is 5-for-12 with a homer (his first of the season) and three RBI.

He is strictly a designated hitter for now, but that doesn't mean you have to limit him to that role.

If you can play him at third and your other options at the position are Branyan-esque, consider Guillen.

You don't make the rules, but you can certainly benefit from them.

More Tigers: Guillen's comeback could further lessen the value of Magglio Ordonez, who is batting .261 with just five homers, 32 RBI and a .686 OPS. With Guillen getting the majority of the at-bats at designated hitter, Ordonez, who has started 20 games at DH, might only play four times a week instead of five.

Detroit's regular DH, Marcus Thames (10 homers in 154 at-bats), should be the Tigers' left fielder.

Take a seat: In six starts since being activated by Boston, John Smoltz is 1-4 with a 7.04 ERA. The only positive number is the 42-year-old's 28 strikeouts in 30 2/3 innings. I wouldn't give up on Smoltz if you have the roster space, but he's definitely not a fantasy starter in 10- and 12-team leagues.

No thanks: While we're on the subject of aging pitchers, if you're among the few waiting on Pedro Martinez to make his Phillies debut, treat the possibility as if it's another live "SportsCenter" segment from Brett Favre's lawn in Mississippi. Change the channel, click on another free-agent pitcher ... you get the idea.

Free agent of the week: A Phillies pitcher I would strongly consider acquiring -- Joe Blanton. He's owned in just 13.8 percent of the ESPN leagues, despite going 3-0 with a 1.21 ERA in four starts this month.

The most surprising stat from Blanton is his total of 102 strikeouts in 118 1/3 innings. It took him 230 innings to register a career-high 140 K's with the Athletics in 2007.

He's never been much of a strikeout pitcher, but he does win. From 2005-07, Blanton was 42-34 with the Athletics.

He was terrible at the start of 2008 before getting traded to Philadelphia. In 32 starts with the Phillies, his ERA is above 4.00, but he's 11-4.

Blanton's next start is Friday against the Giants, who rank 20th in the majors in batting average (.257), 27th in runs scored (391 in 98 games) and 29th in home runs (64).