For the inside scoop on Week 26, be sure to also check out my Fantasy Forecaster!

All statistics are through the games of Thursday, Sept. 18.

We've come a long way, folks, and here's where we're at: Seven days separate us from the crowning of this year's Baseball Challenge champion!

Seven days -- OK, maybe eight if any one-game playoffs are needed -- also separate us from the crowning of baseball's division champions and wild cards. That's right, while we're duking it out for BBC supremacy, the real-game guys are doing the same on the diamond.

That's why, at this time of year, getting your priorities in line with those of the real-game players is of utmost importance. Here's that key word again: motivation. You're motivated to win this thing, just like the real-life players are motivated to win themselves a ring. Syncing your priorities with theirs, as a result, is the natural play.

So that means, whenever possible, loading up on players from playoff-hopeful teams, grabbing "leader" types with strong histories down the stretch, and avoiding players in danger of resting for the playoffs or sitting for a hotshot rookie.

With that in mind, I look at the following five players and see strong, strong final-week bets:

Ryan Howard (1B, Phillies, 5.7 price tag): For all the flak he takes for his sub-.250 batting average, the fact remains that Howard is batting .343 (34-for-99) with 12 homers, 34 RBIs and a 1.259 OPS in his past 26 games, and .286 with 25 homers, 70 RBIs and a .989 OPS in 70 games since the All-Star break. He's historically a September terror, batting .318 with 41 homers and a 1.156 OPS in 120 career games played in the season's final month, and he'll finish this year facing two very worn-out staffs of the Braves and Nationals. … MORE