Week 9: Bay Area sports hardly fan-tastic

It's a great time to be a sports fan in the big city. New York has a football title. Philadelphia now owns another baseball banner. Both Chicago baseball teams made the playoffs. And USC is a power in college football.

And then there's San Francisco.

When the Golden State Warriors took New Orleans to the limit in the NBA opener Wednesday night, it was the best thing that's happened in San Francisco Bay Area sports in quite some time. And that's sad.

Yes, the Giants and A's were THAT bad, and the 49ers and Raiders have been even worse.

The Bay Area's football clubs have tried to turn around downward-spiraling seasons with recent coaching changes. The early returns are not encouraging on the field.

The question is: Will they impact the fantasy game?

Here are my thoughts:

Raiders: Few expected the Raiders to be much offensively this season being that their two top players -- quarterback JaMarcus Russell and running back Darren McFadden -- were seeing their first NFL action. And things have gone as expected.

With former offensive line coach Tom Cable now in charge, it's hard to imagine Russell -- or the Raider passing game as a whole -- developing into much this season. The team will continue to run the ball, which makes Justin Fargas a decent short-term fantasy asset and McFadden a possible second-half difference-maker if he ever gets healthy. I suggest making a pitch for McFadden now while his stock is low. Otherwise, tight end Zach Miller and kicker Sebastian Janikowski are the only other Raiders to consider, and only under ideal conditions (like Janikowski against the Falcons this week).

49ers: One defensive-minded coach (Mike Nolan) has been replaced by another (Mike Singletary), so on the surface, you wouldn't expect much to change in San Francisco. In fact, Frank Gore remains a fantasy starter, and really the only other 49er with even short-term value is kicker Joe Nedney.

The encouraging thing about Singletary's first week has been his willingness to shake things up. Replacing J.T. O'Sullivan with Shaun Hill can't hurt, especially with Hill getting two weeks to prepare for his first start. He might be a nice second-half sleeper under Mike Martz's tutelage, and keep an eye on young wide receiver Jason Hill, who showed his first signs of life in Singletary's debut. You could do worse than to grab them both on waivers next week.

Now for my leaguewide tips for Week 9:

• Quarterbacks
• Running backs
• Wide receivers
• Tight ends
• Kickers
• Defenses