2009 Fantasy Baseball

I’m not sure if I go to Razzball.com more for entertainment or info, but they’ve got a great combination of both. Check out Grey’s post on 2009 fantasy baseball sleepers to see what I’m talking about:

http://razzball.com/category/2009-sleepers

Razzball highlights a handful of guys who should perform much better than the “schmohawks” near their ADP. Mentioned in this post are Blake Dewitt, Chris Young, Joey Votto, and the Rangers catchers.

I am totally on board with Chris Young for the sleepers list this year. I owned him last season in two leagues and cringed every time I saw the replay of the Pujols line drive. Of all people to take a line drive from, he got hit square in the nose by Albert Pujols. Any mortal would have called it a career, but Young came back to post killer numbers late in the season. He’ll be falling in drafts and I plan to reach for him as my SP3 to be sure to lock him up.

I’m also on board the Joey Votto train, but with all the love he is getting from fantasy baseball sites across the internet right now I’m not sure how much value he’ll have come draft day. If the Votto man love keeps going this strong he will be as the 12th first baseman by the time you do your drafts.

Razzball has quite a few individual posts about fantasy sleepers that don’t show up on this page. I’m not sure why they don’t keep updating this page with their new sleeper posts, but you can find their other posts about sleepers by navigating through their recent articles. At the time of this posting I see articles on Alex Gordon and Chris Davis as well. These posts are worth are worth a read, just like everything Razzball produces. Check out Razzball.com.

The 2009 Fantasy Baseball Rankings list on this site is not complete at the time of this writing – they still have Starting Pitchers and Closers to go, but I really like what they’ve done for batters.

RotoSavant is basically a blog site from some guys who really know their stuff.  They break their rankings down by position in a simple blog post, which is a nice change of pace from the usual impersonal list.  Each player ranked has a brief but valuable description.  The only downside to these rankings is that they do not integrate the rankings list to produce an Overall Cheatsheet.

Take a look at the RotoSavant rankings at the link below.  Their site says SP and Closer rankings should be coming within the week.

http://www.rotosavants.com/2008/11/2009-player-rankings-for-5×5-drafts.html

There isn’t much more enjoyable than watching your late round minor league prospect blossom into a fantasy baseball star.  Minor leaguers emerge every year to make a huge impact on your league.  Evan Longoria’s performance last year sent him from deep sleeper to a solid second round choice this year.  We saw it with Ryan Braun two years ago.

Who is it going to be this year?  Fantasy Baseball Dugout advises you to look at Texas OF Nelson Cruz, Orioles OF Lou Montanez, Orioles C Matt Wieters, and A’s pitcher Vince Mazzaro.

I especially like Wieters and Cruz from this list.  If you end up with an A.J. Pierzynski as your starting catcher then look to reach for Wieters later in the draft.  If he does turn into this year’s Soto you’ll be set.  As for Cruz, my gut is that his bat will prove to valuable to keep out of that lineup often.  He may not make it to every game status this season but his PT should increase steadily throughout the season.  I plan to take him over guys like Bourn and Swisher in the late, late rounds.

Here’s the full write up for your reading pleasure:

http://www.fantasybaseballdugout.com/2008/12/01/2009-minor-league-fantasy-baseball-prospects/

Click Here for Fantasy Man early mock draft results.

This is a 2009 Mock Draft organized by TheFantasyMan.com that features an impressive list of experts.  It was held on 11/7/2008, exactly a month before this blog post.  Many of the fantasy baseball experts participating were gracious enough to give analysis on their picks.  Their work, found here, is quite thorough and entertaining.  This is a great place to start your research for the 2009 season.

Note that five second basemen, including Brandon Phillips, were off the board by the end of the third round.  Thats something to keep an eye on as more mock drafts are posted.  After seeing five go that early some of the drafters may have decided to wait and take Kendrick late, but then he went off the board in round 7.  Interestingly, Alexi Ramirez did stay on the board until round 11, so there was second base value to be had.

Shortstop is also of note in this mock draft.  The big three went in the first seven picks and then not a single SS was taken until Michael Young and Derek Jeter went in round six.  Troy Tulowitzki and Stephen Drew in round 8 may both prove to be excellent values.

The guys at CBS Sportsline went balls to the wall and posted their first list of 2009 fantasy baseball player rankings during the 2008 season!

Take a look at their rankings here:

Sportsline Player Rankings

Chase Utley at #4 tells us right away these rankings have been out for a while.  Putting that aside this is a valuable list for the early researcher.  They give you the overall cheatsheet and break it down by position.

This list is pretty safe overall.  No major gambles stick out so it won’t help you much if you’re looking for a super sleeper.  HanRam cracks the top of the list, which we will probably see a lot of this year.  Last year’s concensus number one, Alex Rodriguez, comes in at 4th when you take away Utley.  Rodriguez is an every other year sensation so a lot of drafters may take him higher after a bit of a down year this year.  It appears they weren’t sure what to do with the Boston fantasy dynamos.  They rank them all in a row – Ortiz, Youkillis, Pedroia, and Bay are 30 through 33.  While I’d like to see some separation and Bay a little higher this is not a bad way to handle this crew.

Santana is still the number one pitcher here, but Sabathia and Lincecum are right on his heels.  They are ranked  13-15 but I would be surprised to see all three of these guys go by the middle of the second round in your drafts.  The list also features three closers in the top 40, which also seems too high for actual drafts.  Rodriguez, Papelbon, and Rivera are studs but it’s tough to draft them over the sluggers and  aces that will be available in the third and fourth rounds.  Rich Harden comes in as the 28th pitcher and 92nd player overall.  Harden will be one of the most hotly debated players in the fantasy realm this season.  On the off chance that he does stay healthy he could easily be the top fantasy pitcher.  Someone in your league will jump on the Harden train earlier than this, so if you want him don’t expect him to be around in the 8th or 9th round.

As always, leave some comments below if you’d like to comment on this list or if you have any other rankings lists we should discuss.  Thanks!