2009 Fantasy Baseball

CrookedPitch.com is an impressive fantasy baseball blog that you might not have heard of yet.  I say yet because with his great content and constant Twitter updates I think he’s doing an incredible job of getting his name out there.  CrookedPitch is currently focused on a Mock Draft that he is doing with some other fantasy experts on Twitter.  He has posted rankings for C, 1B, 2B, and SS.  He ranks a ton of guys at each position and gives a description for each.

CrookedPitch.com includes 32 players on their Catchers rankings list.  He’s got Russell Martin at the top of the list for his ability to produce in all five categories, which is a little bit off the beaten McCann #1 path.  Doumit comes in at 5 with a chance to enter the elite catcher ranks this year.  I’m a huge Doumit believer so it’s nice to see him getting this kind of love.  He’s got Weiters waaaay down the list at 23 overall.  I don’t like this ranking because Weiters should be one of the top 15 catchers taken just for his upside.  Posada is knocked down to 19th on this list.  Here’s what CP has to say “Posada is 37-years-old and coming off of a major medical procedure that kills most hitters power potential. With recent additions to the team he won’t be given many opportunities to DH either. Posada is a risky pick for 2009.”  Very good stuff, here’s the link to the rest of his catcher analysis.

CP’s first basemen rankings are very interesting.  He’s got Pujols at one (standard).  Most rankers put Cabrera in the next spot, but Miggy drops all the way to five here.  Howard, Berkman, and Teixera are all in front of him.  This is the highest I’ve seen Berkman – most ppl are bringing him down due to his weak second half last year, but CP makes a good point that you really can’t deny the awesome numbers he posted.  He’s got Fielder at 9 and says he’s being overvalued in drafts again this year.  Those of you  burned by him last season probably arent touching him with a ten foot pole this time around, and that could be a good move.  He’s got Pena above Votto, a move I would not advise making on draft day.  I’m going with the .300 upside of Votto, not the .250 reality Pena.  If Votto continues his second half tear he will easily approach Pena’s power numbers.

CP is advising to go ahead and take Utley as the first overall second baseman – advice that is hard to turn down.  He is not as high on Kinsler, noting that he’s never played more than 130 games in a season.  Pedroia got the nod as the second 2B.  Kendrick and Matsui are both getting love as some solid sleepers who just need to stay healthy to reach top 10 status.  I’m targeting both of these guys as they fall in drafts as potential trade bait or just solid depth at a very shallow position.  After you get past Uggla and maybe Cano at the seventh spot the list of remaining 2B’s is like a train wreck.

What to do with Rafael Furcal at shortstop this season?  CP says take him seventh, right after Peralta, and be ready for the downside.  I’m tempted to gamble on him a little bit earlier last season based on my fond memories of his ridiculous start last year.  I’m not afraid to make that reach, but I do believe I would take Ramirez ahead of Furcal.  He makes an interesting argument that Stephen Drew at 4 is really not that far behind Jimmy Rollins.

I suspect CP will be finishing up this rankings list soon – probably as soon as the Twitter “Slow Mock Draft” is finished.  He has all of his rankings listed under “Pages” in his middle column.  Enjoy!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 12:45 am and is filed under 2009 Fantasy Baseball Player Rankings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.