Sportsline Early Rankings
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:
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!