2008 Fantasy Baseball Season

Please see Fantasy Baseball 2008 for the latest information on the 2008 fantasy baseball season.

Hot Players for Week 2

Players who are worthy of being picked up based on last week's performance. (Note: All stats are from Sunday, April 8, to Saturday, April 14):

Aaron Hill, 2B,SS

Aaron Hill was the #1 ranked fantasy player in Yahoo default leagues last week, with a line of 8 R, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 0 SB, and .500 BA. He is eligible in 2B and SS, two positions that are fairly weak this year. Grab him if he is still available in your league.

Luis Gonzalez, OF

Gonzo had a great week, going 7-for-21 (.333) with 5 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI, and even 1 SB. I still wouldn't recommend using him as your permanet #3 OF, but in the short term, he can be a help to your team.

Kenny Lofton, OF

Lofton has always put up good R, BA, and SB numbers. This year during the draft, many owners shied away from him. The first week of the season was brutal for Lofton, as he went 2-for-20. The second week, though, has seen a revival, as he went 8-for-17, with 2 SB to boot. Those who need SB help should look no further than Lofton.

Ty Wigginton, 1B, 2B, 3B, OF

Wigginton is batting cleanup in a Tampa Bay lineup filled with good fantasy contributors, and he has done well recently -- 5 R, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 0 SB, and .393 BA last week. He will continue to have plenty of opportunities to drive in runs going forward.

Tags: ty wigginton, aaron hill, luis gonzalez, kenny lofton.

Hot Players For Week 1

Players who are worthy of being picked up based on last week's performance. (Note: All stats are from Sunday, April 1, to Saturday, April 7):

Eric Byrnes, OF
Byrnes was excellent during the first week of the season, getting a line of 5 R, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 3 SB, and .385 BA, while batting 2nd and cleanup for the Diamondbacks. While his numbers may have been aided by 3 games at Colorado, he should still be picked up as your 3rd OF or your Utility guy.

Akinori Iwamura, 3B
During the first week, Iwamura put up a line of 7 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 SB, and a ridiculous BA of .615. Are these numbers sustainable? Looking at his numbers in the last 3 years in Japan, it looks like the answer is yes:

Year	HR	RBI	BA
2004	44	103	.300
2005	30	102	.319
2006	32	77	.311

While it's unrealistic to expect him to beat Ichiro in BA, he should definitely be a good 3B on your fantasy team.

Mike Jacobs, 1B
Coming out of the gate, Jacobs had 7 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 0 SB, and .429. Batting in the cleanup spot behind M Cabrera, he will certainly get his RBI chances.

Orlando Hudson, 2B
Hudson first week numbers were 8 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 0 SB, and .360. Hudson appears to be the number 3 hitter in the Diamondback lineup, so he is definitely worthy of a look, especially given that he plays 2B, a relatively weak fantasy position this year.

Khalil Greene, SS
Coming out of the gate, Greene had 4 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 0 SB, and .333. During the last 2 years, Greene has not shown consistency, so it remains to be seen whether he can continue this production. Those who are desperate for SS help can pick him up.

Curtis Granderson, OF
Granderson's first week numbers were 5 R, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 1 SB, and .375. Is this a breakout year or just an exceptional week? We don't know yet. Those who are more adventerous can pick him up.

Mark DeRosa, 2B, 3B, OF
DeRosa's first week numbers were 3 R, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 0 SB, and .412. He has batted mostly in the 7th slot for the Cubs, so he might not get enough RBI chances going forward to keep this type of production up even if he can continue the hot BA. He does have multi-position eligibility, so he is worth taking a flyer if you need help in 2B, 3B, or OF.

Tags: eric byrnes, akinori iwamura, mike jacobs, orlando hudson, khalil greene, curtis granderson, mark derosa.

Fantasy Sleepers - From Opening Day Batting Orders

One way of identifying possible sleepers for the season is to see who is the leadoff batter or the cleanup hitter on opening day. Below is the list:

AL

Team	1st	4th	Team	1st	4th
Bal	B Roberts	M Tejada	Min	L Castillo	M Cuddyer
Bos	J Lugo	M Ramirez	NYY	J Damon	A Rodriguez
ChW	P Ozuna	P Konerko	Oak	J Kendall	M Piazza
Cle	G Sizemore	V Martinez	Sea	I Suzuki	R Ibanez
Det	C Granderson	M Ordonez	TB	C Crawford	T Wigginton
KC	D DeJesus	M Sweeney	Tex	K Lofton	M Teixeira
LAA	G Matthews Jr	G Anderson	Tor	R Johnson	F Thomas

NL

Team	1st	4th	Team	1st	4th
Atl	K Johnson	A Jones	Mil	R Weeks	B Hall
Fla	H Ramirez	M Jacobs	Pit	C Duffy	A LaRoche
NYM	J Reyes	C Delgado	StL	D Eckstein	S Rolen
Phil	J Rollins	C Utley	Ari	S Drew	C Tracy
Was	F Lopez	A Kearns	Col	W Taveras	T Helton
ChC	A Soriano	A Ramirez	LAD	J Pierre	J Kent
Cin	R Freel	K Griffey Jr	SD	M Giles	A Gonzalez
Hou	C Biggio	C Lee	SF	D Roberts	R Durham

The players in yellow are the ones who are not getting much love on draft day, and have the potential to be a valuable fantasy contributor for 2007 (aka sleppers). If I am to pick two out of this group, I'd say Mike Jacobs and Kenny Lofton. Jacobs is batting behind H Ramirez, D Uggla, and M Cabrera, so he'll definitely have his share of RBI's. As for Lofton, even though he is approaching 40, he has shown that he can still be productive as the leadoff man when he gets the at bats (last year he batted .301 with 32 SB's for the Dodgers).

Tags: kenny lofton, mike jacobs, fantasy baseball sleepers, leadoff, cleanup.

Quantitative Player Ranking - OF

Here is the quantitative player ranking for all players who are OF-eligible in Yahoo fantasy baseball leagues for 2007:

Rank	Player	R	HR	RBI	SB	Avg	Total
1	Jermaine Dye	6	7	7	4	6	30
2	Carlos Beltrán	7	7	7	5	3	29
3	Lance Berkman	5	7	7	3	6	28
3	Matt Holliday	6	5	7	4	6	28
5	Vladimir Guerrero	3	5	7	4	7	26
6	Jason Bay	5	5	7	4	4	25
6	Bobby Abreu	5	3	7	6	4	25
6	Barry Bonds	6	6	7	3	3	25
9	Manny Ramírez	5	6	7	0	6	24
9	Andruw Jones	6	6	7	3	2	24
9	Moisés Alou	3	6	7	3	5	24
12	Alfonso Soriano	5	6	3	6	3	23
12	Carlos Lee	4	5	5	5	4	23
14	Grady Sizemore	7	4	2	5	4	22
14	Vernon Wells	3	5	4	5	5	22
14	Johnny Damon	6	4	3	5	4	22
14	Rocco Baldelli	4	4	4	5	5	22
14	Raúl Ibañez	4	5	7	2	4	22
14	Álex Ríos	3	4	5	5	5	22
14	Michael Cuddyer	5	4	7	3	3	22
21	Carl Crawford	3	3	3	7	5	21
21	Hideki Matsui	5	4	4	3	5	21
21	Torii Hunter	4	5	5	4	3	21
21	J.D. Drew	4	4	7	3	3	21
21	Jim Edmonds	3	5	7	4	2	21
21	Chris Duncan	7	6	4	0	4	21
27	Gary Sheffield	3	4	4	5	4	20
27	Reed Johnson	5	3	2	4	6	20
29	Adam Dunn	5	6	4	4	0	19
29	Corey Patterson	4	3	2	7	3	19
29	Mike Cameron	4	4	4	5	2	19
29	Pat Burrell	5	5	7	0	2	19
29	Juan Rivera	3	4	7	0	5	19
29	Gary Matthews Jr.	4	3	3	4	5	19
29	Carlos Quentin	3	5	7	3	1	19
29	Casey Blake	4	4	4	4	3	19
29	Marcus Thames	5	6	4	2	2	19
38	Nick Swisher	6	5	4	2	1	18
38	Austin Kearns	4	4	4	4	2	18
38	Milton Bradley	3	4	3	5	3	18
38	Matt Murton	4	3	3	4	4	18
38	Jacque Jones	2	4	4	4	4	18
38	Emil Brown	3	3	4	4	4	18
44	Ichiro Suzuki	4	1	0	6	6	17
44	Eric Byrnes	3	4	3	5	2	17
44	Brad Hawpe	2	4	4	3	4	17
44	Craig Monroe	4	4	4	3	2	17
44	Andre Ethier	2	3	3	4	5	17
44	Ty Wigginton	1	5	5	3	3	17
50	Chone Figgins	4	1	2	7	2	16
50	Magglio Ordóñez	3	4	4	1	4	16
50	Nick Markakis	3	3	3	3	4	16
50	Dave Roberts	4	0	1	7	4	16
50	Chris Burke	4	2	2	5	3	16
50	Kenny Lofton	4	0	1	6	5	16
50	Kevin Youkilis	5	2	3	3	3	16
50	David DeJesús	4	2	2	4	4	16
50	Mark DeRosa	3	3	3	3	4	16
59	Ryan Freel	3	2	0	7	3	15
59	Brad Wilkerson	5	4	3	3	0	15
59	Reggie Sanders	3	3	4	4	1	15
59	Jay Payton	3	2	2	4	4	15
59	Melky Cabrera	4	1	2	5	3	15
64	Delmon Young	2	2	0	4	6	14
64	Scott Podsednik	4	0	1	7	2	14
64	Coco Crisp	3	2	1	6	2	14
64	Josh Willingham	1	4	3	3	3	14
64	Curtis Granderson	3	3	2	4	2	14
64	Ken Griffey Jr.	3	6	4	0	1	14
64	Brian Giles	3	2	3	4	2	14
64	Geoff Jenkins	2	3	3	3	3	14
64	Aaron Rowand	3	3	2	4	2	14
64	Shawn Green	2	3	3	3	3	14
64	Jason Lane	3	5	4	2	0	14
64	Juan Encarnación	2	3	3	3	3	14
76	Willy Taveras	4	0	0	6	3	13
76	Jeff Francoeur	2	4	4	1	2	13
76	Jonny Gomes	2	5	4	2	0	13
76	Randy Winn	3	2	2	4	2	13
76	Preston Wilson	1	3	3	4	2	13
76	Garret Anderson	1	3	4	2	3	13
76	Cliff Floyd	2	3	3	4	1	13
76	Luis González	4	3	3	0	3	13
76	Xavier Nady	1	3	3	3	3	13
85	Juan Pierre	1	0	0	7	4	12
85	Kevin Mench	0	3	4	2	3	12
85	José Guillén	1	4	4	3	0	12
88	Chris Duffy	3	0	0	7	1	11
89	Aubrey Huff	1	4	3	0	2	10
90	Jeremy Hermida	1	2	1	4	1	9

The names that jump out on top are Barry Bonds and Moisés Alou. While you can safely ignore Barry Bonds (because he is not going to get anywhere near the at bats this exercise assumes), Moisés Alou is worth a look. He is slated to bat 5th in a powerful Mets lineup, and if he stays healthy, he will absolutely be the best late-round steal for 2007.

Another player who scored higher than expected is Rocco Baldelli. In fact, he scored better than his teammate Carl Crawford, who usually goes in the first two rounds. While Crawford will likely be a more valuable fantasy contributor because he will get more at bats batting leadoff, this does suggest that Crawford is overrated and Baldelli is underrated. Your draft strategy should be modified accordingly.

On the flip side, it's surprising to see Ichiro Suzuki and Chone Figgins ranked so low (44th and 50th, respectively). I've talked about Figgins before, so I won't talk about him here. Ichiro's total score was dragged down by HR and RBI, as the bottom part of the Mariners' lineup was toothless last year, giving Ichiro few RBI opportunities. So, he had to concentrate on getting on base, which means his HR suffered, too. The situation doesn't look too different this year. So, I would stay away from picking Ichiro early (he is usually picked in round 2 or round 3) this season.

Tags: 2007 player ranking, fantasy baseball, barry bonds, moises alou, rocco baldelli, carl crawford
ichiro