Between the two middle infield positions, I tend to draft a 2nd baseman early and punt shortstop. This happens for a few reasons. 1) 2nd base has more talent. That’s right, I draft the deeper position earlier. Same reason I punt catchers and try to get a 1st baseman early. If a position is deep, a lot of your leaguemates are going to have one of the top guys. You don’t want to be one of the 3 or 4 teams without a top guy. 2) There’s less difference between a middle-tiered shortstop and a bottom-tiered one. (Same could be said of catchers. We have a theme! Or is it a genre? No, it’s a theme!) 3) Shortstops tend to give value with the steal. You can find cheap steals later. Most of the 2nd basemen on this list are going after the top 150 in your 2011 fantasy drafts. This is a supplement to the top 20 2nd basemen of 2011 fantasy baseball.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Monthly Archives: February 2011
An optimist once said, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It was so inspiring that no one followed up with the relevant question, “Did life also give me sugar because, otherwise, this lemonade is going to taste like crap?”
There are plenty of lemons in baseball*.
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We at Razzball realize that exporting our views across the country has damaging consequences on the blogosphere. To help make amends, we are reaching out to leading team blogs and featuring their locally blogged answers to pressing 2011 fantasy baseball questions regarding their team.
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Well, there’s better young pitchers that I could go over. Shizz, there’s better pitchers in the Padres farm system — hello, Simon Castro. But the whole idea of these posts is not to pinpoint who’s going to be a great pitcher in 2013. This is about who is actually going to help you this year in fantasy. It’s t-shirt time and the cab’s here for these guys. Which brings us to Tim Stauffer. In the minors, Stauffer had a pretty middling strikeout rate. Not something I usually look at for sleepers. His numbers probably won’t make you take your heart meds. So why the sleeper post and what can we expect of Tim Stauffer in 2011 fantasy baseball?
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The other day I went over my fantasy baseball strategy for snake drafts. Lots of you know my auction tips already, but some of you just joining us — hey, close the door behind you! — may not. Lots of the strategy for my snake drafts also applies here. If you ask me — and you kinda did ask me by reading this shizz — auction drafts are where it’s at, yo! You get in a room with your best fantasy baseball buddies. The guys you haven’t seen since last year’s draft. The guys you don’t want to see until next year’s draft. A few guys you actively despise. One guy, and there’s always one, has his phone on vibrate just in case the missus calls about Petey, their sick Schnauzer. Then you have the guy who will go the extra dollar for (fill-in favorite player from his favorite team). You know he’s his favorite player because he’s wearing his jersey. You have the guy who brings only Cheetos and turns everything he touches orange, and, if he touches something that was already orange, he makes it oranger. Finally, you have the guy who made plans at 5PM and begins to yell at everyone at 4PM that they’re taking too long. And, it always turns out, this day is the best day of the year. Auction draft day is better than your wedding day. As for online auction drafts, they’re just a’ight. Anyway, here’s some tried and true tips to help you through your auction fantasy baseball draft:
1.
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Seattle Mariners 2010 Minor League Review
Overall farm ranking via Baseball America:
2010 (11) | 2009 (24) | 2008 (11) | 2007 (24) | 2006 (27) | 2005 (11) | 2004 (12)
Records of Major and Minor League Teams
MLB: [61 – 101] AL West
AAA: [74 – 69] Pacific Coast League – Tacoma
AA: [73 – 66] Southern League – West Tennessee
A+: [75 – 65] California League – High Desert
A: [74 – 65] Midwest League – Clinton
A(ss): [48 – 27] Northwest – Everett
R: [37 – 28] Appalachian League – Pulaski
The Run Down
GM Jack Zduriencik’s genius might have been overplayed entering the 2010 season.
For most of you, been there, read this shizz already, but there’s Razzball newbies (Razzbabies?) that need some coddling occasionally. If you know PEDS, skip ahead into the comments and discuss my mustache. So, there’s a BRAN (Balanced Roster After Nine) Drafting Strategy by Rudy “The Fro Knows” Gamble. He’s also touched upon some fantasy baseball drafting tips. Go read it.
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Tommy John surgery, Dr. Freeze, Adam Wainwright. Words you just don’t want to hear. Okay, not Dr. Freeze as much unless you only get your news from Razzball, which I’m fine with but you may walk around calling people schmohawks and telling your girlfriend her meatloaf was kinda yawnstipating. Rudy totally called this one!
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Here, friend, are some catchers that I will be targeting at my 2011 fantasy drafts after the top options are gone. I’m not going to get into the strategy of punting catchers. Been there, half-drunkenly wrote that. Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2011 projections. This is a (legal-in-most-countries) supplement to the top 20 catchers of 2011 fantasy baseball. Now, guys (and three girl readers), I am not saying avoid catchers like Napoli, Geovany Soto, et al (which is not the Israeli airline). To get on this list, you need to be drafted later than 200 overall. And, to preemptively answer at least seven comments, yes, I will go around the entire infield, outfield and pitchers to target very late. Anyway, here’s some catchers to target for 2011 fantasy baseball:
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With our commenter leagues sign ups in full swing, we decided to look at different fantasy baseball league formats. Most fantasy baseball league providers (inc. ESPN, Yahoo!, CBSSports.com) offer a number of league formats. This post is a quick primer on how to find the league format that best fits you.
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