2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft

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Top 40 Starters for 2009 Fantasy Baseball

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 67 Comments

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In our seemingly interminable lists of 2009 fantasy baseball rankings, we’re covering the last of the top 40 starters for 2009 fantasy baseball.  ¡Muy excitemento!  The other day we did the top 20 starters for 2009.  Check them out, you know you wanna.  This list could go another sixty deep and maybe I’ll go through the next sixty without all the hazarai.  I talked about how I don’t draft many guys from the very top starters, instead I wait.  Well, the starters on this list are the ones I choose from.  I wouldn’t mind Vazquez, Cain and Wainwright on my fantasy team.  Or Garza, Weaver and Young.  Or… Well, you get the picture.  I like just about all of the guys on the bottom of this top 40 list.  For a more general idea of where people are falling, look at this 2009 Fantasy Baseball Player Rater.  Also, to help with drafting, here’s a list of players with multiple position eligibility.  Or read how previous year’s pitch counts make for risky pitchers.  Anyway, here’s the rest of the top 40 starters for 2009 fantasy baseball:

21.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Cliff Lee, 2009 Fantasy Schmohawk

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Overrated for 2009 Fantasy Baseball | 8 Comments

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Oh, no, he didn’t! I did and why are you talking like a guest from The Ricki Lake Show (God rest her talk show.)  That’s right; Cliff Lee is being put in the 2009 fantasy baseball overrated schmohawk box never to be seen again.  If you had Cliff Lee last year, you know what I’m about to say, so skip ahead to the paragraph that starts, “First off…”  Last year, Cliff Lee was the bomb-diggity as the kids said about twelve years ago.  Cliff Lee was the Lenny to your team’s Squiggy.  He was the happy on your ending.   Cliff Lee was so Hey-I-need-a-flashlight-this-guy-is-so-lights-out-right-now last year it was kinda ridiculous.  But why are people shunning Cliff Lee in their 2009 fantasy baseball leagues?  Does anyone know?  A frequent commenter, IowaCubs, recently witnessed this mock draft IM exchange:

IowaCubs: “Why is Cliff Lee falling to the 9th round”
Pie’s Mixed Nuts: “b/c he sucks.”
RedSUKSballs: “Yeah… totally gonna suck this year”
IowaCubs: “Why does he suck?”
Pie’s Mixed Nuts: “b/c he can’t repeat, okay jerk?”
Scuffed Balls: “I only drafted him cuz it was on auto.”
Brett’s Illegal KY’d Bat: “I heard he had a gd year bc of yer mom.”
Twisted Testicles: “LOL!!!!!!!!”
Pie’s Mixed Nuts: “LOL… GO AHEAD AND DRAFT HIM JERK”
IowaCubs: “Can’t he repeat like 90% of last year and still be ok?”
Scuffed Balls: “LOL”
Pie’s Mixed Nuts: “lol… you should be in my league…lol”
Brett’s Illegal KY’d Bat: “LOL”
RedSUCKballs: “that’s funny”

So if this exchange of trying not to be too crude and not quite that clever names is any indication, people are avoiding Cliff Lee, but they’re not that sure why.  So what can we expect of Cliff Lee in 2009 for fantasy baseball?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

2009 Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Top 20 Starters

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 37 Comments

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After doing all the top 20 lists for hitters in our 2009 fantasy baseball rankings, we now move onto the top 20 starters.  I will go more in-depth on starters and strategy on drafting starters later into the 2009 fantasy drafting season, for now I want to say one thing counter to everything I’ve said before.  Up until this point, I’ve always said to wait on pitching.  You need to stack up your hitters first.  I still believe this to be true.  I still don’t want to take a starter prior to the fifth or sixth round.  With that said, everyone has a place to be drafted.  If you see Johan falling into the third round, you grab him.  You don’t want to avoid grabbing a starter just because you went into the draft saying you weren’t going to take one until the 6th round.  As Darwin might have said, “Adapt, snitches!”  Today, we turn our attention to the top 20 starters.  The top twenty starters will need to go to top 40 because there’s so many of them.  For a broader picture, check out our 2009 Fantasy Baseball Player Rater.  There’s also a list for the players with multiple position eligibility.  Finally, Rudy took out his hair pic, spread out a stick of pitch count butter and smacked down a stunning piece on risky pitchers for 2009.  Anyway, here’s the top 20 starters for 2009 fantasy baseball:

1.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Fantasy Baseball Strategy, Punting Catcher

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy | 55 Comments

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When I say, “Catcher…” You say, “Punt…”  “Catcher…”  “Punt…” “Catcher…”  “Punt…”  “Punt!” Ah, keeping you on your toes.  When you punt at catcher, you’re taking your fantasy baseball life into your own hands.  Drafting Geovany Soto is for either rich guys who have the butler do their drafting for them or Cubs fans (and never shall the twain meet).  Punting catcher is what those do that don’t mind rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Rudy Gamble

Can Previous Year Pitch Counts Help Identify Risky Pitchers?

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy, Rudy Gamble | 41 Comments

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One of the keys to a successful fantasy season is not drafting a pitcher who misses an extensive amount of time or performs much worse than the previous year.  Anyone who drafted Chris Carpenter or Dontrelle Willis in 2007 or Rich Hill or Aaron Harang in 2008 can attest to this.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Top 5 Designated Hitters for 2009 Fantasy Baseball

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 35 Comments

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Before we take our 2009 fantasy baseball rankings to the arms, we look at the top 5 designated hitters for 2009 fantasy baseball.  These players are only eligible at Utility.  Frankly, I don’t think you should draft any of these hitters.  They don’t allow enough flexibility.  For example, what if you had David Ortiz clogging up your Utility spot last year and you really wanted to pick up Jayson Werth but had 5 outfielders already?  You would’ve been S to the Crewed.  If you want some perspective on where these 5 designated hitters fall in the big picture, look at our 2009 Fantasy Baseball Player Rater.  As always, this top 5 for 2009 will be broken up into tiers, and their 2009 projections will be included.  Anyway, here’s the top 5 designated hitters for 2009 fantasy baseball:

1.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Top 40 Outfielders for 2009 Fantasy Baseball

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 31 Comments

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After the top 20 outfielders for 2009 fantasy baseball, there’s so many more outfielders to rank I need to turn this sucka to 40.  This is after already going over all of our other 2009 fantasy baseball rankings.  Since this is such a deep position, this list of 2009 outfielders could go to 60.  Crazy, right?  That’s not crazy as in crazy, but crazy as in, “Huh.  Um.  Okay.”  When I’m done with all of the top 20 and top 40 lists, I’m going to do a top 100 and top 300 overall.  That’s right, ya’ll; wonderful just gave birth to awesome.  Now before we get into our top 40 outfielder list, here’s our 2009 Fantasy Baseball Player Rater and our list of all the players with multiple position eligibility.  Anyway, here’s the top 40 outfielders for 2009 fantasy baseball:

21.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

2009 Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Top 20 Outfielders

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 42 Comments

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The other day we went over the top 20 third basemen for 2009 fantasy baseball, finishing up the infield for our 2009 fantasy baseball rankings.  Today, we turn our attention to the top 20 outfielders.  As mentioned the other day, the top twenty outfielders will need to go to top 40 because there’s so many of them.  If you want, check out our 2009 Fantasy Baseball Player Rater.  Or a list of all the players with multiple position eligibility.  This top 20 for 2009 list will be broken up into tiers, as the other top twenty lists have been.  Anyway, here’s the top 20 outfielders for 2009 fantasy baseball:

1.  Grady Sizemore – See the top 10 for 2009 fantasy baseball post for Grady Sizemore’s 2009 projections.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy, Reaching

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy | 16 Comments

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It’s March 18th and you’re taking part in your last fantasy baseball draft of the year before the season starts.  You’ve royally screwed up all your other fantasy baseball drafts, or at least you think you have because you’re neurotic.  So now you wanna make this draft count.  You wanna draft the perfect team.  You have your list of fantasy baseball sleepers to your right and your 2009 fantasy baseball projections sheet to your left.  You have a Big Gulp of Hawaiian Punch and you’re wearing the Stadium Pal.  Now the only thing standing between you and the perfect team is eleven other guys who purport (15th Century Word of the Day) to be your friend.

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Jake Peavy, 2009 Fantasy Sleeper

| 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, 2009 Sleepers | 23 Comments

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Could Jake Peavy really be a sleeper for 2009 fantasy baseball?  Um, kinda.  Sorry, that wasn’t normal confidence that one expects from an alumni of the College of Fantasy Baseball at Charleston who studied under Matthew Berry, D.F. (No, that’s not Dumb F—.)  I should be shouting from the rooftops that Peavy is a fantasy sleeper for 2009 if I really believe it.  Well, I do and I don’t.  I really believe Peavy is going to put up top starter numbers that could land him in the top five overall for fantasy value at the end of the year.  What I don’t believe is that he’s a sleeper.  How has this guy fallen to the fifth rounds of some 2009 drafts?  Is he suddenly a different pitcher in 2009 than he was going into 2008?  No.  So why is he dropping so low?

Please, blog, may I have some more?