As the world continues to be hyper about “what have you done for me lately,” fantasy baseball owners rejoice. It’s nice when your opponents look at 2011′s stats and think they are gospel because then guys who had bad years last year fall through the cracks.
Please, blog, may I have some more?2012 Fantasy Baseball Draft
You don’t want two shortstops on your team. You don’t even really want one shortstop, but rules dictate you have to have one. So if you only want one shortstop that means you need two 2nd basemen if you have a middle infielder slot. To take that one step further, you need a sleeper from the 2nd basemen in most instances because you’ll be drafting your middle infielder late. Then you have Crappy Team Problems (CTP). CTP is a problem all fantasy baseballers (<–my mom’s term!) encounter. You want a sleeper that will be guaranteed playing time, but teams that actually think they can win don’t give rookies and sleepers playing time. The only way you find those sleepers are on Crappy Teams. One major CTP is no one wants to watch/root for a Crappy Team. This doesn’t seem like it would play into fantasy, but I think there’s a bias out there with some people just avoiding certain teams. Another issue, Crappy Teams don’t generate much offense, which hinders your sleeper’s potential. But this drawback can also be a positive because teams with nothing to lose, except losing lots of games, will thrust sleepers into advantageous spots in their lineup. But what makes them attractive in the first place is also their drawback, no one wants them, so they’re available for you. So now that I got that verbiage out of the way that sounded much better in my head than on virtual paper, it brings us to Jose Altuve and what makes him a 2012 fantasy baseball sleeper?
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3rd base sucks. My apologies to MC Serch and Prime Minister Pete Nice, but it ain’t about y’all! It’s 3rd base for fantasy baseball. And it’s like a raccoon crawled up in your attic and died, then the raccoon’s ghost came back in the form of your dead grandmother and nags you about changing your underwear. Tell your dead raccoon ghost in the form of your dead grandmother that you don’t need to change underwear if you’re not regularly getting laid and 3rd base sucked before, but now it’s even worse with this David Wright getting all iffy up in here, up in here. Let’s face it, only two people per league are getting Bautista or Longoria. You want Adrian Beltre for $29/3rd round? I don’t really want to pay that premium. So we’re left with trying to figure out how to get the stench of this dead raccoon/grandmother hybrid out of our fantasy attic with sleeper picks. I went over some targets for 3rd base for 2012 fantasy baseball. I didn’t mention Brent Morel there because I was holding him back so I could rub over his name with my pink highlighter. Consider this 12-point Razzball font my pink highlighter and go ahead and protest my highlighter color, Westboro Baptist Church! So what do I like about Brent Morel for 2012 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?
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Even if you draft one or two outfielders in the top 100 (which you should), you’ll still need to identify some late bargains. The top 20, 40, 60 and 80 outfielders for 2012 fantasy baseball can be found under the 2012 fantasy baseball rankings. This is by no means all the outfielders I’d draft for one of my teams. This is a list of guys that will go after the top 200 and could provide some healthy returns. Where applicable, click on the player’s name to read more about them and to see their 2012 projections. Anyway, here’s some outfielders to target for 2012 fantasy baseball:
Bryce Harper – More of a keeper pick. Not yet a stud, but should be a stud for many years to come, assuming the league doesn’t disallow every home run he hits because of too much pine tar under his eyes.
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Some people will tell you Giancarlo Stanton‘s plate discipline has improved while in the majors and that his comps suggest further reduction in K% and growth in BB%. Most will boast he’s one of a Lilliputian handful of players with a legitimate shot at 40+ HR and that he has room to improve on his power. Many will point to the improved lineup around him as RBI and R opportunities waiting to sustain your fantasy team like mana (or homers) from heaven. Some will note his career BABIP is high, but that it’s because he’s got plus speed for a 6-5, 235 pound hunk of beef and can chip in a few SBs. While I’ve never seen a steak plow through a catcher or slide willingly onto my plate, I can tell you the majority of these people are right about Giancarlo Stanton.
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The Mets doctors said Johan Santana would miss a start or two. That was a year ago. He’s still working his way back. The Mets doctors said Jose Reyes would miss a weekend series in 2009, he missed three months. The Mets doctors said Carlos Beltran would miss a game in 2009; it took him two years to come back.
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I hate these stupid beyotchabatukises too. No love lost here! Though I’m not sure if that means you love someone or you hate them. I’m trying to think the last time I heard someone say no love lost and if they were saying it happily or angrily. I think it was angrily, but they might have had no idea what they were talking about either. Well, with love lost or not, I still want a 3rd baseman earlier on. I’d prefer to not have to take a flyer from these schmohawks. Though they are different levels of schmo-ness. Some are definitely less schmo-y. As mentioned in my 2nd basemen to target or was it 1st basemen to target or catchers to target, in one of those I mentioned how if a position is deep I want a top guy unless it’s pitchers. Yeah, if the position is shallow, I don’t want a flyer. I’d prefer to have a flyer where most have flyers. This is contrary to popular opinion; maybe I’ll win a Pulitzer for this shizz. Speaking of Pulitzers, I had dinner recently with someone who won a Pulitzer. I can’t even spell Pulitzer without the spellchecker. Anyone who can spell it, should win it. They only mentioned their Pulitzer three times over the course of two hours. I would’ve been wearing the Pulitzer medallion around my neck (is it a medallion?). I would put my name in to a restaurant hostess as “Pulitzer.” When a waiter came by for our drink orders, I would ask for a whiskey with a splash of Pulitzer. The Pulitzer person was now working at US Weekly. I asked if they won the Pulitzer for their Octamom coverage. They weren’t amused. This list is 3rd basemen that can be had later in your drafts. Look at this as a supplement to the top 20 3rd basemen of 2012 fantasy baseball. Where applicable, click on the players name to read more about them or to see their 2012 projections. Anyway, here’s some 3rd basemen to target for 2012 fantasy baseball:
Ian Stewart – Can you believe I didn’t write a sleeper post about Ian Stewart? Yes, I’ve written one about him for the last three years. I meant, can you believe I didn’t write one this year? You know what that means, right? This is the year he finally puts his shizz together and earns his Mini Mini Donkey brays.
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Chris Carpenter has a bulging disc. I once had a bulging disc. I had my Low End Theory disc in my car radio and I tried to jam in my Kool Moe Dee CD… *checking my notes* Oh, Carpenter has a bulging disc in his neck. Well, he should go see Dr.
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Point Shares for 10/12/14/15/16-team MLB were updated on Sunday night (March 11th) to reflect the latest available playing time projections. There will be some movement in the rankings based on the playing time changes. I also took a deeper look into relievers possibly converting to starters (Sale, Crow, Bard, Aroldis) to make sure their projections reflected their role (i.e., a pitcher’s projections for ERA/WHIP/K rate are better as relievers vs.
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ESPN fantasy baseball rankings are the same old shizz, different effin’ year. We’ll get to them in a second. I gotta build up my anger. Right now, I’m feeling downright jovial because I just watched the coup de grâce of unintentional comedy — ESPN’s Rankings Roundtables. If you have a few minutes, watch a part of one. You don’t need to watch the whole thing, unless you’re into Gitmo’ing yourself. A few things I noticed from watching a minute of one: 1) Cockcroft looks like he wants to stab Berry in the eye with Stephania Bell’s injury reports. 2) The general air surrounding the proceedings is everyone in the room knows what a bad idea the roundtables are because then people will get to see the methodology behind their rankings is Berry whining, “But guys!” 3) Brendan Roberts sits with his hands folded, trying not to get called on. But what the casual viewer is missing is Brendan’s also mumbling to Cockcroft to nudge him if he falls asleep. 4) They are in a bare room, but sitting in what appears to be Louis Vuitton chairs. 5) Brendan Roberts gelled his hair for this. 6) I wish they sat Karabell and Cockcroft together so it would look like an Office Space reunion with Michael Bolton and Milton.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
