Sing it with me everyone: Tis the season for broke closers. Tommy, Tommy John, John, John, John, John! That sounded great. Except for you in the back. Thought I heard an old mule getting strangled. The regular season hasn’t even started and we’ve lost Joakim Soria and Ryan Madson to the knife. Last time I checked – which was like five seconds ago so don’t even attempt discrediting it – those two didn’t have a long injury history. Throw in Drew Storen and his enflamed joint – hopefully he got his medical marijuana card for that – and you have a year already in flux at closer. In this year of twelve after twenty – sorry, Grey has mandated calling 2012 that for Razzball now – we have only had one closer from the ‘my arm will fall off eventually’ club go down to injury in Andrew Bailey. So what better year for Andrew Cashner to step up and give the San Diego Padres yet another reason to trade Huston Street to a contender by the All-Star Break if he doesn’t break before then (sorry, Pads fans, we know it’s true).
Please, blog, may I have some more?2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers
We here at Deep League Thoughts love things cheap. If the 5 finger discount were legal, we’d be doing it hand over Doug Fister. Over the course of the year, we’re going to keep our eye on the bargain bin FA market, targeting the guys that are less than 5 percent owned and try to sprinkle you with tasty little nuggets of info on these gems. Alright let’s start…sorry, you still have to read…and you have to start a new paragraph to do it. I know, demanding.
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First off, the story of Chris Capuano is just great. Three years after getting seriously hurt, he was back in the big leagues in 2010, doing his thing. But I’m not giving him the Greydar pub because he is a great story, it’s because he’s so cheap. No, not like splits the tab with you on a first date and makes you pay more fare for the taxi because you live farther away cheap. I’m talking about going behind Miguel Tejada according to Mock Draft Central and being the 97th pitcher off the board according to Fleaflicker cheap.
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I usually like to keep private emails private, but when it’s matters of the state or sleepers, all is fair. The first email was from Hank from Dearborn, Michigan. Hank writes, “Where’s Brennan Boesch? I’ve been long time reader of Razzball and I wish to know the answer to this question. Until I know said answer, I’m farting in your general direction.” Eddie Murphy from Los Angeles writes, “I can’t believe you didn’t write a sleeper post about Brennan Boesch. By the way, this is the last of my final thousand words I’m allowed to say before they stop letting me make crappy, family comedies.” Finally, in writes Larry King, “Anyone see where I put my suspenders?” Sorry, Hank, Eddie and Larry, Brennan Boesch has been on my radar, but I guess I just needed a little push from you guys. So what makes Brennan Boesch a 2012 fantasy baseball sleeper?
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This one goes out to the guy – one of the three TB fans that can actually be seen at a game – who was holding up the sign ‘Free Russ Canzler!’ last year. You didn’t see that sign? Yeah I didn’t either, mainly because it wasn’t there but since I don’t have cable I can’t verify that. Can someone please tell me why a team that has been in the playoffs for 3 of the last 4 years doesn’t get more people at the actual ballpark without offering a Zimbear? But back to what I had to say, Canzler was never going to see the light of day in Tampa Bay (How about I just go eat some hay.
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I could probably draft a team of these starters, who are drafted after the 150 mark in mock drafts, and win your league’s pitching stats. In this post last year was Ricky Romero, Hellickson, Kuroda, Gio Gonzalez, Zimmermann, Chacin, Cueto, and Daniel Hudson. I had those guys on multiple teams. I don’t say this to brag, but I’m really good at targeting starters to, um, target. Well, I’m good with hitters too, but starters I’m really good. I’d like to say it’s because I’m smart, but since I’m sorta dumb I’m not sure what it is. Maybe I’m an idiot savant, who I believe was Doug Savant’s cousin that had a walk-on part on Melrose Place, the Original. And with all of that said, you should still draft a starter or two before you see any of these names on the top of your draft list. Well, you know what to do from my top 20 starters for 2012 fantasy baseball. It’s good to have a safe starter or two before you go upside. In the immortal words of some drunk tightrope walker, “I don’t need the net under the trapeze but I want it there. Burp.” There’s also a pitchers pairings post to help you along with your staff. That’s what she said! Wait, what? Finally, you can check out APPLES. Anyway, here’s some starters to target in your 2012 fantasy baseball drafts:
Ubaldo Jimenez – Under that link is my projections and thoughts. To read a less optimistic man’s thoughts on Ubaldo, click on the thing that says “thoughts on Ubaldo.” Though that might’ve been clear. I need a mentee to seamlessly link to shizz.
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Ok, this one feels like I’m cheating. First off, I tell you I don’t like having to buy him as a backup for my 3Bs and now I’m telling you to pay attention to him. Not to mention he is technically not going outside the top 300 ADP on mockdraftcentral as of right now. Ok now that I’ve listed all the reasons I’m a downright hypocrite, this has to be the cheapest 3B,2B, soon to be SS in ESPN leagues player that should be a lock for .280 10/15 with 450 ABs with room for more power and speed in a very solid lineup. There seems to be this strange belief that Nick Punto is somehow going to eat into his at-bats at SS this year. Really? If the Red Sox were that concerned with their defense, they could bring up their homegrown Rey Ordonez - Jose Iglesias – and move on. Nick was brought around to be a utility player on an older team. He’ll most likely be used when someone gets hurt, as a late defensive replacement or just to be a little Punto (spanish puns! ¡Muy bien!). Mike Aviles is going around 278 ADP so you don’t have to be jumping out of the gates to get him in a standard league. In deep league formats that play more than one at each infield position, Mike Aviles on your bench is a huge asset as he can fill in for days off and injuries to your main lineup. Plus if you draft Zack Cozart and he’s a bust, you have a great consolation prize in Aviles to back him up.
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Alright, so mockdraftcentral still has Allen Craig (or as I like to call him, Craig Allen because he has two first names and it’s just confusing) in their 300 ADP, and he’s getting drafted at a 61.5% clip. This wouldn’t seem like someone who’s flying under any radars, Grey or not. However, they also have Jorge Posada drafted in 15.8% of leagues so let’s just realize there are some people who need corks on their forks out there who only draft players because they saw them in the World Series that one time. Unfortunately, one of those Ruprechts out there might be lucking into a very valuable season. I’m veering off the unbeaten path back onto the beaten to feature him because I see someone who is 2B eligible in yahoo leagues that could conceivably hit you 18 to 20 HRs with 450 at-bats. Even discounting his 2011 line, you might stumble into a .280 average with 70 RBIs. If you’re willing to draft Chase Utley or Rickie Weeks in the 7th round, I don’t see how you can’t like the idea of getting similar counting stats from the 20th round on down minus the steals.
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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.
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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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