With these top 20 3rd basemen for 2009 fantasy baseball, we finish off the twenty lists for the infield.  From weakest to strongest, the top 20s go top 20 catchers, top 20 shortstops, top 20 2nd basemen, top 20 third basemen then top 20 1st basemen.  The outfielders will be coming up next, and I’m sure they’ll be deeper than all of these lists, but that’s just by virtue of the sheer number of them.  If you want some overall perspective, look at our 2009 Fantasy Baseball Player Rater.  In addition, there’s a list of every player who has multiple position eligibility.  Anyway, here’s the top 20 3rd basemen for 2009 fantasy baseball:

1.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The other day we went over our top 10 for 2009 fantasy baseball and today we fill out the top 20.  Pretty neat, huh?  What, you can’t handle the word neat?  Whatevs.  You’re wearing Jordache Jeans and your Mom calls you, “Pumpkie.”  Deal with that!  Next, we’ll go over the top twenty catchers and so on around the diamond as we look at our 2009 Fantasy Baseball rankings.  This 2nd round was a real battle for me to commit to, taking by far the longest time.  I had Utley as low as 17, Beltran was at every slot at one point.  I’m happy with what I settled on, but I will say that I could see a serious argument made for a reshuffling of these names.  By my estimation, there’s only two tiers in the 2nd round.  Utley to Fielder then the last three players.  In addition to these 2009 fantasy baseball rankings, we have our 2009 fantasy baseball player rater.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

And then Dustin Pedroia turned my Silver Bullet into a Sam Adams.  I wouldn’t have believed it either, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes.   But Pedroia wasn’t done there.  Noooo…  With a droplet of his sweat, he defrosted Ted Williams so The Splendid Splinter could go to a Southie’s Little League game.  But that’s not it!  Did you know Pedroia single-handedly completed The Big Dig?  Sure, it was fifteen years off schedule, but it would’ve been thirty.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Okay, the Final Jeopardy answer is 107/40/118/.302/8.  Do do do do do do do do… doot do do do do do do… What is Bill James predicting Chris Davis will do in 2009? That’s correct! “What is Bill James smoking?” would have also been accepted.  Those numbers look a lot like MVP numbers.  I’ll shave my ‘stache if Chris Davis wins the MVP in 2009.  That’s right, I said it!  Marcel Projections have Chris Davis in 2009 at 54/16/55/.288/3.  Our 2009 Fantasy Baseball Projections, which is using only the Marcel Projections as of right now, has Chris Davis at -3.23 in 313th place.  Between Akinori Otsuka and Tom Gordon, one guy who didn’t pitch last year and another guy who hasn’t pitched well since Stephen King wrote a book about him.  And I think Stephen King gave up writing books to write for EW ten years ago.  There’s got to be some in between with these projections, doesn’t there?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Rafael Furcal returns to the Braves, which can’t be a good thing for 2009 fantasy baseball owners. I mean, it can, but it probably won’t be. This move will have people slightly too excited about Furcal.  Then you throw in his great April in 2008 — hitting .357 with 5 home runs and 8 steals in only 36 games.  Again, this could lead to unrealistic expectations.  36 games does not a season make.  Don’t think Furcal has a .350+ average in his tuba case.  He doesn’t.  Last year, Furcal had a BABIP of .380 in April.  A number that would’ve came down if he played the rest of the season, leading Furcal to be the .285 hitter he is.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

There’s only two types of years for AJ Burnett.  He’s either playing hard because it’s a contract year or he’s hardly playing because he contracted an injury.  Unless the Yanks are willing to give him a new contract every year to add to this one (which is definitely possible with the Yank$), our guess is that this will be a lot closer to a Pavano redux than a Mussina repeat.  For now, Burnett becomes the Yankees number two pitcher, though Wang might have a thang to say about that.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Two things really stood out for this 2009 fantasy baseball mock draft. 1) I was not familiar enough with the draft interface. 2) It’s November. Hey, Grey got a calendar! Awesome! Yes, the date is obvious, smart ass. I’m just pointing out the obvious because so much will change between now and January, let alone March, that it’s very difficult to evaluate this mock draft.

Please, blog, may I have some more?