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All the final 2014 fantasy baseball rankings for hitters are done.  For those that skipped today’s title, this starts the top 20 starters for 2014 fantasy baseball.  This is NOT for 2015 (caps for those who can’t read titles; supposedly it’s easier to read caps, I have my doubts).  This is a recap.  Will these affect next year’s rankings?  Sure.  But not entirely.  To recapitulate, these rankings are from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater.  We’re (me) using it to fairly gauge our (my) preseason rankings.  Anyway, here’s the top 20 starters for 2014 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:

1. Clayton Kershaw – If I had a 100% guarantee on Kershaw in March, I still wouldn’t have drafted him.  It’s not a matter of punting starters.  I don’t punt them.  I also don’t believe in drafting the top echelon ones.  Let’s look at the large-enough sample size (that’s what I tell the ladies!) of my RCL league and Yahoo Friends and Family.  One league is 12-team, one league is 15-team, respectively.  In the 12-team league, I had a 3.067 ERA, 1.176 WHIP, 99 Wins and 1415 Ks.  That was good for 38 points out of 48 starter points (this is obviously excluding Saves).  In my 15-team league, I had 42 points for starters out of 60 points.  15 points in ERA and 11 points in WHIP with a 3.04 ERA and 1.16 WHIP.  Anchoring the 12-team was Teheran and anchoring the 15-team one was Kluber.  In both leagues, I didn’t win due to my hitting.  If I would’ve gave up my 2nd round hitting in the 12-team league (Pujols) for Kershaw, I would’ve prolly lost by more, definitely wouldn’t have won.  In the 15-team league, I had the best ERA, but Kershaw may have added a tad more pitching points (in Ks and WHIP), but I still would’ve need a crapton of hitting. Kershaw wouldn’t have made up for Longoria having a sad, sad year and Prince Fielder screwing the pooch.  Drafting Kluber 250th overall definitely made up for not drafting Kershaw in the 2nd round.  (Drafting Teheran at 111th overall also helped, taking Cobb 81st overall didn’t hurt, Tillman at 171 overall wasn’t bad, Alex Wood at 220 was nice, and picking up Roark and Shoemaker were solid too).  That’s an insane pitching team in 15 teams and that staff was easy to draft predominantly after the top 100th pick.  Try to draft only hitting after the top 100.  My pitching team in the 12 team was assembled the same way.  Pitching is so deep, my first pitcher in the 12 team league was Gerrit Cole, who wasn’t great and I traded away in June, and I still had a 3.07 team ERA!  Okay, I could go on and on about this, but we need to move on.  Preseason Rank #1, 2014 Projections:  17-6/2.65/1.03/222, Final Numbers: 21-3/1.77/0.86/239

2. Johnny Cueto – I have better rankings than anyone.  That’s a fact.  Pitchers are easier to peg than hitters.  Another fact.  A third fact, my mustache is awe-inspiring.  A fourth fact, I whiffed on Cueto, as did almost two times more hitters than I thought would.  Unlike a lot of fantasy baseball ‘perts, I’m able to adjust midstream.  As I did in the 2nd week of the season, when I gave you my Cueto fantasy.  I saw after just a few starts he had changed his approach and was getting more Ks.  This holds true for Jon Lester, Price and Greinke too.  I didn’t like them in the preseason, but could see quickly they were pitching better than I thought they were going to.  Preseason Rank #46, 2014 Projections:  13-9/3.37/1.19/134, Final Numbers: 20-9/2.25/0.96/242

3. Felix Hernandez – When someone as great as F-Her has the best season of their career, and still isn’t the best pitcher in baseball it really illuminates how masterful Kershaw is.  Not saying I’d draft any of these guys, but I can appreciate them.  Preseason Rank #3, 2014 Projections:  16-4/2.82/1.10/224, Final Numbers: 15-6/2.14/0.92/248

4. Corey Kluber – Now is as good a time as any to point out that my Kluber ranking was low, but that’s kinda irrelevant.  No one had him ranked in the top 5.  What is relevant is you read rankings that tell you to draft the right guys.  I told you to draft Kluber, saying he could be a breakout guy.  Sky also gave you a Corey Kluber sleeper post.  Preseason Rank #55, 2014 Projections:  10-11/3.78/1.28/155, Final Numbers: 18-9/2.44/1.09/269

5. Adam Wainwright – I really try to make this about the season that was rather than next year, but, looking at Wainwright, the thing that keeps coming back to me is, “Damn, this guy is going to be overrated next year.”  Look at some of the strikeout totals in this top 10.  248 here, 242 there, 269 here, 271 there.  Wainwright had 179 Ks.  Um, burp.  Preseason Rank #6, 2014 Projections:  17-10/2.88/1.05/204, Final Numbers: 20-9/2.38/1.03/179

6. Jon Lester – I mentioned Lester above as a guy I goofed on.  I course corrected pretty early, saying on May 5th that Lester would likely be a top 15 starter and that I was wrong in the preseason.  The reason then and the reason that it continued is he abandoned a changeup that wasn’t working.  Why it took him three years to realize that?  Your guess = my guess.  Preseason Rank #37, 2014 Projections:  14-10/3.66/1.31/171, Final Numbers: 16-11/2.46/1.10/220

7. David Price – Same boat as Lester, as mentioned previously on the aforementioned tip.  Price’s, uh, price concerned me in the preseason.  I’m not trying to make excuses for myself, but it was irrelevant.  There’s so many pitchers that if I’m wrong about a handful of starters, there’s still plenty to go around.  When looking at his projections to the end-of-the-season stats, it’s pretty crazy how right I was on everything except his Ks.  And there I couldn’t have been any more off.  The problem was from 2012 to 2013 his velocity dropped (a warning sign for most guys), but he figured out a way to make the lesser velocity work for him in 2014, and it was a non-issue.  Mea culpa, for my Latin American readers.  Preseason Rank #16, 2014 Projections:  16-10/3.26/1.11/176, Final Numbers: 15-12/3.26/1.08/271

8. Madison Bumgarner – He’s about as consistent as they come, year in and year out.  Kinda robotic in how consistent he is.  Not to get all Ayn Rand philosophical on you, but is this Bum a man?  When a Bum shrugs, does the weight of the world roll off and make a thousand little worlds that run on the sweat of other pitchers?  (What?  I only read the Cliff Notes; like you read any entire Ayn Rand book.)  Preseason Rank #7, 2014 Projections:  16-10/2.91/1.09/201, Final Numbers: 18-10/2.98/1.09/219

9. Max Scherzer – The Winter Meetings this year are gonna go like the American Idol final cuts.  “Everyone in this room is going to the Yankees!”  “Everyone in this room is going to the Red Sox!”  “Sorry, everyone in this room is going to other teams.”  Oops, this was supposed to be about last year, um, Scherzer was awesome.  Okay, moving on.  Preseason Rank #4, 2014 Projections:  17-8/3.01/1.12/232, Final Numbers: 18-5/3.15/1.18/252

10. Chris Sale – Every preseason I get the willies about Sale.  Not the willies like a drag queen in West Hollywood, but the willies as in I worry about Sale’s health.  I’m reevaluating that, and since there are so many pitchers to pick up off waivers that if you lose a starter, I’m beginning to think Sale should be even more coveted.  Take an insane 175 IP from Sale and 40 IP from a streamer, and Sale’s a top 5 starter.  Me likey’ing Sale, and me prolly just jinxed him for 2015 where he’ll only pitch 60 IP, then need Tommy John.  Lowercase yay.  Preseason Rank #11, 2014 Projections:  12-9/2.89/1.09/217, Final Numbers: 12-4/2.17/0.97/208

11. Zack Greinke – The great thing about writing so much about each player is I know exactly what I was thinking six months later.  With Greinke turning 30 years old, his velocity dropping and his K-rate falling to 7.5 in 2013, I was concerned it was the beginning of the end for him.  Yup, it wasn’t.  (The bad thing about writing so much is I can’t bend four of my fingers.  Cougs, could you hit the shift key for me?)  Preseason Rank #17, 2014 Projections:  16-8/3.34/1.17/173, Final Numbers: 17-8/2.71/1.15/207

12. Stephen Strasburg – Everything about 2014 from Strasburg was awesome and the best of his career, except for his ERA.  That’s the best case scenario for next year.  For this year, it didn’t do his owners any great favors.  Preseason Rank #5, 2014 Projections:  16-7/2.79/1.04/202, Final Numbers: 14-11/3.14/1.12/242

13. Jordan Zimmermann – He has me slightly puzzled.  I’m flummoxed, y’all!  He increased his K-rate by a ton, but looks like he threw pretty much the same arsenal.  Throwing his change and curve percentage points less (11.6% to 8% on the curve and 5% to 3.2% on the change) does not make a convincing case why his K-rate should’ve shot up.  I mean, in 2013 it was 6.8 K/9 and last year it was 8.2.  That’s a huge difference.  His swinging rate went up on the fastball considerably.  The only thing I can figure out is he stopped throwing his fastball as much in the lower quadrant and instead moved to an upper one.  If he threw 91 MPH, this wouldn’t increase his productivity, it would prolly decrease it.  However, he possess a 94 MPH fastball and hitters can’t catch up with it upstairs.  Hence, more Ks.  Hmm, maybe I’m not that puzzled.  Preseason Rank #21, 2014 Projections:  14-8/3.31/1.14/168, Final Numbers: 14-5/2.66/1.07/182

14. Julio Teheran – Not going to beat a dead horse for fear of PETA, but Teheran was the one ace I had across most of my teams and I did just fine with pitching in my leagues with him, and I didn’t draft him until very late (for a first starter).  Was actually a tad lucky on that front since Teheran’s K-rate and xFIP fell, due to his fastball falling a mile per hour to 90-ish.  Luck, schmuck, dubya tee eff, it all worked out anyway.  Preseason Rank #15, 2014 Projections:  15-7/3.12/1.15/191, Final Numbers: 14-13/2.89/1.08/186

15. Garrett Richards – I actually owned Richards in that 15-team league I was talking about in Kershaw’s blurb, but only kept him for one start then dropped him after he was shelled (in perhaps the only start last year he wasn’t good).  Oops!  Shows you don’t even need to make every right move with pitching and still do fine.  Shame what happened to his knee, because he looked like he was coming into his own with 96 MPH stuff and a near-9 K-rate.  Too bad, so sad.  Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 13-4/2.61/1.04/164

16. Phil Hughes – Member way back in Cueto’s blurb I said there were a handful of pitchers I had wrong?  What I left out there was those were starters I had wrong that most others had right.  So, I had Hughes wrong too, but no one had Hughes right.  Preseason Rank #111, 2014 Projections:  8-12/4.01/1.25/160, Final Numbers: 16-10/3.52/1.13/186

17. Jake Arrieta – Wanna know how many pitchers there were this past year?  I picked up Arrieta off waivers in June.  The 17th best starter wasn’t even owned all year, nor should he have been.  Continued in Roark’s blurb.  Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 10-5/2.53/0.99/167

18. Tanner Roark – Wanna further know how many pitchers there were this past year?  Unlike Arrieta, who I picked up off waivers around midseason, I streamed Roark on and off my RCL team for the better part of two months.  Yes, a pitcher in the top 20 was readily available for me to stream.  Granted, if he were a Padre, JayWrong would’ve picked him up and blocked me.  Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 15-10/2.85/1.09/138

19. Tyson Ross – This guy was the first time I can remember changing my mind on a guy during the preseason.  I hadn’t ranked him, but then Sky did a sleeper post on him, and I realized what a monkey should know, how bad could a pitcher be in Petco?  I then inserted him into my rankings some time in February.  Like your sister who can’t stop sleeping with your friends, I still was way too bearish on him.  Preseason Rank #87, 2014 Projections:  7-6/3.72/1.30/133, Final Numbers: 13-14/2.81/1.21/195

20. Lance Lynn – Doesn’t Lance Lynn sound like he should date a Josh Beckett ex-girlfriend?  Speaking of which, how appropriate was it that Jeter and Red State Jeter retired the same year?  The universe does get certain things right (that might be an Ayn Rand quote too; no idea, I didn’t read any of her books).  Lynn is one of the reasons why these recaps are so important.  No one thinks Lynn was a top 20 starter (or Roark or Ross or Hughes).  That’s how I ended up ranking Teheran so high in 2014.  He was great in 2013, ranking in the top 22 starters.  It’s just no one realized it like how no one will next year with Lynn and et al.  Wanna make a bet?  Lynn and others I just mentioned will be completely undervalued next year, even though they’ve already proven to be solid.  No, I won’t bet my Gregg Jefferies rookie cards.  Their value is going to turn around.  Preseason Rank #49, 2014 Projections:  12-8/3.88/1.30/178, Final Numbers: 15-10/2.74/1.26/181