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Top 20 Shortstops for 2013 Fantasy Baseball

January 21, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 76 Comments

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So this is weird, but the top 20 shortstops for 2013 fantasy baseball are deeper than the top 20 2nd basemen for 2013 fantasy baseball. Here, my new favorite BFF, Josh Rutledge, is ranked 10th. On the 2nd basemen post he was ranked 8th. The middle tiers for the shortstops goes on forever, then it falls off a cliff, ending with a Cliff. (Symmetry points!) For those in leagues with a middle infidel, you have the answer to where you are drafting that slot from. Up until last year, I usually gave shortstops the short end of the stick with my drafting. I’d grab one late and that was that. I still don’t see any way I’m drafting a top shortstop. I honestly can’t remember the last time I drafted a 1st or 2nd round shortstop, and I play in about ten leagues per year. I could see grabbing one or even two from the 4th ranked guy here until the 19th ranked guy, where I’ll probably only have one 2nd baseman. Last year it was the opposite. As with the other top 20 rankings, I point out where I think tiers start and stop and my projections. All the 2013 fantasy baseball rankings can be found under that thing that says 2013 fantasy baseball rankings. Unsuccinct! Anyway, here’s the top 20 shortstops for 2013 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Top 20 2nd Basemen for 2013 Fantasy Baseball

January 18, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 153 Comments

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Unlike the top 20 1st basemen for 2013 fantasy baseball, this post doesn’t need to go to 42. About thirteen will do. We’ll still go to 20-something, but it won’t always be fun on the way. I don’t remember another position any other year like this for the 2nd basemen. There are no upside picks after the top thirteen. I mean, I guess, sorta, possibly Logan Forsythe or Donovan Solano could surprise, but, more likely, they will have a few weeks here and there where they are ownable. This wouldn’t matter if, say, they were catchers. You draft one and you’re done. But you know some doofus in your league is going to draft an early middle infielder and then take two of the top thirteen guys. If you get two doofii in your league, you’re gonna have Brian Roberts as your 2nd baseman and be like, “Yo, Grey, he could bounce back, right? Hello? Echo? Mr. Eko from Lost?” There’s the position eligibility chart for 2013 fantasy baseball. All the 2013 fantasy baseball rankings are under that linkie-ma-whosie. As always, my projections and tiers are included for the low, low price of zero dollars. Anyway, here’s the top 20 2nd basemen for 2013 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Top 20 1st Basemen for 2013 Fantasy Baseball

January 17, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 130 Comments

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This top 20 1st basemen for 2013 fantasy baseball goes to about forty-two. Every time I thought I was out, I looked at another 1st baseman that pulled me back in. Unlike any other position, there’s a few guys that can give you some huge numbers, then there’s about 25 players that can give you roughly the same stats. Unlike years past, I’m not going to tell you to either draft a top 1st baseman or insist you remove my name from your Trapper Keeper. We can still be BFFs without the drafting of Pujols, Fielder or Votto. For the first time in a while, any of the top 20 1st basemen (that’s the actual top 20 1st basemen not the 42 or so that are on this list; shizz gets a little wonky further along the list). The first basemen position is going through a serious transition. Right now, vets like Howard, Konerko and Te(i)x could still be valuable, but they have some major question marks. Then there’s guys like Trumbo, Davis or even Hosmer that have a different set of concerns. By next year, I have a feeling we’ll see that the next class of 1st basemen move up while the vets continue to fade. But, for now, it’s not clear. As always, for each player there’s my projections and where I see tiers starting and ending. There’s the position eligibility chart for 2013 fantasy baseball, and all the 2013 fantasy baseball rankings are under that linkie-ma-whosie. Anyway, here’s the top 20 1st basemen for 2013 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Top 20 Catchers for 2013 Fantasy Baseball

January 16, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 129 Comments

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I just went over the top 10 for 2013 fantasy baseball and the top 20 for 2013 fantasy baseball. Most of you know how I feel about catchers. If you draft a catcher any time before the first 100 picks, you don’t know how I feel about catchers. Let me freshen up your cocktail with a splash of insight. I don’t draft top catchers in one catcher leagues. I Reggie Roby them. Molina, Pierzynski, Wilin Rosario were all in the top 5 for catchers last year. Their average draft pick was around 250 overall last year. The bottom of the top 20 for last year consisted of Napoli, McCann and Jesus Montero. Their average draft slot was around 70. It’s like this every year. In 2011, Napoli and Avila were ranked second and third at the end of the year with Wieters and Posey disappointing, going into the year it was nothing like that. Catchers are unreliable to stay healthy; the job is grueling and takes its toll on offensive stats. Then, there’s not much difference between, say, the fifth best catcher and nothingness. Wilin Rosario was the fifth best catcher last year. As late as July of last year, he could’ve been picked up off waivers in some leagues. Finally, the best catcher last year and the NL MVP was the 27th best player according to our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. That’s the best year you can hope from him and he was still only ranked 27th overall. You’re paying a premium for a catcher, who would be the 8th best outfielder. The third best 2nd baseman. The fifth best first baseman. The fifth best 3rd baseman. Only shortstops were worst, and I say punt them too. Yes, I am saying punt the positions that are most scarce. Because I ignore the top catchers doesn’t mean I’m starting the top 20 catcher list at number twenty-two (John Jaso? Belch.); some of you might want to know the top catchers. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them draft Alex Avila. In two catcher leagues, catchers are a little more valuable, but I’d still prefer to avoid them. You can see other top 20 lists for 2013 fantasy baseball under 2013 fantasy baseball rankings. Listed along with these catchers are my 2013 projections for each player and where the tiers begin and end. Anyway, here’s the top 20 catchers for 2013 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Top 20 for 2013 Fantasy Baseball

January 15, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 173 Comments

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This is one of the hardest posts to write all year. There’s so many different ways the top 20 for 2013 fantasy baseball could go. I almost wrote a top 10 for 2013 fantasy baseball and just made the tenth ranked guy a ten way tie with these guys and washed my hands of this post entirely. Isn’t David Wright as risky as Longoria but Wright didn’t even make the top 20? Then Beltre’s low with seemingly no risk? Where’s the pitchers? Posey’s not ranked? You know the NL MVP?! What gives, GA? McCutchen was crazy high and now Kemp is crazy low! Was I taking meds when I wrote this? Was I not taking my meds?! There’s a lot of questions to be answered as we continue our 2013 fantasy baseball rankings. There are not as many guarantees as I’d like. Verlander seems more safe than any of these hitters, but you can find so much pitching later, he didn’t even make the top 20. Thankfully, as VinWins’s data about our leagues shows, a 2nd round pick that you Mr. Bungle doesn’t spell doom. Last year, a Cano second round pick was solid and you finished around sixth out of 12 teams. An Adrian Gonzalez pick, which wasn’t great, had you finishing around sixth, too. One pick does not a team make. Here’s just twenty picks you should make. Anyway, here’s the top 20 for 2013 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Top 10 for 2013 Fantasy Baseball

January 14, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 172 Comments

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It’s that time again… Drop your drawers and do two laps around your office! Not your underwear, I meant drop the two desk drawers you were holding and celebrate. Oh, well, you’ll find another job in this economic climate; no problem! Now before we get into the top 10 for 2013 fantasy baseball (though I imagine every single one of you has skipped this intro paragraph), I’m gonna lay some ground rules. No talking. Damn, I’m copying this from my University of Phoenix syllabus and it’s not translating as I had hoped. Okay, here’s our fantasy baseball podcast. Here’s where you follow us on Twitter. Here’s where you follow us on Facebook. Here’s our fantasy baseball player rater. Here’s our fantasy baseball team name generator. Here is all of our 2013 fantasy baseball rankings. Here’s the position eligibility chart for 2013 fantasy baseball. And here is a picture of my son. What a punim! You may not get all of those links in such a handy, easy-to-use format ever again this year, so make proper note. Now my expositional half insists I breakdown some generalizations about these 2013 fantasy baseball rankings. The 2013 fantasy baseball rankings will be an ever-evolving mass like the blob. This fantasy baseball top 10 for 2013 list is as of right now and could potentially change with a big injury or Miguel Cabrera breaking a tooth on his maple bat as he tries to extract hops. So while it is the 2013 fantasy baseball gospel, take it with a tablet of salt. Tomorrow we will cover the rest of the top twenty for 2013 fantasy baseball, then we will go around the horn with a top 20 list for every position. Then for pitchers and outfielders, I’ll turn the dial to 100. Listed next to each player are my 2013 projections. Did I consult with whoever else does projections? It would be ignorant not to, but in the end they are my projections. Players need 10 games at a position to get included in the positional rankings. Finally, as with each list in the 2013 fantasy baseball rankings, I will be mentioning where I see tiers start and stop. I look at tiers like this, if Miguel Cabrera and Ryan Braun are in the same tier, it doesn’t matter if one guy is ranked 1st and one guy is ranked 2nd, they’re both very close. It comes down to personal preference. I would prefer the guy at number one better than the guy at two, but you do you, I’ll do me and let’s hope we don’t go blind. Anyway, here’s the top 10 for 2013 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Mike Fiers, 2013 Fantasy Sleeper

January 11, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 108 Comments

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If you read this fantasy baseball web-blog when it still looked like a Geocities site, you know all about Mike Fiers. Bee tee dubya, I like the new site design and I think we’ve addressed all issues with mobile devices. If there’s still problems — besides, can you change the font to Wingdings? — tell us and we’ll look at it. Things are evolving. We have something coming in March that necessitated the site changes. We had simply outgrown the old site. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for those wild orange flames that caused every fifteenth viewer to suddenly have a seizure. Maybe we can still get seizures…Together…With this new design. Last year, Fiers burst on the scene. Or rather, Fiers spontaneously combusted on the scene like he was a nine-year-old Drew Barrymore. (I’m referring to her role in Firestarter, not to her lighting up a crackpipe.) In Triple-A, he had a K and walk-rate of 8.02 and 2.95, respectively, then bested both marks in the majors with 9.52 and 2.54 rates. His pre-All-Break numbers were a thing of beauty (2.31 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and a 5.56 K/BB rate in 46 2/3 IP). To speak to only the K/BB, a 5.56 K/BB is incredible and would’ve been the 2nd best rate in all of the major leagues behind only Cliff Lee. None of those numbers are sustainable for Fiers and his 2nd half failed to live up to the 1st. Tiring in his first nearly full year probably played a role, but I don’t think a guy should be considered a lock to beat his Triple-A numbers in the majors. So what can we expect of Mike Fiers for 2013 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Felix Doubront, 2013 Fantasy Sleeper

January 10, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 98 Comments

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A little insider info, I wrote all of the pitcher profiles for one fantasy baseball preview magazine. (And here I didn’t even know they made magazines anymore!) Felix Doubront didn’t make the top 100 for that magazine. Did I shortchange them and their readers so I would give more to you Razzball readers? Um, well, I wouldn’t say I shortchanged anyone. I just, you know, had selective fantasy ‘pertness for those outside of Razzball’s universe. Last year, the Po’ Sawx looked like they were a dozen eggs short of an ostrich egg. Ellsbury, Ortiz, Pedroia were hit with injuries and that wasn’t even the big problem. Their pitching looked like one of those fake vomit plastic discs where the factory in China accidentally put real vomit into one. “That’ll teach those stupid Americans to scare people with uncontrollable indigestion problems.” That’s a fake vomit factory worker in China. His name is Wei-Spray. He hates his job. He used to work at a fake doody factory, but felt like it was below him. He didn’t catch the irony of that. For starters with at least 160 innings, Doubront had the 4th best K-rate. Right behind, Scherzer, Darvish and Gio. That’s elite company. There’s not a drafter out there that doesn’t know to look at those three. Doubront’s BB-rate wasn’t great, in fact, it wasn’t good. But of those four he didn’t have the worst walk rate, that honor goes to Darvish. If you asked a hundred fantasy baseballers (<–my mom’s term), who will have a better season, Darvish or Doubront? I guarantee you that a majority, if not all of them will say Darvish. I’m not sure it’s that obvious. So, what can we expect of Felix Doubront for 2013 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Matt Harvey, 2013 Fantasy Sleeper

January 8, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 110 Comments

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For a few years, I talked about how Mike Minor or Kris Medlen were gonna be my last round starter flyer in all leagues. Never really worked out. Sure, I snatched Medlen off waivers last year when he needed to be, but for a few years they were drafted and dropped numerous times before they rewarded fantasy owners. I don’t tell you this to remain modest. Does my mustache make me look like a man of modesty? I tell you this so you know where I’m coming from when I say I’m going to draft Matt Harvey in every league. At some point, he’s going to be a top starter. It may not be this year, it may not be next year, but at some point he’ll be there. You can look at this as a Matt Harvey sleeper post, a rookie outlook post or simply a heads up that I need to get me some of this young brother, in the non-biblical way, unless there’s a clergyman reading and he gives me his Razzblessing. Speaking of which, do we have any priest or rabbi readers? I could see a Sunday sermon including SAGNOF (Satan Ain’t Got No Face) and how Jesus Montero was a fanny pick. In Harvey’s short-stint in the majors, he did some bedazzling work on fantasy owners’ jean jackets. A 10+ K-rate and a 2.73 ERA in 59 1/3 innings. Awesome called and said he wishes he was more descriptive because that doesn’t do Harvey justice. So what can we expect of Matt Harvey for 2013 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Will Middlebrooks, 2013 Fantasy Sleeper

January 7, 2013 | Uncategorized | 85 Comments

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Will Middlebrooks is the reason the Red Sox felt it was okay to trade away Youkilis. Well, that and the fact that Youk and Bobby Valentine were bickering like they were in the final rose ceremony and Red Sox fans were the Bachelor. “He told me he doesn’t love you, and he’s only using you so he can be on the cover of People magazine for the next two years talking about how his heart was broken.” That’s Youk pleading his case. Then Bobby V. started singing Rihanna’s Diamonds, and the fans chose Valentine and that romance lasted about as long as the usual Bachelor romance. Now Youk is a Yank for symmetry sake, Valentine returned to inventing new sandwich types, “I call this the Naanwich. A sandwich is a sandwich, but a Naanwich is a gentrified sandwich,” and Middlebrooks was left behind with the Red Sox 3rd base job and the six hole of the lineup (depending on Napoli’s signing). Last year, Middlebrooks’s stats were stacked like a d’brickhouse (the D is silent). In 286 plate appearances, he hit 15 homers and .288 with 4 steals when his season was cut short with a fractured wrist. He should be healed for Spring Training. So, what can we expect of Will Middlebrooks for 2013 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Jean Segura, 2013 Fantasy Sleeper

January 4, 2013 | Uncategorized | 84 Comments

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You say Alcides Escobar, I say Jean Segura…Let’s call the whole thing off! That’s you and the co-owner of your fantasy team right before your eyes lock after twelve years of friendship and things suddenly get weird. “Doode, you have nacho cheese on your lip and it’s in a tear drop shape.” “What?” “Nothing. Wanna play touch football? Our team needs a tight end.” On a side-sidenote, doesn’t Jean Segura sound like an actor from the 1950’s? I imagine him lurking in the shadows of Vienna’s back alleys. Jean Segura is…The Third Man!… with Joseph Cotten and Ryan Raburn. “Between Switzerland and Milwaukee, they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock and Miller beer.” That’s Dead Orson Welles schooling you as he waits in line for Zsa Zsa Gabor. “Is she coming or what?!” That’s still Dead Orson Welles. Okay, enough hullabaloney, Segura just missed the cutoff of 150 major league ABs for a 2013 fantasy baseball rookie post, so here he is as a sleeper. Indeed, because I’m yawning. Thanks, Random Italicized Voice. What if I told you Segura once stole 50 bases in the minors? Does that hold your interest? Are you still talking to me? No, I’m talking to everyone. Sure, that was in A-Ball, but guys don’t just steal 50 bases for s’s and g’s if they’re slow as dog balls. Also, he stole 37 bases last year in the minors in about two-thirds of a season. Add an extra third and you have 50+ steals, and don’t even get me started with what he can do with that extra leftover 1%. Have your interest piqued now? I’m still drowsy, but go ahead. Ugh. So what can we expect of Jean Segura in 2013 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
Grey

Starling Marte, 2013 Fantasy Sleeper

January 3, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 66 Comments

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I’m sure in a lot of leagues where people know a thing or two about a thing or two Starling Marte will be one of the things they know a thing or two about. Since it’s still relevant, let’s see what I said last year about him, “The Pirates equipment manager, Buffalo Bill, has to start making a uniform made from Jose Tabata’s skin. Put the lotion in the basket, Tabata! Tabata, “I wanna go home!” You won’t go home, ever. Because you never get on base, that’s the first step to going home. Tabata, “But I was a spring sleeper!” They’re slaughtering the spring lambs. Can’t you hear their screaming? I call that piece, The Mash-Up of the Lambs. In Triple-A, Marte’s hitting .286 with 12 homers and 21 steals *quieter voice* and 12 times caught stealing. So he’s a bit raw like your fava beans. In Double-A the year before, he had 12 homers and 24 steals *barely above a whisper* and 12 times caught stealing. But he did hit .332 in Double-A. I don’t think he’s going to be rosterable off the bat in most mixed leagues, but in keepers and NL-Only leagues, I’d stash him now. He could get 7-10 homers with 10 steals. Plus, with his speed and power combo, he could surprise with nice upside. Now, excuse me, I’m having an old friend for dinner.” And that’s me quoting me! He ended up getting five homers and 12 steals in 167 major league at-bats, and cemented himself in the leadoff spot for the Pirates like he was Jimmy Hoffa. So what can we expect from Starling Marte for 2013 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Please, blog, may I have some more?
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