With the top 40 outfielders, we’ve finished all the hitter recaps. We meaning me, but I’ll include you. No, that’s not a cue to try to hold my hand. Why are you now patting my butt? (Here’s all the final 2012 fantasy baseball rankings. They’re also to your left… your other left. And down. That’s up. Oh, forget it.) The pitching recap will begin next. To recap, the end of the season rankings are based on our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. I felt the easiest way to keep it objective would to go this course. This way when I say someone finished 30th and I ranked them 23rd in the preseason it carries more weight. Anyway, here’s the top 40 outfielders for 2012 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
21. Torii Hunter – He just missed 99/15/58/.316/9. Or maybe he just beat 99/15/58/.316/9. Or maybe 99/15/58/.316/9 has nothing to do with nothing. You know who 99/15/58/.316/9 is? It’s Cap’n Jetes. So, the 5th shortstop is about equal to the 21st outfielder. Considering you need 5 outfielders (in any leagues that have a solid set of testicles) and one shortstop, it means… Well, I’m not sure what it means, but it means something. Damn, OctoGrey, you’re illuminating shizz! Thanks, RIV! Preseason Rank #39, 2012 Projections: 80/24/90/.270/7, Final Numbers: 81/16/92/.313/9
22. Ben Zobrist – Went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2012 fantasy baseball.
23. Josh Reddick – In the preseason, I said, “In Triple-A, Reddick hit .127 in 2009, then .266 in 2010, then .230 last year. So I’d be surprised if he hits above .260 over the course of the 2012 season. He has shown the ability to hit for power, but now he moves to the unfriendly confines of Oakland.” And that’s me quoting me! Unfriendly my tukis! The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world Andrew Bailey is worth trading for. Preseason Rank #66, 2012 Projections: 75/15/85/.260/10, Final Numbers: 85/32/85/.242/11
24. Yoenis Cespedes – The 2nd greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was dropping a raft off the coast of Miami with a message in a bottle that read, “Hey, you wanna come play for the Athletics? Cuba Gooding Jr. has a summer residence in Oakland. You guys can be friends!” Cespedeseseseses’ average was a bit surprising, but only because we didn’t have anything to go on but his Cuban stats. His numbers in his first year suggest he is more or less what he showed… Until he shows us something else. See how that works? Preseason Rank #35 1/2, 2012 Projections: 65/20/80/.250/12, Final Numbers: 70/23/82/.292/16
25. Austin Jackson – I’m jacked up on excitement like a honkey at a rave with glow sticks hoping to draft Austin Jackson next year on my teams. Some would look at Jackson’s 2012 as he had a high BABIP and his steals being down, but I…Wait, he had a high BABIP and his steals were down? Okay, but he’s fast, so his BABIP can be high and he’s fast so you gotta figure steals gonna come, Sam Cooke. Preseason Rank #46, 2012 Projections: 100/9/50/.260/27, Final Numbers: 102/16/66/.300/12
26. Hunter Pence – Just when you think a guy is always a lock for certain stats the wind gets up and changes his luck. Wind, “It was feeling a bit stuffy. My bad!” Pence had pretty much the same season as he always has minus almost thirty points on his average, i.e., his luck went a bit south. Preseason Rank #12, 2012 Projections: 95/25/100/.280/10, Final Numbers: 87/24/104/.253/5
27. Bryce Harper – I didn’t rank him but I implicitly told you to draft him just in case he broke camp with the club…Then I told you to drop him…BUT THEN I told you to pick him up again…Through all of that I never said “Simon Says” though, so whatever. Rudy shocked me when he said Harper would be a guy he’d reach above rankings for next year to make sure he owned him. Rudy’s talking downright Grey-ish going for upside. Now it’s yet to be seen if Harper takes a step back to take two steps forward a’la Heyward, or if he keeps on trucking next year. My breath is bated. Preseason Unranked, 2012 Projections: 30/9/35/.270/14 in 250 at-bats, Final Numbers: 98/22/59/.270/18
28. Nelson Cruz – Definitely missed the mark for power, which looks like an aberration due to a few fly balls just not leaving the stadium. If he had 27 homers, which is like one good game for Cruz in Arlington, we’d say he had another solid season that was right in line with expectations. Preseason Rank #11, 2012 Projections: 70/30/85/.260/10, Final Numbers: 86/24/90/.260/8
29. Allen Craig – Due to a snafu of infinitesimal proportions, I left Craig off the top 20 1st basemen recap list, though he had the eligibility. You can run, but you can’t hide from my errors. Allen Craig accumulated his stats in only 119 games, which is terrific, marvelous, adjective, but also a red flag. Has Craig ever played a full season anywhere ever, you ask your internal monologue. Your IM responds, “I just got an email that I won the lottery in Nigeria, screw all this fantasy crap!” But your IM could’ve responded, no, Craig doesn’t play whole seasons. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 76/22/92/.307/2
30. Shin-Soo Choo – Never been a huge fan of Shin-Soo due to his low ceiling, but I will give him this, when he’s healthy and not drunk, he’s reliable. Hmm, sounds like my Dad. Damn, now Father of Mine by Everclear is stuck in my head. Preseason Rank #25, 2012 Projections: 80/17/85/.280/17, Final Numbers: 88/16/67/.283/21
31. Alex Gordon – For full disclosure porpoises (let’s just assume they’re reading too since they’re so smart), Gordon and Choo were in my rankings as guys that I wasn’t going to draft due to either Choo’s low ceiling or Gordon’s 2011 boosting his value. I was kind right and kinda wrong. They were good, but still a bit overvalued. Hey, could someone help me down from this hedge? Preseason Rank #27, 2012 Projections: 85/20/100/.280/12, Final Numbers: 93/14/72/.294/10
32. Melky Cabrera – For what it’s worth, I saw one website saying Melky was the number one ranked outfielder last year. Preseason Rank #54, 2012 Projections: 75/14/65/.270/15, Final Numbers: 84/11/60/.346/13
33. Angel Pagan – But what about the guy he’s always most compared to and swapped places with — his rankings soulmate, Andres Torres? Or what about the guy who trademarked the light-power, good speed fantasy outfielder, Shane Victorino? Angel Pagan, you are rewriting the history books of the last two years. Preseason Rank #72, 2012 Projections: 75/6/40/.280/27, Final Numbers: 95/7/56/.288/29
34. Nick Swisher – I don’t love you, Nick Swisher, but I love that you give exactly the stats you’re supposed to give (and I find your sideburns slightly arousing too). Preseason Rank #42, 2012 Projections: 80/25/90/.270, Final Numbers: 75/24/93/.272/2
35. Carlos Gomez – CarGo also won the in-season record for most times mentioned in a Buy/Sell because A) It took people forever to add him. B) He’d get crazy hot and crazy cold. C) There’s no C. Also, I’m not sure if there’s a way to do this, but it would be interesting to do a Player Rater for actual owned stats. In other words, Kemp was owned in every league for the entire season and Gomez wasn’t, so in reality Kemp gave you more stats. Victorino, who didn’t make this list, is probably more valuable than Garrett Jones because the latter was owned less. Might be impossible to figure this out since league ownership is fickle. Maybe if we took the average CarGo stats for all of our RCL leagues and did a Rater on those stats. For instance, if CarGo averaged, say, 50/14/35/.285/28 across our leagues that would be his actual season totals. My head hurts. I should ask Rudy. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 72/19/51/.260/37
36. Matt Kemp – I was thisclose to posting a Matt Kemp overrated post last preseason. I even wrote it. Only problem was I was telling people to draft him 7th overall rather than 1st and it felt like a silly argument. Don’t take him in the beginning of the first round, take him in the middle to end of the first round! Obviously, I couldn’t have predicted a fall off of this magnitude because it was predicated by injury, though I would’ve took credit for it nevertheless. Preseason Rank #3, 2012 Projections: 100/30/105/.290/25, Final Numbers: 74/23/69/.303/9
37. Jason Kubel – Take a Twins hitter in Hubert H. Homerfree Retrodome and normalize his ballpark and you get Kubel’s season. Preseason Rank #77, 2012 Projections: 60/20/75/.260, Final Numbers: 75/30/90/.253/1
38. Andre Ethier – Looking at my Ethier ranking and projections…*boing* On the forrella, his numbers are pretty terrible for a top 40 outfielder. I went into the archives and found 72/25/88/.287 was the 39th best outfielder in 2009 (Juan Rivera — zoinks!). That’s better than the 38th outfielder this year. Take what you want from that. Preseason Rank #38, 2012 Projections: 70/22/85/.295, Final Numbers: 79/20/89/.284/2
39. Garrett Jones – Went over him in the top 20 1st basemen for 2012 fantasy baseball.
40. Norichika Aoki – It’s been almost three weeks since I’ve talked about Aoki, then before that I talked about him a solid six weeks straight. For a while there in early September, I wrote Norichika Aoki blah blah Norichika Aoki blah blah for 1200 words a post and no one even noticed. Norichika Aoki blah blah… See?! Next time, I’ll use a Wingding font, that’ll make you notice. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 81/10/50/.288/30
