Drafts Are On Their Way

Wow, it's been a long time. Over a month actually. For those who read this site regularly, or have tried, I apologize. I wonder, who are you? How many are there? Do me a favor and comment just so I have an idea of what you think of the site and how helpful you feel it is or can be.

Anyway, in preparation for your upcoming Fantasy draft(s), I've found a few "Expert" Mock drafts that you can look over.

Mock Draft Central has 3 (so far).
Fantasy Baseball Cafe has theirs up as well.

Also, Tim over at RotoAuthority has a helpful tool. It's a spreadsheet you can download for free with the average draft positions of all players taken in 4 expert drafts including 2 CBS Mock Drafts, one of the Mock Draft Central's, and a Sporting News Mock Draft.

As I stated in an article I wrote for RotoAuthority the other day, Mark Teahen and Morgan Ensberg are being very undervalued. When drafting, make sure to think of position scarcity, as Tim points out in this article.

Read more!

Pitcher Research

The Baseball Analysts has two great pieces on the tenancies of pitchers throughout MLB last season. Rich Lederer takes a look at pitchers based on ground ball percentage and strike out rate, and broke it down for the starters and for the relievers. Tendencies are really helpful in predicting how a pitcher will fair in the coming year, or years. Perhaps a pitcher with a low K-rate and low GB% put up great numbers and somehow didn't let up a lot of home runs. It's probably safe to say, in my instances, that it was a fluke, and you shouldn't expect it to repeat itself. These would be classic "sell-high" situations in many keeper leagues. If you have the time, I highly recommend reading through both articles. If nothing else, you'll leave with a better understanding as to why certain pitchers put up the numbers that they do, fantasy-wise. The more you understand about the game, the better fantasy owner you'll become.

Read more!

Friday Notes

Fake Teams
Some more player values from Cincinnati and the Chicago Cubs, plus Pittsburgh and Arizona

RotoAuthority
Tim lists his top first basemen going into 2007.

Red Sox Closer Situation
Here are a few links to blogs that talk about the Joel Pineiro signing by the Red Sox and their whole closer situation. Mixed reaction all around.
Boogey Blog
Baseball Crank
ESPN
Red Sox Nation Daily

Read more!

Thursday Tips

Fake Teams
The site has been hard at work putting prices on players for the 2007 season. Here's a few based on MLB team, enjoy:
Seattle and Texas
Anaheim and OaklandCleveland and Kansas City
Minnesota and Chicago White Sox
Houston and Milwaukee
Toronto and Detroit
New York Yankees and Tampa Bay
Baltimore and Boston
Washington and St. Louis
Florida and PhiladelphiaAtlanta and New York Mets

RotoAuthority
Tim takes a stab at projecting the 2007 seasons of 2006 AL ROTY Justin Verlander, Aubry Huff as a member of the Orioles, Dodgers' 25-year old southpaw Hong-Chih Kuo, and the newest $100MM man Barry Zito.

Extreme Fantasy Baseball
Can't get enough projections? Check out Aaron's projection of Bill Hall.

Minor League Ball
John lists his top 20 prospects for the Rangers, Padres, and Pirates.

Mock Draft Central
If you haven't seen it already, take a look at the Mock Draft Central's 2007, well, mock draft. A bunch of fantasy baseball "experts" took part in the experiment. It's interesting to see the value some of them hold on certain players.

Baseball Digest Daily
They listed their 51-100 top prospects to look for 2 weeks ago and followed up with numbers 1-50 the other day.

Read more!

Wednesday Wrap Up

Beyond The Box Score
--Weighs in on the Angels signing of Shea Hillenbrand and how he might not be all that much better an option than their previous choice at 1B, Robb Quinlan.
--Talks about the move between the Rangers and White Sox that sent Brandon McCarthy to Texas and John Danks to Chicago. Mike feels that, for the Rangers, "this is a lot better than signing Barry Zito," and he explains in detail why.

Extreme Fantasy Baseball
--Talks about Cubs' prospect Felix Pie (pronounced "Pee-ay", not "Pi"). I disagree with his final statement about Soriano struggling in left field, as Soriano posted one of the best fielding percentages at the position last year, but I do feel the Cubs should take a chance and allow Pie to start in center field at Wrigley next season.

Minor League Ball
--Dodgers' top 20 prospect list

RotoAuthority
--Is Wilson Betemit a possible sleeper in 2007? Tim over at RotoAuthority seems to think so. Not a big RBI guy, but may be eligible at multiple positions in your league.

Read more!

Tuesday's Tips

RotoAuthority
--Should the Diamondbacks bat rookie Chris Young in the lead off spot?
--NL West closer situation

Fake Teams
--Has been accepted the the Fantasy Sports Writers Of America
--Talks about the Vernon Wells signing.

Read more!

End Of Week Wrap Up

Fake Teams
--Tries to figure out what to bid on Dice-K in your 2007 draft. I actually feel the ZIPS projection he uses as reference isn't doing this guy justice with the K-rate, but the ERA seems pretty reasonable.

Boogey Blog
--Talk about future 3B (or possibly 2B, OF) of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Akinori Iwamura. As long as he gets, and keeps, a starting job at 3B, Iwamura could be a nice sleeper candidiate in 2007.

Minor League Ball
--John lists his Top 20 Prospects of the Cubs system. No one really stands out here, but Pie could be ready for 2007 as a CF option in Chicago.

Read more!