Fantasy Baseball

Major League Baseball announced the winners of its prestigious awards this week; now, FanHouse is following suit. We voted on winners in five categories (MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, Draft Day Bargain, Draft Day Bust), the results of which are revealed below. Remember, this awards show deals strictly in fantasy baseball. I'll also throw in a few awards I'm personally doling out for performances that made the 2009 season what it was.

World Series MVP Hideki Matsui was an absolute monster (Godzilla?) in the 2009 Fall Classic. In 13 at-bats, he pounded eight hits -- including a double and three home runs -- eight RBI and three runs scored. His OPS for the series was an obscene 2.027.

As he was accepting the MVP trophy, there were many items swirling around in my head (there always are, it's a burden, I tell ya!). He's a free agent, the Yankees likely can't justify bringing back both him and Johnny Damon if they want to shore up their starting pitching, etc. There were several more ... and then I arrived at this one: man, he's really gonna be overrated in fantasy baseball drafts next season.

The Arizona Fall League is chock-full of young prospects looking to make their mark. Desert Diaries is your twice-weekly look at which of these up-and-comers could make a fantasy baseball splash in 2010.

It looks as if there will be a changing of the guard in Baltimore. Melvin Mora, who has 1,323 hits and 158 home runs during his ten year tenure with the Orioles, has been told that his $8 million option will not be picked up. Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun says that the Orioles will look into a number of options at third base this off-season. They'll even consider Josh Bell, who's faring well in the Arizona Fall League.

The Arizona Fall League is chock-full of young prospects looking to make their mark. Desert Diaries is your twice-weekly look at which of these up-and-comers could make a fantasy baseball splash in 2010.

It's an inevitable side effect of playing extra baseball in an instructional fall league -- injuries will crop up. As much as these prospects, and their parent major league team, want to prove that they can make it at the next level, it's also important to avoid injury. Unfortunately that's been proven impossible for a few Arizona Fall League participants.

Scott Sizemore, who is projected to take over at second base next season for the Detroit Tigers, fractured his left ankle as the result of a collision at second base trying to turn a double play. He just underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair the damage and Steve Kornacki of Michigan Live says that Sizemore should be ready for Spring Training and is still on track to play second base.

The Arizona Fall League is chock-full of young prospects looking to make their mark. Desert Diaries is your twice-weekly look at which of these up-and-comers could make a fantasy baseball splash in 2010.

In case you missed it while you were at that pesky place called work on Thursday, Washington Nationals prospect and first overall selection in the 2009 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, Stephen Strasburg, made his second appearance in the Arizona Fall League. He didn't do well.

Strasburg pitched 2.2 innings on Thursday, striking out four, walking one and giving up a whopping three home runs which lead to seven earned runs against him. According to Chico Harlan of The Washington Post, the seven earned runs he gave up in his outing yesterday were almost half of the number he gave up in his entire junior season at San Diego State.

The Arizona Fall League is chock-full of young prospects looking to make their mark. Desert Diaries is your twice-weekly look at which of these up-and-comers could make a fantasy baseball splash in 2010.

Hard-throwing New York Mets pitching prospect Jenrry Mejia certainly is an ambitious 20-year-old. And you would expect as much from a guy whose fastball sits between 93-96 miles per hour and reaches 98 at times. But Mejia fell short of a lofty goal he'd set for himself and now he's pitching in the Arizona Fall League to make sure he sets himself up for success in 2010.

"Somebody told me if you play in the big leagues at 20 years old, that's good," Mejia said. "I said, 'I know, but I wanted to play in the big leagues last year.'"

The focus of most Major League Baseball fans is directed towards the playoffs right now as teams fight for their chance to play for a World Series title. But the astute fantasy baseball GM should be looking in the desert as the Arizona Fall League has just started.

Why tune in and watch young baseball players with little or no major league experience? Well, in the Arizona Fall League last year, hitters like Drew Sutton, Gordon Beckham and Nolan Reimold tore up the competition -- showing that they could make contributions at the major league level.

You also should not forget about a pitcher by the name of Tommy Hanson. In seven AFL starts last year Hanson struck out 49 batters while only throwing 28.2 innings. He also had a 5-0 record with a 0.63 ERA. We all know what Hanson did for the Braves in 2008 -- and for fantasy GM's who knew his name on draft day.

Who will be this year's Tommy Hanson?

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

Greetings, streamers! I hope my advice did a small part in helping you to your 2009 fantasy baseball title. Over the last three months, I've identified widely-available pitchers for you to add for a day to benefit from their stats in spot starts. Many leagues have rules in place to prevent daily streaming, such as transaction limits, game limits or weekly lineup submissions, but if your league doesn't have these rules in place, streaming is a great way to lead the pack in wins and Ks, while hopefully staying competitive in ERA and WHIP.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

This will be the last Stream Team column of the season, so I'll give you two days' worth of streamers as you try and close out your championship. I'd call our first season of streaming a success, and I'll be back with the final numbers for you on Monday. Until then, let's keep our eyes on the prize and figure out who we want in our rotation on the most critical days of the season.

Looking to cycle spot-starters each day? Check out the Stream Team, where we tab pitchers that are likely to help you in your quest for fantasy gold.

Petco Park is one of our favorite ballparks in which to stream pitchers, as it generally has a great effect on pitcher's numbers, turning great pitchers into superstars and mediocre pitchers into world beaters. Thus, it's not too surprising to see San Diego pitcher Kevin Correia with some great stats this season. Correia currently has a 3.89 ERA and 1.31 WHIP this season (along with 12 wins), but there's actually several reasons to like him as a spot starter tomorrow.