Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.
Meet the ...
Team full of question marks and limited fantasy options. Some nights you might find yourself wondering what packs more punch: the first six batters in the Nationals lineup or a six-pack of Natty Lites. Right before Spring Training, the Nationals secured a legitimate power hitter in Adam Dunn, acquired Scott Olsen and Josh Willingham from the Marlins and took a shot on the ever-enigmatic Daniel Cabrera. But even with the arrivals, this is a ragtag group when it comes to fantasy value, but at least it all comes at a very cheap price.
The Breakout
The term "breakout" is relative here. I don't think anyone is taking a dramatic jump forward on the Nats, but Lastings Milledge is the youngster that can make the biggest strides. Coming off a season where he smacked 14 homers, stole 24 bases and tallied over 60 runs and RBI, Milledge is like an Alex Rios Lite at a bargain draft price. His August 2008 (.336 and six homers) was eye-opening, but he also had months where his batting average sagged. When you consider the plate discipline issues and the park factor, expectations become tempered for the 23-year-old. A season stat line that looks something like .275 20-75-75-20 is there for the taking. I actually believe the same kind of year is possible for Elijah Dukes, who put up 13 HR and 13 SB in 276 at-bats in '08, but that all depends on his playing time.
The Bust
Whoever becomes the odd man in the outfield. At this point, it's starting to look like Austin Kearns, who had his moments of fantasy owner swooning but never became much more than waiver-wire fodder. Manager Manny Acta has said he wants to get both a healthy Nick Johnson and Dunn in the lineup together, and that means two from the group of Willingham, Dukes and Kearns are going to be riding the pine unless a trade happens. I don't see what Kearns can offer them that Dukes or Willingham doesn't provide. If you're drafting Nats outfielders in your league, I'd rank their potential in this order: Dunn-Milledge-Dukes-Willingham-Kearns.
The Lineup
1. Christian Guzman, SS
2. Lastings Milledge, CF
3. Ryan Zimmerman, 3B
4. Adam Dunn, LF
5. Elijah Dukes, RF
6. Nick Johnson, 1B
7. Ronnie Belliard, 2B
8. Jesus Flores, C
The Rotation
1. John Lannan
2. Scott Olsen
3. Daniel Cabrera
4. Collin Balester / Shawn Hill
5. Jason Bergmann / Jordan Zimmermann
The Bullpen
CL - Joel Hanrahan
SU - Saul Rivera
SU - Steven Shell
The Skinny
• As everyone strays from drafting Nationals, you can swoop in and pick up some pretty sweet bargains. Even an elite slugger like Dunn is being taken at an average draft position of 63, one spot after Rafael Furcal. I think his homers will dip to 35, but that's still a great price. And Milledge is being taken in the 13th round in recent mock drafts. Johnson actually might be the best value pick out of everyone here (ADP of 359!). It looks like only soreness remains as he tries to come back from right wrist surgery. I think he'll be a solid corner infielder in deeper leagues if he gets consistent playing time -- something around the 20-75-75 range is possible.
• I have Ryan Zimmerman tabbed for a bounce-back season. After languishing for most of 2008, he came alive in September with five homers and 13 RBI. His power stat line should return to the 20-90-90 range. Instead of taking Garrett Atkins in the seventh, you can essentially get the same thing two rounds later.
• Lannan is nice as a back-end fantasy starter, but he suffers from the John Patterson syndrome: he's tossed back because the win count doesn't justify enough attention. He only mustered a 9-15 record last year despite a 3.91 ERA. While he should continue to induce groundball outs and keep his ERA around the 4.00 range, you can probably just scoop him off the waiver wire in shallow leagues.• Hanrahan is one of the closers I like because of his strikeout ability ... and because you don't have to join the closer run to get him. Shell could be a sneaky middle relief option, especially if Hanrahan falters in the closer gig at all. The 25-year-old struck out 41 in 50 IP and held opposing batters to a .194 average.
• Remember when Cabrera was supposed to be this future fantasy monster? Yeah, then he turned into another one of baseball's versions of Jekyll and Hyde and was cast off to D.C.
• Keep a close eye on Jordan Zimmermann, especially in keeper leagues. The 2007 draft pick's strikeout rate last season through two stops in the minors was salivating -- 134 fanned in 134 innings -- and he won't be that far away from the show even if he heads back to the minors as expected.
