After all was said and done -- including the revelation to non-medical people that the labrum is in both the hip and the shoulder -- the No. 1 overall pick discussion can be revisited. Hanley Ramirez, Albert Pujols and David Wright should certainly be involved, but it's possible to consider Jose Reyes as well.
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 that decided not to spend big bucks in the offseason. Reversing course from the normal offseason spending spree in New England, the Red Sox team headed into 2009 looks remarkably similar to last year's squad. You'll recognize all nine hitters in the starting lineup and a majority of the starting rotation. Key acquisitions were made in the bullpen, bringing Takashi Saito from the Dodgers and Ramon Ramirez from the Royals. John Smoltz will look weird without a Braves uniform, but should make a major contribution to the pitching staff when he returns from shoulder surgery. And if Brad Penny can return from injuries to his 2007 form, he should provide a nice spark to the rotation as well.
Thursday we took a look at undervalued catchers. It seems like a logical progression to take a look at first basemen today.
When it comes to finding value when drafting this position, a few interesting names pop up. Believe it or not, I think Mark Teixeira is undervalued with an ADP of 12.60. Grabbing him with the 13th pick in a fantasy draft would make most people happy, and I'm not sure that he won't outperform Miguel Cabrera, who's a solid first-rounder with an ADP of 7.26. But, the swing from Teixeira to Cabrera isn't enough to "officially" place Teixeira on this list. Just know that if you walk up to me and tell me you got "Big Teix" in the second round, I'm going to pat you on the back.
By now, fantasy players have probably already heard the big news -- that Alex Rodriguez will be missing at least the first month of the season. Needless to say, this is a bombshell in fantasy baseball. Hopefully you haven't drafted or auctioned yet. If you have, hopefully you were fortunate enough to not land A-Rod. Obviously he'll still be helpful, but not at the price you paid when everyone thought he was healthy.
Moving forward, though, let's try to get a handle on his value -- as things have been significantly altered in one fell swoop.
From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.
Chicago Cubs Sean Marshall is the favorite to win the job as the Cubs 5th starter in the rotation, but he's going to have to fight off a slew of others including Chad Gaudin, Ken Kadokura and Jeff Samardzija. Marshall went a long way towards proving he's the right choice on Tuesday as he threw three perfect innings. In five spring innings he's given up one run, four hits, struck out two and walked none. With the addition of Milton Bradley, Kosuke Fukudome only has one option in the outfield; center field. He'll be competing with Reed Johnson for that job. Johnson is the only one in camp as Fukudome is participating in the World Baseball Classic.
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 ... Best team in baseball. Yes, they are still better than the Yankees and Red Sox. Lost in all the joy of last season were the facts that two key players were injured down the stretch and another had an absolutely dreadful offensive season. Throw in the addition of Pat Burrell, and the continued growth of the young pitching staff, and you have a team who can take on the big-spending Yankees and venerable Red Sox.
From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.
Chicago White Sox The buzz around White Sox camp is position battles. Up for grabs is the third base position, center field and second base. Josh Fields and Dayan Viciedo are fighting for third and Fields has the leg up. Both hitters can mash the ball and both play suspect defense; although Fields is improving. Fields worked extensively this off-season at Camp Cora and Cora mentioned that everyone would be shocked with what they see out of Fields this year. He has three hits in six at-bats with two doubles so far this spring. Jayson Nix and his four hits in six at-bats with two doubles seem to be taking over as front-runner for the second base job thought to belong to Chris Getz. DeWayne Wise is being called the "best player this spring" and may be taking the center field job from injured Jerry Owens.
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 ... Funhouse. Formerly the straight arrow clubhouse where fun wasn't allowed -- even though it did find a way to seep in there from time to time -- now the Yankees are taking trips to pool halls instead of practice. Plus, do you see CC and Joba in this picture? They are having the time of their lives. The Yankees are now just here to have fun. Seriously, just ask the Steinbrenner family. They don't even care about wins, for real.
When you run around in fantasy baseball circles long enough you hear terms thrown around too often. Words like "sleeper", "breakout" and "undervalued" are overused catchphrases comparable to Arnold Drummond's "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" or Donald Trump's "You're fired!" However, it's next to impossible to talk fantasy baseball for any length of time and not get caught up in this oft-used terminology. That being said, let me explain what I mean by undervalued.
In this article I'm going to take a look at Average Draft Position as calculated at Mock Draft Central. After looking at ADP and comparing that to projections for 2009 a few catchers will appear who I think will outperform (read: have better statistics) their current draft positions. I'm not predicting career years here or campaigning for these guys to be drafted higher than they currently are being taken. I'm merely stating that you'll get good value and maybe even be surprised with how well these three catchers perform compared to where you get them in your fantasy draft.
From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.
Atlanta Braves There are a number of story lines buzzing in Braves camp. You have a battle between Jordan Schafer and Josh Anderson for the right to patrol center field. You also have five of Baseball America's top 100 prospects in camp, including the fifth ranked prospect who's been turning heads, Jason Heyward. But the king of the hill in to this point for the Braves is the fourth ranked prospect on that Baseball America list, Tommy Hanson. Hanson is fighting for a chance to grab the final rotation spot after he tore up the Arizona Fall League. In his first start he struck out two in two innings of work, walked one and allowed two runs. More buzzworthy was the fact that he touched 99 MPH on the radar gun and plunked Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada in retaliation to his shortstop Yunel Escobar being plunked earlier. Hanson pitches again today in an exhibition against the WBC team from Panama.
Thursday was a see-saw type day for fantasy baseball analysts. We were left scrambling to rework our cheat sheets in the wake of the news Alex Rodriguez would miss at least a month of the regular season. Once we got done with said scrambling, we heard that he's actually going to rehab and play through a torn labrum in his hip. 
By now, fantasy players have probably already heard 
From now until the regular season begins, 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
From now until the regular season begins, 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
When you run around in fantasy baseball circles long enough you hear terms thrown around too often. Words like "sleeper", "breakout" and "undervalued" are overused catchphrases comparable to Arnold Drummond's "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" or Donald Trump's "You're fired!" However, it's next to impossible to talk fantasy baseball for any length of time and not get caught up in this oft-used terminology. That being said, let me explain what I mean by undervalued.
From now until the regular season begins, 
