Fantasy Baseball

Thank you for checking back for part two of this six-part series.

The second installment entitled, "So THIS Is Why I’ve Heard So Much About This Guy!" is a set of players that were on our fantasy radar prior to 2009, performed better than expected last season, and that we should now target as fantasy studs.

Unlike the first installment in this preview, the following slides pertain to athletes we had heard of before that, prior to 2009, had yet to fulfill their potential.

I love players who have confidence. Give me the guy who thinks he is the best over the guy who is just happy to have a job in the major leagues.

Take Ricky Henderson, for example. A lot of people didn’t like him because they felt he was arrogant. I just thought he was extremely confident in his abilities.

I mean, who doesn’t want a guy who refers to himself in the third person on their team?

Check out the rest of our draft preview here .

Imagine your co-worker, the company's best employee,  moving on to a better position at a better company. That's what it feels like at the third base position. For the second straight year, an elite hitter has left third base for better and bigger things with this year's permanent vacationer being Miguel Cabrera . (Ryan Braun left for the outfield last season).

Another week has flown by, and so comes with it another dose of The Saturday Report.

A lot of things happened this week including a rash of injuries, and a couple of interesting contracts you may want to read about so let’s not waste any time.

National League Player News

Jorge Cantu—Marlins

This is my second time writing my Yahoo Fantasy Sleeper Guide (if you would like to see how I did last year, here is a link http://bleacherreport.com/articles/139285-yahoo-fantasy-baseball-sleepers-draft-guide). 

You can take Alex Rodriguez, Prince Fielder, Matt Kemp, and Ryan Howard. I didn't want them anyway.

With the first spring training games just days away, I was happy to see an invitation for a fantasy baseball league sitting in my inbox.

I'd been mining bits and pieces of fantasy data for a few weeks now anyway, a sure-fire way to know that despite the snow, baseball is on its way.

Average Draft Position (“ADP”) data available from websites like Mock Draft Central give a fairly accurate view of where players are expected to be drafted in similar format leagues.

Ah, but is that ADP number justified, or is the player getting far more credit than he deserves?

As astute fantasy players, that is what we need to assess—which players are the most undervalued and which players are the most overvalued, otherwise known as sleepers and busts.

Brett Wallace was dealt from the Cardinals to the A’s to the Blue Jays last year. After three solid seasons at Arizona State (.406 AVG, 193 R, 45 HR, 193 RBI, 31 SB in 643 AB), he was selected with the 13th pick in the 2008 draft.

Franklin Gutierrez stepped it up last year, hitting .283 with 85 runs, 18 HRs, 70 RBI, and 16 SBs.

He turned 27 yesterday, so continued progression is likely.

However, I’m not sure he has a 20/20 season in his future.

The bulk of his stolen bases—seven, to be exact—came when he was hitting out of the two-hole. Newly acquired Chone Figgins figures to occupy that spot in the order, meaning Gutierrez will hit fifth.

He hit nearly half (eight) of his HRs in the fifth slot (in 21.9 percent of his ABs). He only stole two bases there though.

The Jonathan Broxtons, Mariano Riveras, and the Jonathan Papelbons of the world are going to go early. You can chase along by adding some other elite closers (click to see top 15 closer rankings ), but if you want to address other needs, here are some closer options you can get later on.