Fantasy Baseball

Here's the first dry run of draft expectations when holding the No. 1 pick in a 12-team mixed roto league, specifically working off the Average Draft Position report from our friends at Mock Draft Central. It goes without saying: It's imperative to nail the first three picks (1, 24, 25), and for the sake of brevity, we'll stop at Round 17:

Round 1, Pick 1 overall: Motive: Best overall player

To counterbalance our own Spring Training positional rankings for Catcher and First Base or Second Base and Shortstop, here are the current Average Draf

With the 2012 season nearing, many fantasy baseball owners are trying to pick up on any clues as to which young, late-round picks have the potential to breakout this season.

Fantasy owners know very well that championships are not won in the early rounds of a fantasy baseball draft. It is about how owners can find the diamonds in the rough that nobody is talking about in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft.

This slideshow will point out a young stud at each position that has the potential for a breakout season, and can lead your fantasy team to a championship.

Major League Baseball definitely did not disappoint this year when it comes to buzz in the media. As fantasy owners, you may find yourselves in a familiar place; deciding what to make of these relatively over-hyped foreign prospects.

Most of the attention as been focused on Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers and Yoenis Cespedes of the Oakland Athletics.

Chris Perez had a breakout year in 2011. 

After three seasons (two-and-a-half technically), Perez has established himself as the closer of the Cleveland Indians. Last season, Perez was 36/40 in save opportunities with a 3.32 ERA. 

While on the surface, 2011 looks like a tremendously perfect year for Chris Perez, it was anything but that.  First, his ERA and WHIP jumped from his previous year's success. What was also strange was Perez's inability to record strikeouts. 

Jordan Walden slammed onto the scene last season and made waves as the new closer for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  While his start was strong and secured the job for himself, his overall performance wasn't as sweet. 

Walden finished with 32 saves in his rookie season, but 10 blown saves to shadow his otherwise solid numbers.  He notched 67 Ks in 60 innings and finished with a nice 2.98 ERA. 

Last year, among all the messes that the Dodgers organization was dealing with, one of them was their closer. 

The Dodgers opened the season with Broxton, who failed badly.  Then they tried several replacements like Kenley Jansen and others.  When Jansen hit the DL, they brought up Javy Guerra, and the rest is history. 

Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer of all time.  Any analysis I do of Rivera will open with that statement. 

However, he not the most dominating closer in MLB right now. Last season, I projected Rivera to save 30 games, and he pumped out 44. 

While first base is generally considered among the deepest in all of fantasy sports, things have gotten even better with a recent influx of youngsters at the position.  Among those who have burst onto the scene is the Diamondbacks’ Paul Goldschmidt, who made the jump from Double-A to the Majors as a 23 year old (he turned 24 in September) and posted the following line:

Since making his MLB debut in 2007, Cincinnati Reds catcher Ryan Hanigan has without a doubt been a valuable asset to the Reds organization.

As both a backup catcher and a spot starter, Hanigan has proven himself to be a clutch hitter and a solid defender behind the plate.