Fantasy Baseball

Every year there is a player who just gets off to an unbelievable start, like Chris Coghlan in 2009.

But fantasy owners need to be careful about these players before they go and completely change their teams. In most cases, those players who get off to hot starts will drop off, back to the mid-200s by the middle of year.

When looking to change your team, either through free agency or trades, look for consistency and trends in past seasons. Players will normally follow a similar pattern.

While a lot of fantasy hype might be around young prospects like Jason Heyward and Mike Stanton, don’t forget about some of the proven veterans, especially at some thinner positions.

A player like Chipper Jones is normally going between the 18th and 22nd round in most drafts. However, during the spring he has a batting average close to .388. While Chipper used to be one of the staples at third base before injuries caused him to miss time. If he can stay healthy, Jones could be a steal like Paul Konerko was last season.

The Seattle Mariners could have opted to keep Michael Pineda in the minor leagues to start the season, likely saving themselves millions of dollars (due to arbitration time). 

Instead the team opted to reward the 22-year-old righty after he dominated in spring training (2.12 ERA, 15 K, 6 BB over 17.0 innings) by naming him the fifth starter.

Finances aside, it really should have been an easy decision for the Mariners to make. 

You’ve worked hard all offseason taking note of player movement, and you’ve scouted spring games.

You’ve participated in countless mock drafts, and put hours—if not days—of research and preparation into your league’s draft.

You go to bed on Opening Day eve, feeling good about your team—this will be the year you dominate your fantasy league.

Opening Day has come and gone, but not without incident.

Rickie Weeks and Carlos Gomez led off the Brewers’ season with back-to-back jacks, while John Axford blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning. Curtis Granderson hit a home run on Opening Day for the third consecutive season, while Jason Heyward hit a home run in his first at-bat on Opening Day for the second straight year.

A new year of fantasy baseball rolls around. Will your strategy from last year work as well this year? No, probably not, because the field of players changes so dramatically each year; you want to develop a new approach that fits this years' players. Here are five things that you should remember when drafting, and even after your draft, when you're proposing trades and adding free agents:

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What is a sleeper? 

Ask your league mates, and you'll probably get a different answer from each of them.

To me, a sleeper is a player, no matter the pedigree, that I think is set to far outproduce expectations due to a relatively low ADP. 

With rare exceptions, these players won't go for more than $5 in any auction.  

Fantasy baseball is a game of profits and losses, sound investments and colossal mistakes. 

Well, folks, today is Opening Day.  At long last, baseball is back.  Not only does this time of year bring back my favorite sport, but it also brings the start of one of my favorite things about it: fantasy baseball!  With fantasy baseball comes one of my favorite activities: analyzing each team's potential sleeper!

Aging and Injury Plagued Carlos Beltan Equals 2011 Fantasy Baseball Bust

The Mets are going to be awful this season and Carlos Beltran is going to be a big part of that.

The former Astros playoff hero has never lived up to the enormous contract the Mets threw at him in 2005.

Does a guy that hit .255 while hitting seven home runs and 27 RBI sound like a worthy pick-up to you?

After sitting out for half the season in 2010 with a knee injury, Beltran had an abysmal 66 games.

Well, now that most of our NCAA brackets resemble the Libyan Air Force, we can move onto something that can provide some much needed optimism: fantasy baseball. What would the start of the season be without a rankings list?