Fantasy Sports

One of the more important storylines in baseball this spring training is the health and bounce-back ability of San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey.

As most baseball fans know, the season is a marathon, not a sprint.

Therefore, those intensely involved with fantasy baseball have to continually be aware of the daily changes in the sport.

Football is only once a week, and basketball is every few days but not every day like baseball.

So, since that leaves room for more injuries, trades, slumps or whatever the case may be, roster changes will occur quite a bit.

That said, here are 10 players to now put on your "watch list," and then pick up once they start rolling in May.

When drafting a fantasy team, there is one thing that you should be your number one priority—consistency. You need that factor to carry your team from day one.

Slumps are inevitable, but you need the players who post strong enough stretches to smooth out the rocky streaks.

Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols and Ryan Braun to name a few are prime examples of this kind of consistency.

2011 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers Include Blue Jays Slugging Second Baseman

Coming into the 2010 season, few second basemen were as highly regarded in fantasy circles as Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Aaron Hill, and with good reason. He was fresh off a breakout campaign in which he hit .286 with 36 home runs and 108 RBI, as well as scoring an impressive 103 runs. 

We're barely 24 hours away from the start of the 2011 fantasy baseball season, and that means it's time to take a look at some potential sleepers!

A sleeper is a player picked well beneath where his level of potential production dictates he should be taken. It doesn't mean just late-round players who could result in high production, but guys who have slipped beyond where they should in most drafts. 

Fantasy drafts boil down to one of four things: sleepers, value plays, studs and over-hyped players, the latter of course being the worst. There is nothing more detrimental than reaching for a player too early just because BBTN (Baseball Tonight) talked about a player until they were red in the face.

We also have the players who break out the year before, only to fall flat on their face the next season—yes, I'm talking to you, Mark Reynolds.

Knowing which players to avoid is key to having a successful draft day and it is my honor to guide you down the right path.

Sleepers, sleepers, sleepers. Everyone has their own list of just who they think can come out of nowhere and carry your fantasy team to a championship.

All fantasy enthusiasts have their own definition of what a sleeper is. To me, a sleeper is someone who falls in drafts—not necessarily someone who is an unheard of player. Those no-names who become stars are few and far between. Players who will give you early round value, but are selected later in drafts, are the real key to success.

To combat my ignorance the first time I played fantasy baseball, I did what anyone does when they need answers: consulted the Internet. This was 2005—the Industrial Age for the web—so fantasy commentary was just starting to percolate “back then”; it wasn’t as obvious where to go for information.

What I couldn’t get my head around was a concept I kept reading about—this concept of Value. Only experience could help answer questions like:  

Hanley Ramirez: When he has played in at least 140 games in a season, Ramirez has averaged a .313 AVG, .385 OBP, .520 SLG, .906 OPS, 25 HR, 78 RBI, 112 R, 187 H, 39 SB and 108 SO.

Troy Tulowitzki: When he has played in at least 120 games in a season, Tulo has averaged a .301 AVG, .372 OBP, .533 SLG, .906 OPS, 28 HR, 95 RBI, 98 R, 162 H, 13 SB and 107 SO.

With Adam Wainwright done for the year, it raises an interesting question for fantasy owners. What happens if you were unfortunate enough to have Wainwright on your team? Or for that matter if one of your top pitchers gets hurt and will miss most of the season? Here are some options to consider that might get overlooked in your draft that you could steal in the late rounds.