Fantasy

Although 2010’s official Opening Day isn’t until tomorrow, the Yankees/Red Sox Sunday night matchup marks the beginning of another baseball season.

For those of us who devote our entire summer to fantasy baseball, tonight signals the start of a six-month journey that requires a daily grind; constantly setting lineups, adding free agents and proposing trades, not to mention watching the games.

MLB Opening day is almost here and fantasy baseball fever is running wild for fantasy owners all over the world.

There are plenty of players people love to talk about such as: Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Ryan Braun, etc.

People tend to forgot about players coming back from injury-plagued years or poor production years. There are also players that people go crazy for, who have only had one great year.

This season I wanted to try out something different from our normal look at two-start pitchers every week.  Please let me know what you think of these rankings as well as which you prefer.

The 2010 season kicks off this evening, so the time has come to start setting your line - up.  Who should start?  Whose matchup is a little bit too risky?  Let’s take a look at how I rank the starting pitcher for the upcoming week:

Warning: You're about to get roughly 1,000 words detailing another person's fantasy draft. If that sort of thing doesn't appeal to you, then I completely understand. Live Drafts are usually incredibly boring, especially after the first five rounds, which is why I have chosen to go another direction in this column.

Sometimes with Fantasy Baseball there is always the obvious pick. You see you need a pitcher, take CC Sabathia. You see you need an outfielder, take Matt Holliday. A third baseman, Alex Rodriguez. But what about when you get past those first ten rounds and all of the big names are off the board? I am going to show you five guys that you should be looking at late in the draft.

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The other day it was revealed that Vicente Padilla would be the Opening Day starter for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  I know, in the scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter, but the Dodgers have not one, not two, but three starting pitchers who I would rank above Padilla.

The question some are asking is if we should use this as a sign that Padilla is a usable fantasy option?  He was strong after the Dodgers acquired him last season, posting the following line:

Opening Day 2010 is less than 72 hours away, which means most fantasy drafts have been completed. Judging by average draft positions on Mock Draft Central , fantasy owners are allowing certain sleeper candidates to go undrafted. One of those guys is Drew Stubbs , who has a current average draft position of 311.40.

The MLB regular season starts Sunday night when the New York Yankees travel to Boston and take on the Red Sox.

When it comes to fantasy baseball, there are certain teams—like the Yankees and Red Sox—where virtually everyone but the batboy will get selected in your draft. 

Fantasy owners build their teams around names like Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Albert Pujols, Jonathan Papelbon, etc.

They don't, however, build their teams around guys like Alex Gordon and Yuniesky Betancourt. 

If you didn’t fill your outfield slots early, you can still find value later in the draft. Try these OFers on for size.