Fantasy

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. 

Let's not joke.  J.J. Putz had an amazing comeback year in 2011, notching 45 saves for the well-built and oiled Arizona Diamondbacks team. 

He even did that while missing most of July on the DL, which we have become accustomed to with J.J. Putz. Even more amazing, he put up 21 saves between August and September. 

Everything about 2011 was amazing—his 2.17 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and a K/9 over 9!  Putz was one of the top closers in baseball for 2011. 

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. 

Joel Hanrahan had an amazing break out season in 2011.  He became the closer I expected him to be years before in Washington.  He put up 40 saves on historically one of the worst teams in MLB.  He also put up a career low ERA of 1.83 and his WHIP was also a career low of 1.05. 

It would be misleading to characterize second base as a position of scarcity in 2012.

Yes, there are no certifiable facsimiles of Robinson Cano, Ian Kinsler, Dustin Pedroia, Rickie Weeks, Chase Utley, Ben Zobrist, Brandon Phillips or Dan Uggla after the first 60 picks of a 12-team, mixed-league draft.

This one can get a bit sensitive and touchy.

I believe that Joe Nathan is hands down one of the greatest closers. 

When healthy, he can be one of the most dominating forces, with a lethal fastball that he locates well and a slider and curveball to compliment it. 

The reason that this analysis can get sensitive is because even I've lost faith in him.