Fantasy

By Andrew Vigliotti, Fantasy analyst at Fantasy Baseball Maniaxs

With the 2011 Fantasy Baseball season looming, here is a look at position players that will be valuable mid-to-late round picks in your draft.

In The Fantasy Fix's newest series, 2011 Fantasy Baseball Great Debate, our writers discuss two positional players and try to convince you which player to pick first on draft day. In this article we compare the two second basemen, Dustin Pedroia and Dan Uggla.

Why to go with Uggla:

A late round first base option? Is that really necessary?

Well, for those in deeper leagues, or for those who want to wait and take advantage of the depth of the position, it certainly is.

Let’s take a look at a few of the options that should be available after Round 18.

Ike Davis, New York Mets

As fantasy baseball drafts quickly approach, I thought it would be helpful to provide a quick reference cheat sheet for closers. Remember, don't take a closer too early as there is value to be had late in drafts.

NL East

We’ve tried to fill the offseason gap in fantasy baseball with our series of prospect reports, which started with Dustin Ackley back in early-December.

Now on the cusp of Spring Training starting (pitchers and catchers report in less than two weeks), it is time to put a wrap on the prospect series so we can get right into the swing of things prepping for our, and your, fantasy baseball drafts.

The Reds are blessed with two of the best young hitters in the game in Joey Votto (27) and Jay Bruce (24 in April).

Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.

Over the last two years, Adam Wainwright has established himself as one of the best starting pitchers in fantasy baseball.

There is no position in fantasy baseball this year more shallow than shortstop. The position is so bad that I got physically ill while doing research for this article.

Even at the very top, where Hanley Ramirez and Troy Tulowitzki are firmly entrenched, there are doubts about the performance you will receive. Hanley hasn’t shown the power he did back in 2008 and Tulo can’t seem to stay healthy for a full season.

We continue our offseason role call with second base, only to find there are hardly any notable players at this position who switched teams this season. 

Luckily, for the purposes of this article, there were a couple notable second basemen traded including Dan Uggla and super-sub Omar Infante. 

As always, the middle infield positions are incredibly thin this year and I strongly suggest locking down a couple good ones early, unless you really like to live life on the edge. 

When talking about hyped up outfielders this offseason, Carl Crawford and Carlos Gonzalez come to mind.

It’s hard for an eight-year veteran like Crawford to be hyped up, but his move to the loaded Boston Red Sox lineup did just that.