Opinion

Fantasy baseball is a time for players to hunker down and figure out which stars will have the best seasons, which young stud prospects will emerge and everything in between. All that time spent studying numbers and trends brings you to this point: raft day.

What we wanted to do for you, the loyal readers, is provide you with a first-round mock draft with 12 teams to show you who you need to look for and players that you should be wary of taking in such a high spot.

The Detroit Tigers will be the best team in baseball in 2012, so if you're looking for fantasy baseball sleepers, they are probably a good roster to check out.

Superstars like Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder are given fantasy studs, but they aren't the only players on this roster that put up big numbers.

Since they acquired the pitcher in a blockbuster trade in December 2010, there has been much speculation that the Brewers have a good shot at keeping Zack Greinke long term.

Andy Pettitte is one of the most popular players of the Joe Torre era that netted the Yankee franchise four World Series rings and six trips to the October classic. 

His return was met with far more excitement than skepticism; after all, Pettitte won't be 40 until June and even though he hasn't pitched since 2010, he managed to amass an 11-3 record and a 3.28 ERA in what was assumed to be his final season as a major league pitcher. 

Toronto Blue Jays right-handed pitcher Kyle Drabek may have had a difficult and trying 2011 season, but he has arrived at this year's spring training with a new and fresh perspective that will enable him to adapt and overcome last year's issues.

This will be the third season for the Minnesota Twins at their new home, Target Field.

Many argue that it has more disadvantages than advantages for the hometown heroes, but that is simply because the Twins weren't used to the new digs. That and their lineup last season was decimated by injuries.

This year, however, the advantages of Target Field will be abundant, and it is going to give Twins fans something to cheer about.

Today was a monumental day for the New York Yankees.

Fans all over were in shock, but for good reason, as they found out one of their long-time fan favorites was coming back to the Bronx in 2012.

Jack Curry of the YES Network broke the news first on his Twitter account, announcing that Andy Pettitte had signed a one-year deal worth $2.5 million.

If you haven't looked at it yet, just know that the starting pitching pool is pretty deep this season. Fantasy junkies everywhere should be looking forward to their draft, if they haven't drafted already, of course.

There are some pretty good sleepers in the pool. I'm a big fan of Brandon Morrow and Brandon Beachy, and I'm of the mind that Madison Bumgarner could contend for the National League Cy Young this year. 

I know this is the New York Yankees, and I know it's their business of giving themselves as many options as possible each season, but bringing back Andy Pettitte for another go in 2012 shows a lack of faith in their current arms.

Let's list all of them, shall we?

1. C.C. Sabathia (guaranteed)

2. Hiroki Kuroda (guaranteed)

3. Phil Hughes

4. Ivan Nova

5. Freddy Garcia

Closers are to fantasy baseball what kickers are to fantasy football. They can put up good points and may ultimately help your team out a lot, but at the same time, there are very few worth taking early and too much of their production relies on chance.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, taking a closer early means passing up on players who are in a much better position to help out fantasy teams.