Sources of Fantasy Baseball Sleepers

by faketeams on Feb 3, 2008 12:30 PM EST in Baseball

The defintion of "sleeper" is one of the harder things to pin down given the wide variety of fantasy baseball formats available. Without knowing what a sleeper is, how can you spot places to prospect for them?

One way to do so is look for opportunity. Is there a posistion manned by an injury-prone veteran i.e. Mark Kotsay in CF for Atlanta?

Whether banking that the injury-prone player is any more likely to yield a sleeper than the the most injury-resistant player has not been demonstrated to my statisfaction. After all, isn't that injury-rpone veteran starting because the team didn't have a better option?

One place to look are positions on teams that do not have a clear-cut favorite. Here are a few examples that could yield a full-time surprise in the 2008 fantasy baseball season.

1B New York Yankees
3B Florida Marlins
3B San Francisco Giants
1B San Francisco Giants
SS Baltimore Orioles
1B Kansas City Royals
CF Minnesota Twins
2B Chicago White Sox
OF Oakland A's

Where are so more places to mine fantasy sleeper gold?

Tweet Comment 4 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

How About

Every starting rotation in baseball?

by Eli on Feb 6, 2008 2:54 AM EST reply actions

So true!

Pitchers are so unpredicatable, I hesitate to rank them.

by faketeams on Feb 6, 2008 6:43 AM EST up reply actions

I Will Say

I love Sonnanstine this year. Tampa Bay had one of the very worst fielding defenses last season coupled with the worst bullpen in modern history. Bartlett and Longoria are both good defenders and will improve the left side of the infield dramatically. Getting Upton out of the infield improves second base even if Iwamura is the replacement. And the bullpen can't possibly be as utterly horrible as it was last season.

Couple that with strong ratios from Sonnanstine outside of a dominant K/9 and you've got a young and improving pitcher that limits free passes and is going to get more help from his defense and bullpen than he received last season.

by Eli on Feb 6, 2008 1:28 PM EST up reply actions

Shandler

Ron Shandler mentioned Sonnastine as he breakout candidate on "Fantasy Focus with Jeff Erickson" yesterday. I thought Shandler wasn't going to mention anyone as he typically is hesitant to provide any information that can hurt him in his fantasy leagues.

That makes him a little less interesting as a guest.

Sonnanstine's WHIP has everyone putting him at the top of their sleeper list. Your excellent points on the TB D last season will only solidify that ranking. If he can get his ERA under 5.00, the Rays will have a very nice 1-4 starting rotation. Will it make much difference in the AL East, though.

by faketeams on Feb 6, 2008 2:01 PM EST up reply actions