2009 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Top 10

by faketeams on Sep 4, 2008 9:51 AM EDT in Baseball Comment 5 comments

With the NFL, and fantasy football, kicking-off tonight, there is no better time to begin looking forward to the 2009 fantasy baseball season. The first thing I do is look at the data from the current season. Whose hitting HRs? Stealing bases? Hitting for AVG? Striking out batters?

By getting a general sense of who is producing, I can begin to form some preliminary analysis of who the top players are going to be in the 2009 fantasy baseball drafts. And I am not excited.

This season looks to have collapsed in terms of power. With just Ryan Howard of Philadelphia as the only "sure" thing for 40 HRs and a couple others fewer than six from the mark (Whie Sox OF Carlos Quentin and the Diamondbacks' Adam Dunn at 36 and 35 respectively), there isn't the clear cut delineation of production needed to easily rank the top players.

Does this mean position scarcity takes a more prominent role? Maybe. Here is a Top 10 that does include scarcity more than one would normally see.

At the top of the list is Florida Marlins' SS Hanley Ramirez. His across the board skills combined with his position make him an easy choice as the top-ranked player going into the fantasy baseball off-season.

ARod is an easy choice at #2. After that? Let the debates begin! (Never mind the bottom portion of the Top 10.)

1. SS Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins

2. 3B Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

3. 2B Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies

4. SS Jose Reyes, New York Mets

5. 3B David Wright, New York Mets

6. 1B Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals

7. OF Grady Sizemore, Cleveland Indians

8. OF Matt Holliday, Colorado Rockies

9. OF Carlos Quentin, Chicago White Sox

10. 2B Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers

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to steal a Bryant Gumbel saying

there’s a paucity of American Leaguers in that list. how the times have changed.

raygu

by raygu on Sep 4, 2008 10:33 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think the Mitchell report

and testing for PEDs has had a big impact on the power numbers. It might also be a reason why teams are more inclined to promote from within and not sign that free agent hitter or pitcher. There is a school of thougt that teams are tired of signing these FAs who had big numbers because they were on PEDs, and once they sign the contract, they stop, and the result is they don’t put up the big numbers.

raygu

by raygu on Sep 4, 2008 10:49 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

AL

At #10, I could have gone any number of ways. I had even considered Pedroia given his near-20/20 status along with the AVg and Runs, but chose the 2B I believe in a little more.

Have you looked at C? VMart will likely be Top four despite his power outage if only on the chance (likelihood?) that 20 HR power returns.

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by faketeams on Sep 4, 2008 10:49 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Pujols

I love his AVG, but I’m still scratching my head at the HR/RBI – 30 and 96 seems too low, but this is what the off-season will bring.

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by faketeams on Sep 4, 2008 10:51 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Jason Grey

Andrew (Louisville): Where does Pedroia go in the draft next year? Is he next in line after Utley and Kinsler with Upton moving to the OF?

Jason Grey: (11:12 AM ET ) He would be for me.

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by faketeams on Sep 4, 2008 11:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs