Pushing the envelope on the arrival of the 2009 baseball season means I am going to blast out the final 18 sleepers of my two tour look around the major leagues. Each of the players listed below has something that placed them on my radar. It could be an excellent Spring Training stat like Chan Ho Park's 25 Ks against just two walks or a crappy Spring that has dulled the luster of the player's expected playing time like Michael Bourn's 220/301/305 slash stats.
Some of the players are purely single league format sleepers, and some can be considered deep sleepers in standard mixed leagues. Some offer the potential of position flexibility in the near future i.e. Skip Schumaker and Mark Teahen, and others have such a surprising jump in SLG that there looks to be a power breakthrough like Erick Aybar, whose .867 SLG is more than 500 points higher that his career SLG of .348.
Many will be no better than what they are, but it is the upside return relative to the cost of each in snake and auction drafts that makes them sleepers.
- SP Chan Ho Park, Philadelphia Phillies
- SS Cesar Izturis, Baltimore Orioles
- OF Chase Headley, San Diego Padres
- RP Carlos Villanueva, Milwaukee Brewers
- OF Michael Bourn, Houston Astros
- 3B Josh Fields, Chicago White Sox
- RP Justin Masterson, Boston Red Sox
- 2B Alex Casilla, Minnesote Twins
- OF Matt LaPorta, Cleveland Indians
- OF Mark Teahen, Kansas City Royals
- SS Erick Aybar, Los Angeles Angels
- 2B Clint Barmes, Colorado Rockies
- SS Edgar Renteria, San Francisco Giants
- SP James MacDonald, Los Angeles Dodgers
- RP Jon Rauch, Arizona Diamondbacks
- SS Alex Gonzalez, Cincinnati Reds
- OF Skip Schumaker, St. Louis Cardinals
- OF Reed Johnson, Chicago Cubs