Fantasy Baseball Offseason Thoughts: Jose Reyes, Gerrit Cole, Hanley Ramirez, CC Sabathia, and Others

I just completed the review of my preseason rankings this week, and that means we here at Fake Teams are ready to provide our early look at 2012 position rankings within the next week or so. Robert, Jason and I will divvy up the rankings as follows:

Catcher- Robert

First Base- Ray

Second Base- Jason

Shortstop- Jason

Third Base- Robert

Outfield- Ray

Starting Pitchers- Robert

Relievers- Jason

I tweeted a few nights ago that new Marlins manager was considering moving Hanley Ramirez off of shortstop. Where would he go? Third base, I assume. If he does, his value would take a hit once he loses shortstop eligibility. But that may take a few years, I imagine. Even still, I think Hanley will drop in most 2012 rankings.

What are the chances Yankees ace leaves the Yankees. It is a given he will opt out, but I am sure the Yankees will do their best to make him an offer he can't refuse before he can opt out 3 days after the World Series ends. Who will be interested in CC should he elect free agency? I can see the Rangers, Red Sox, Nationals and maybe the Blue Jays showing interest.

More offseason fantasy baseball thoughts after the jump:

Cubs fans must be rejoicing today with news that not only is Theo Epstein joining the club as President of Baseball Operations, now Padres GM Jed Hoyer will join the club as their new GM. And Jason McLeod, apparently, will follow them and become their director of scouting. A team in desperate need of a rebuild gets 3 guys who will rebuild the team through the draft and player development, and Theo could bring the Cubs a World Series championship in the next 5-6 years.

Pirates 2011 first round pick Gerrit Cole made his first AFL start yesterday and here is Bucs Dugout's Charlie Wilmoth with an update on his performance:

It's underway. Jason Grey writes that the first five fastballs of Cole's start went 98 98, 100, 97 and 97 MPH.

Robbie Grossman has homered in his first at-bat.

UPDATE: Cole pitched three scoreless innings. He needed about a billion pitches to get through the second inning, so it wasn't perfect, but that's an awfully good outing for someone who hasn't pitched in the minors yet. Nate Baker is in now.

Checking out twitter yesterday, i found this tweet from Jaypers413, the guy who ALWAYS gets his questions answered in Baseball America chats:

Jaypers413 J.P.

Mesa's Gerrit Cole put together a very impressive outing today. 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K. 53 pitches, 33 strikes. #Pirates

Yu Darvish, the starting pitcher from Japan, is rumored to be considering posting to allow him to pitch in MLB in 2012. The Yankees are among the many teams who have scouted Darvish, along with the Blue Jays and Rangers, and FanGraphs' Dave Cameron thinks the Yankees are the favorite to sign Darvish this offseason, should he post. Darvish threw 232 innings this season with a 1.44 ERA and an eye-popping 276-36 K/BB rate. Wow.

Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard had surgery last week to repair his torn achilles and there is talk that he could miss more time that the Phillies are publicizing. As it stands now, the Phillies have stated that he should be ready in April-May timeframe. I think he will be lucky to be back by Memorial Day. A big guy coming back from a torn achilles doesn't come back in 6 months, in my opinion. As a result, he may fall out of my Top 10 first baseman for 2012.

A guy who will make my Top 10 first baseman rankings is Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer. I think Hosmer can go 25-90-15-.300 in 2012. I will have more on Hosmer in my upcoming first base rankings.

Newsday's David Lennon tweeted this last night regarding Jose Reyes:

@DPLennon

David Lennon

#Mets very wary of #Nationals as up-and-coming team, with two players saying they wouldn't be surprised to see Jose Reyes wind up there.

Can you imagine Reyes in the Nationals lineup with Ryan Zimmerman, Michael Morse, Jayson Werth, Danny Espinosa, Wilson Ramos and Bryce Harper at some point in 2012? The signing of Reyes would signal the Nationals are VERY serious about winning, and could bring more potential free agents to Washington in the next few years.