Key Stats: Carlos Santana is currently the first catcher off the boards in early mock drafts going in the 2nd or 3rd round. He has displayed power at every step of his young career and also shown an ability to hit for average, so the abysmal .239 he hit last year can safely be dismissed as a young player adjusting. Despite that he still pounded 25 HR's and 79 RBI's on fairly pedestrian Cleveland offense. He also has eligibility at 1B, meaning on days where a catcher would normally be resting, he'll just be using a different type of glove and still getting AB's, further fueling our fantasy rosters. Did I mention he is an OBP machine getting on at clips of .401 and .351 his first two years in big league ball?

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Key Stats: Despite missing 22 games with an oblique strain to start off 2011, and then not getting a HR in his first 21 games back (that was a span of 76 AB's) Hart still finished the year with impressive power numbers, belting 26 HR's and posting a 19.7% HR/FB ratio. Perhaps more importantly was that he had his best month last season in August going .321/.385/.594 with 8 HR. It was nice to see him hold up over a whole season after starting off with an injury that is so detrimental to a swing.

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Key Stats: Shane Victorino is one of only four outfielders in fantasy baseball to be ranked in the top 100 each of the last four seasons. The other players in this club are Ryan Braun, Matt Kemp, and Matt Holliday. Not bad company. 

Skeptics Say: Hopefully the .186 average in September is just a bad month and not a player getting worn down. Victorino will be 31 this season, so it's unlikely he's getting worn down. What is likely to happen though is that he will start to see a decline in his stolen base attempts. Victorino attempted only 22 steals last season compared to 40 in 2010.  no comments

Key Stats: A few years ago, Joe Mauer could have been considered a teriffic find at pick number 83, but now it's essentially where he belongs. That doesn't mean he can't outperform this ranking by a few spots. He had a very rough 2011, but was ranked in the top 83 in four out of five seasons before that and got as high as 12th overall in his pre-contract season in 2009. He has won 3 batting titles as a catcher and is still only 28 years old. The potential is still there for Mauer to be a great player in real and fantasy baseball if he can stay healthy. 

Skeptics Say: That is a huge if. Catchers are going to play less anyway, but considering 162 games to be a full season, Mauer has missed 20% of a season three different times and was right on that mark in 2005. There's also a huge question about him in the categories outside of batting average. Since moving to Target Field, Mauer has hit 1 home run in 396 at-bats. The lineup around him isn't going to help with RBI and runs either.  no comments

Key Stats: Shin-Soo Choo played in only 85 games last season. That’s a problem in and of itself, but when he was on the field for those 85 games he was not the player he was in 2010 when he was the 34^th ranked player in all of fantasy baseball. His walk rate was down, strikeout rate was up, average was down, and home run and double rates were down. We can’t blame all of this on playing hurt either – unless there’s an injury we did not know about. Choo was hitting .244 in late June before a pitch broke his thumb and put him on the shelf for seven weeks.

Skeptics Say: If he is healthy, he will help in all categories, but not exactly blow you away either. Choo has never had more than 90 RBI or runs scored in a season. He’s also never stolen more than 22 bases or hit 22 home runs in a season. no comments

Our 2012 keeper rankings focus on leagues that must gage the value of players for at least the next 3-5 years.

C – 1B – 2B – 3B – SS – OF – DH – SP - CL

While second base has some extremely talented hitters toward the top of the list, there are more than a few question marks as we get past the mid-way mark in the rankings. no comments

I was in the process of trying to finish up my 2012 second base keeper rankings when the name Gordon Beckham came across my eyes. Unlike most of the players I was ranking toward the bottom half of the list, Beckham struck me as one that, in some ways, shouldn't be there. But why? What has made this former first round pick (8^th overall and rated as the 20^th best prospect in baseball by Baseball America in 2009) such a colossal flop at the big league level?

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Matt Kemp finished as the MVP runner up, Clayton Kershaw won the pitching triple crown and a Cy Young award, and the team's top prospect headed into 2011, Dee Gordon, made his debut. That's essentially where the positives end for the Dodgers. The team is still up for sale, which will put to end the ugly tenure of Frank McCourt. The effects of McCourt will be felt for at least a few years after his departure, as the farm system is lacking both superstar potential at the top, and depth. That's not to say there aren't interesting prospects, but these aren't the days of Kemp, Kershaw and Ethier. no comments

Key Stats: Last season was certainly a disappointing year for Jayson Werth, but more eyebrows were raised after he signed his 7 year $126 million contract than they were when he fell 195 spots in the rankings. Werth was supposed to come apart a little last year because of the pressure of the contract and his inflated 2010 season by the numbers. That 2010 season saw him have a .352 BABIP (about 30 points higher than his career BABIP) and saw him finish with a career high 45% fly ball rate as he moved from an above average home run hitting park to an average one.

Skeptics Say: Werth will be 33 in May. That’s officially past your prime as a ball player, so he will never come close to being a top twenty kind of player again. There also wasn’t really a stretch where Werth demonstrated he was capable of carrying a fantasy team last year. He did not hit over .300 in any month and did not hit more than 4 home runs in any month. If he gets hurt even for a two week time period this year, he will have a hard time achieving this preseason ranking. no comments

Yesterday, MLB Trade Rumors passed along some links that helped answer some questions regarding the lineup the Phillies plan to use to start to season.

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