In this day and age there is pretty much no such thing as a sleeper. With an astronomical amount of fantasy baseball content being published every day from sources both new and old, even the most casual of fantasy baseball GMs need only to take a few minutes to browse the internet before finding the late-round players that everyone is touting as “sleepers”. We’ll do the same as February gives way to March, the official month of fantasy baseball draft season. But before we do that, let’s try to find some potential value in players that will most likely go undrafted in standard mixed leagues. These players are usually aging veterans with declining numbers, but sometimes a promising circumstance makes all the difference. While the probability is low that any of these players will have a huge bounce-back season, there might just be enough left in their tanks to make them mixed league worthy and at the low-low price of a early season free agent addition.

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The Phillies system graduated Domonic Brown last year, and dealt arguably their two best prospects at the time to acquire Hunter Pence. That loss of talent down on the farm, for one reason or another, leaves both top fives below a bit lackluster. no comments

Key Stats: Despite the up down up down ERA problems that have been plaguing Beckett the last six years, 2011 was as good as any he has had. His best K:BB ratio in 3 years paired with his highest fly ball rate since his 2002 rookie season paved the way for a ridiculously low .207 opponent batting average. 

Skeptics Say: Despite the great season, there are a lot of signs that point to him being lucky. Exhibt A - His 2.89 ERA is accompanied by a FIP and xFIP of 3.57 and 3.58 and his tERA and SIERA were 3.82 and 3.42, respectively. While half run differentials aren't deal breakers, they do show that for once Beckett had some good luck on his side. The aforementioned .207 opponent AVG was aided by a career best .242 BABIP. The high fly ball rate also came with a HR/FB rate of 9.6, his lowest since 2007. While the 13-7 record isn't sparkling, all the rest of the numbers point to 2011 being a "career" year for Beckett, and those types of seasons are tough to replicate.

This article appears in The Fantasy Fix 2012 Draft Guide on sale now for $4.99 at www.thefantasyfix.com. Fantasybaseball365 staff writers Josh Shepardson (@bchad50) and Matt McMillen (@mattmcmillen365) were contributors to the kit.

It’s inevitable. Each year players get hurt and miss the remainder of a season, or season entirely, and ends up getting lost in the shuffle come draft time the following year. An adept and well informed owner can use this to his advantage on draft day to get some mid to late round bargains. That being said, who may be forgotten about this year that could cause some face palming from your opponents when you spend your 17^th round pick or later on someone who could hit 30 HR? You could target (in no particular order)…
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Our composite first base rankings go deep (53), but there is more than a little discrepencey on many of the mid-tier players.

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Key Stats: Chase Utley reached first base via hit or walk 104 times last year. He wound up with 14 steals. He was stealing a base over 13% of the the time that he reached base. Despite the fact that Utley was 32 and has battled numerous injuries now, that is the highest percentage of steals per times at first base of his career. Charlie Manuel still trusts in this guy to let him run this frequently and Utley still has the ability to make things happen on the base paths. It's a sign that athletically his game is still there. 

Skeptics Say: He's always hurt and on the field hasn't shown much aside from the steals lately. The last two seasons, Utley has missed 47 and 59 games. His batting average over that time has dropped 28 points off of what his career average had been until the past two seasons. This season he will turn 33, so it is impossible to ignore the drop-off as bad luck or to call Utley too consistent to turn down. 

Key Stats: On a June night in 2009 I was in a hotel room the night before my sisters wedding hanging out with family and friends. My cousin, who grew up and has lived in Pittsburgh nearly all his life was pumped not only for the wedding, but because his Penguins were in the Stanley Cup Finals. After the game, and celebration of winning the Cup, I asked him about the Pirates, and this kid McCutchen they had just called up. "What do you think?" I said. Have you seen him play?" "Dude is gonna be a star." he told me. 'Cutch finished that rookie year batting .286 over 108 games. He hit 12 HR's and stole 22 bases. He scored 74 runs on an inept Pirates team and things have just kept getting better. He repeated his .286 average over a full 2010 campaign, and scored nearly 100 runs. 2011 saw his first 20/20 season. This year, Eno Sarris says he can flirt with 30/30. 

The top two prospects in this system pack a Mike Tyson-eque punch. The rest are more Joe Glass-esque. Still, high ceiling talent is the name of the fantasy game. A few other prospects could surprise if their tools click, but in some cases, that's a huge if.