Key Stats: Yu Darvish's 1.44 ERA last season was almost a full run lower than that of Daisuke Matsuzaka's in his age 24 season as Charlie pointed out last week. More on Dice-K in the Peer Comparison, but that's a very low ERA. Zips believes he will strikeout 169 and have a 3.62 ERA while Oliver has him perhaps contending for the Cy Young with a 2.40 ERA and 223 strikeouts. 

Skeptics Say: Hey come to Arlington! Wouldn't you like to have the great Nolan Ryan as your boss? With him in town this place is where all the pitchers want to come. Ok it's not like the Rangers had to sell him on this since he was sold to the Rangers, but the ballpark is less than ideal. It's also not an entirely ideal situation in terms of what's expected of him. The Rangers have been knocking on the doorstep of a championship the last couple of seasons, and obviously now fans will expect that he is going to be the guy that puts them over the top. 

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?

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.

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. 

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. 

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?