The guys over at The Great Mambino Blog asked me for my two cents on pretty much any fantasy topic I wanted. Given that McMillen and I have been writing about peer comparisons for the last couple of months I decided to focus on the rankings that I thought were wrong. Here's a snipet:

"A-Rod is old and getting worse, but Pablo Sandoval has no right to go ahead of him in drafts. You’ve got a guy with the anti-midus touch and a guy with the Nutty Professor touch off the field, but disregard that for a sec. Kung Fu Panda has never driven in more than 90 runs, hit more than 25 home runs, or scored more than 80 runs in a season. A-Rod did it for 12 years in a row before last year. CBS, ESPN, Yahoo all seem to think that Sandoval is better anyway. Look, I know he’s old, you don’t like him, and you don’t want him on your team. All I’m saying is don’t pick Kung Fu Panda over him."

For the complete story go to The Great Mambino.  no comments

Key Stats: Prince Fielder took his talents to the Motor City after a fifth consecutive season with over 30 home runs. Only Ryan Howard has more home runs since 2007, but Fielder has an OPS that is more than 50 points higher than Howard during that stretch. Fielder is one of only a handful of hitters in the league that have hit 50 home runs in a season and could do it this season.

Skeptics Say: Fielder had a home OPS that was .227 points better at home than it was away from Miller Park last year. In 6 games at Comerica Park he is a .174 hitter. It’s a small sample size, but concerning nonetheless. Last season, Comerica was actually one spot ahead of Miller Park (9^th and 10^th) according to the metrics at ESPN Park Factors. Oh and let’s not forget the possibility for a total lack of motivation after getting paid.

Peer Comparison: Albert Pujols stole most of the headlines away from Fielder’s departure, but what player will benefit most from the lineup around him? The easy answer is to say that it’s Fielder because of Miguel Cabrera’s presence. Yet if we add the totals for the 8 starters on each team from last season, the Angels actually have 7 more home runs (including Mark Trumbo and not Kendrys Morales). Obviously this ignores the number of at-bats a player like Andy Dirks had or the fact that Chris Iannetta wasn’t on the Angels last year. The Tigers lineup did have more runs from their other eight hitters and more RBI. no comments

Thank you all for taking a look at the next installment of my position ranks. The top 10 I have here shouldn't surprise anyone, but after that I'm either gonna take some heat from people or reassure some. I value players that provide power and speed above anything else, so keep that in mind as you peruse the list.

My complete position rankings in handy google doc format is available here.

On to the list...starting outside the top 10...those guys need no explanation...

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Key Stats: The big story in baseball today is the Wilpon’s settling out of court in the Madoff case. So the Mets avoided court… yay? How come no one is taking the Yankees to court when they stole Granderson from the Tigers in 2009? I’m not sure what the statute of limitations is on grand larceny in NY State, or is this a Federal matter since it crossed state lines? In anycase, while Ian Kennedy has held up his end of the deal, Phil Coke isn’t as good as Coke Zero and Austin Jackson is like Curtis Granderson before Curtis Granderson decided to be Curtis Granderson, but somehow we feel will never be Curtis Granderson. 2011 numbers and major league rank in parenthesis follow: 41 HR (2^nd), 119 RBI (3^rd), 136 Runs (1^st…by a lot), let’s not forget the 25 steals he had as well. It is not an outlandish statement to say Granderson helped many people win championships last year. Career year? Career year. Do we pay for career years the following season? Not always. Can he do it again? Maybe…

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One thing became abundantly clear when compiling both top fives for the Twins, their high ceiling talent lies in the low minors. For an older squad that could use some present day help, that's probably not a good thing. Regardless, the trio that fronts the Twins prospect list could provide some serious punch in a few years. no comments

Key Stats: Roy Halladay has been ranked among the top 15 overall players in fantasy baseball for four straight seasons. The only other player that can claim the same is Albert Pujols. Coming from a pitcher that’s amazing. While I would contend that Miguel Cabrera and Ryan Braun are more of a sure thing than Halladay, Halladay is probably the fourth best guarantee in fantasy baseball.

Skeptics Say: In three starts so far this spring, Halladay has an ERA north of 10. Halladay claims that he is not hurt and just said that it will take him longer to get going as a veteran with lots of miles on his arm. Does that mean he won’t be good in April? I doubt it – last year he had a 2.14 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in that month. no comments

Key Stats: Cliff Lee is like a fine wine. At age 32 last season, he had the best year of his career. He had an 0.45 ERA in the month of August and that was bad compared to the June that he had. He demolished his best strikeout and ERA seasons, threw more innings, and had six complete game shutouts. We can say that he was lucky, and to an extent he was, but he was also as dominant as ever.

Skeptics Say: Both Lee’s FIP and xFIP were higher than his ERA. Also, he will be 33 this season. Pitching as well as he did at age 32 isn’t quite unheard of, but replicating last season will be a very tall order. Lee had just a 9.3% swing and miss rate, but managed a K% close to 26%. By comparison, John Danks also had a 9.3% swing and miss rate, but had a K% of 18.5%. Lee does rely on called strikes of course, but expect this number to drop anyway.

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