At what point do you actually acknowledge that the “little guy” can help your fantasy team. At what point does Raul Ibanez start to get a ton of credit as an absolute fantasy monster?
To me, these guys should have ongoing merit throughout the year. While they aren’t the players you consider as your core keeper guys, they should definitely be factoring into your club on an ongoing basis. Even more, as the season wears on, you might even consider dumping that fringe keeper player in favor of a streaking talent (no, I’m not talking about Wil Ferrell).
Over the first two months of the season the following guys have creped into the top 100 fantasy ranked players (according to Yahoo!): Raul Ibanez (the current top ranked hitter); Aaron Hill; Jason Bartlett; Adam Lind; Orlando Hudson; Brandon Inge; Marco Scutaro; Rickie Weeks (although that will change); Asdrubal Cabrera; Nick Johnson; Ryan Theriot; Kosuke Fukudome; Kendry Morales; Michael Bourn; Coco Crisp; Russell Branyan, and Nyjer Morgan.
That’s 12 guys who have more than hung with the likes of Hanley Ramirez and Grady Sizemore.
In my Yahoo! League, check out where these guys were selected in a 12-team league (5 keepers): Raul Ibanez – 16th round (easily the best talent in the league thus far), Aaron Hill – Not Drafted, Jason Bartlett – Not Drafted, Adam Lind – 20th round, Orlando Hudson – 18th round, Brandon Inge – Not Drafted, Marco Scutaro – Not Drafted, Rickie Weeks – 21st Round, Asdrubal Cabrera – Not Drafted, Nick Johnson – Not Drafted, Ryan Theriot – Not Drafted, Kosuke Fukodome – Not Drafted, Kendry Morales – Not Drafted, Michael Bourn – 24th round, Coco Crisp – 25th round, Nyjer Morgan – Not Drafted, Russell Branyan – Not Drafted.
Obviously a good portion of these guys won’t last (Weeks is already done for the season). Still, it makes you wonder if you played in a league where all you did was scrounge the waiver wire for streaky players, whether you could displace even the most potent teams in the league.
Where this may have a ton of relevance is at the end of the season as you’re making your fantasy playoff run. How many times have you hung onto a big name, underperforming player who is going to keep you from making the playoffs? It happens. It’s counter intuitive to think that you should drop that big name player for the likes of Nyjer Morgan, but many times that’s the best thing you can do (especially in a non-keeper league).
I’m not advising you to go out and dump Jose Reyes for Marco Scutaro at this point, but as the season wears on, you might want to think twice when Josh Beckett is battling arm issues and Brian Bannister is getting hot. You might think twice about Vernon Wells and turn to Kendry Morales. By having a little guts and pursuing the underdog, it might be just the break you need to take it all this season.
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Some good points Chewy, it’s always tough and takes some guts to figure out who is for real and who isn’t and when to sell/buy. If I could comment futher about Aaron Hill – I think people do not really know him yet as more than a hot start because he plays in Toronto, but this kid is legit and has a history of nothing but top-notch performance. Hill was drafted in the 7th round in 2000, declined and attended LSU where he was a big-time player, including all-american and all SEC, and was again drafted in 2003 with the 13th overall pick, 1st round. He was 2003 prospect of the year, MVP of the futures game, and multiple minor league all-star teams, amongst other honors. He came up in 2005 with the Jays, had a great 2007 and was then hurt in 2008. Will he keep up top 10 production, no, probably not, but he is a guy that I think will stick around and perform as a top 2b for the entire year.
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