You may have heard about the Royals decision to designate Emilio Bonifacio for assignment. Bonifacio is widely regarded as ever so slightly better than replacement level, so getting out from under most of his $3.5 million contract is probably a good thing for the Royals. That roster move actually could have fantasy ramifications. It didn’t appear as though there was consistent playing time for Bonifacio in Kansas City, whereas several teams could use his services on a regular basis. Since he’s a notable stolen base threat with a lot of fantasy flex, the right job and a little BABIP luck could make him a positive fantasy contributor.

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A couple weeks ago, Paul Swydan wrote about the Cardinals’ crowded rotation and rather than rehash that article here, let’s just agree that the Cardinals have an unfair quantity of potential starting pitchers. Paul actually undersold the system’s depth, as there are a couple prospects who talent evaluators believe will be ready sometime in 2014. With that said, let’s dive into fantasy value and expected roles.

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The Pirates have perhaps the best outfielder in baseball not named Mike Trout, but it appears that they’ll have to play mix and match in right field until their top prospect is ready to answer the call. Their outfield produced about 13 real world wins last season, and that was with terrible play from Felix Pie and Travis Snider. Fantasy owners will be hoping for a repeat in 2014.

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I read two articles the other day that helped clarify my thinking. For at least a year, I’ve been bothered by fantasy baseball’s obsession with rankings – especially preseason rankings. Imagine: here’s a list of the top 25 first baseman ranked in order of value. Except there isn’t much difference between the fourth best and the eighth best. After the 11th best it gets really ugly. Perhaps we should introduce some tiers, we’ll call them Great, Good, Average, Bad. But now there are tiers within my tiers and hidden tiers than span between my arbitrary tiers, etc. etc.

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Last season, the Athletics featured a rotation that was deep, but not exceptional. Only Bartolo Colon stood out as above average, and he’s moved on to the New York Mets. The A’s are always resourceful and they’ve built plenty of depth to fill in for the lost Colon. Next season should feature one pitcher who could be a fantasy godsend and a handful of others who have their uses.

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UPDATE: You can view complete rosters here and Steamer projections for all teams here. I’m ranked 10th currently, but saves aren’t included yet (12 points projected). 

On Tuesday, Howard Bender organized the first draft of the 2014 season for his Mock Draft Army. You can learn more about the army here.

We kept things short and simple; a 23 round snake draft with standard deep league positions, no bench, and 5×5 scoring. The picks ranged from Mike Trout at pick 1-1 to Fernando Rodney at pick 23-12.

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Let’s not dance around the subject, Jarrod Parker has an outstanding change-up. Since his first full season in 2012, Parker has teased fantasy analysts with a below average strikeout rate and above average swinging strike rate. Generally speaking, we consider swinging strike rate to be a leading indicator on overall strikeout rate. So Parker will get more strikeouts in 2014, right? Right???

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The Oakland Athletics are one of the best teams in baseball at squeezing a platoon for all that it’s worth. This has opened up some opportunities for stingy fantasy owners over the years, and that should continue into 2014. The club will return three starters and they have brought in a defensive stalwart to serve as depth.

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Welcome to today’s Ottoneu Fantasy Corner. Our topic applies to people in all leagues so by all means, settle in, grab yourself a mug of tepid tea, and prepare to be educated. While this post applies to any fantasy owner who makes trades or has a keeper decision looming over their head, I will focus on Ottoneu leagues. The keeper deadline for Ottoneu is the end of January 31, so there isn’t much time left to make up your mind about those marginal keepers. There’s no better time than now to learn about the endowment effect and how it can result in sub-optimal decisions.

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After a disappointing 81 win season, the Diamondbacks project to compete for the NL Wild Card in 2014. According to FanGraphs’ depth charts , the team is projected for the fifth most WAR in the National League, with the Rockies and Braves just ahead of them. And that tally could be a bit short, since Diamondbacks starters are only projected to throw 905 innings. For reference, that’s the kind of total posted by terrible rotations. Last season, only the Blue Jays, Rockies, and Twins got fewer innings from their starting pitchers, while the Astros edged by with 906 starter innings.

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