One might think, given the value of 20 home runs in fantasy — from a catcher, no less — that Wilson Ramos would be a man in demand. After all, he put up 16 dingers last year, good for 10th among catchers, and did so in just 303 plate appearances. So it’s a bit surprising that as drafts come to a close this month, the Venezuelan has been going 11th in mixed leagues despite his potential to finish inside the top five at his position. What gives?

Well, there’s his ability — inability, more accurately — to stay on the field, of course. Over the past three seasons, Ramos has averaged just 72 games, or 278 plate appearances. A torn ACL suffered in early 2012 led to two knee surgeries, and hamstring problems — perhaps not unrelated to the ACL tear — ruined his first half last year. But he played full-time upon returning for good in early July, and ended up catching 23 straight games toward the end of the season, the majors’ longest such streak last year. Over the winter, Ramos played winter ball in Venezuela, and now says he’s fully healthy. Yes, that reeks of Best Shape of His Life, but then again, it’s better to hear that than the alternative, right?

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Before I go gushing over all that crazy, delicious power, allow me to qualify the title statement and tell you that I’m strictly talking about drafting him as the second catcher in a two-catcher league. The position is extremely deep once again, so using him in a 12-to-14-team league as your primary backstop is not the way to go. I would consider him as my primary in a deep AL-only league, but for the sake of this discussion, I am speaking in terms of complementary help in most mixed leagues that require you to start two backstops.

Now let’s gush!

When Geovany Soto was diagnosed with a torn meniscus and word broke that he would be out for 10-to-12 weeks, I immediately bumped J.P. Arencibia up my draft boards. With that power in that ballpark? It seemed like a no-brainer for someone who, while averaging just 421 at-bats over his first three seasons, averaged just over 20 home runs and 63 RBI per year. Now with a bigger role in Texas and in a more productive lineup, that power is indeed, as David Wiers put it in Tuesday’s Roto Riteup, borderline tantalizing. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the RotoGraphs consensus positional rankings have been published, it’s time for the 2014 edition of Pod’s Picks! Once again, I will be identifying the players at each position in which my rankings differ most from the consensus. This year, I have removed my rankings and recalculated the consensus rank to paint a more accurate picture of what the other three are thinking. This new consensus is what I will be comparing my ranking to.

First, I will start with catchers. The bullish section will only include players from my top 24, while the bearish group will only include those whose consensus is in the top 24.

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Here’s a super easy post, I’ll admit it. All I did was take the difference between my rankings and the consensus rankings (which you can find on the right-hand nav bar) and sort. But I’ll do a little writeup for each group of hitters so you can know why I like them. The numbers listed for each player are steamer projections, which aren’t exactly what I used, but can give you an idea of how useful the player will be in your league. Good luck drafting.

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It’s time now to start rolling out the rankings, as the drafts are starting to get scheduled and everyone’s prepping. Once we’re doing rolling these out, we’ll give you a spreadsheet with our rankings and steamer projections. That way you can erase my rankings and improve your experience, if that’s what you’re all about. You’ll notice that the ‘draft tools’ box to the bottom right is slowly filling up. And if you need a little ‘extra,’ there’s always FG+ to give you advanced fantasy research and player caps on 1250 player pages.

No more ado. Catchers!

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With the proliferation of analysis available to fantasy players, the gap between the worst and best owners has shrunk. It’s much more rare to see an owner put together a truly awful draft or auction today than it was even ten years ago, simply because it’s seemingly impossible to use the internet without stumbling across some scrap of fantasy analysis. Even Jimmy from accounting, who knows next-to-nothing about fantasy baseball, can print off a few cheat sheets and put together a team that isn’t a total abomination.

Much like its real-life counterpart, fantasy baseball is a game in which one must constantly be searching for new market inefficiencies. One theory that I’m a big proponent of is capitalizing on reactions to small samples, specifically bad ones. As it turns out, Travis d’Arnaud is just the example I was looking for.

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While Matt Harvey’s Tommy John surgery has Mets fans looking ahead to 2015 for the next signs of competitive postseason baseball, fantasy owners needn’t wait so long, at least so far as New York’s infield is concerned. With a near-elite option holding down the hot corner and a couple of intriguing upside artists elsewhere, the Mets offer help at some typically hard-to-fill fantasy positions – at prices that may be bargains come draft day.

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Smarter minds than mine have addressed the Indians experimenting with Carlos Santana at 3B, but those minds have looked at things like “defense” and “what the Indians need” and “does this make any sense at all.”

But you and I, we are fantasy players and care not for defensive deficiencies or displaced utility infielders. What we care about is whether or not Carlos Santana playing 3B impacts his fantasy value.

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Think about the Giants’ infield, and inevitably you wonder if the large mound at third can rebound from a disastrous year at the plate. Of course, there’s a breakout candidate at first base, and two deep leaguers up the middle, but you can’t help thinking about Pablo Sandoval first.

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On the surface, Joe Mauer’s 2013 season looks like business as usual. In fact, compare the lines:

.324/.404/.476 in 2013
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.323/.405/.468 career mark

But it would be foolhardy to think it’ll be business as usual with Mauer going forward, and there are a few reasons why. Read the rest of this entry »