Surprise, surprise, Josh Hamilton is hurt again. Yesterday, Eno Sarris outlined what the Rangers are likely to do in terms of divvying up playing time in Hamilton’s absence. David Murphy is a potential replacement for your fantasy team, but he is likely to already be owned in deep leagues. As a result, I have decided to ignore him and provide some other outfield options for those owners struggling to replace Hamilton’s production.

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Earlier today, we learned that Josh Hamilton would miss six-to-eight weeks with a non-displaced fracture of his humorous bone. Check that, humerus – it’s not very funny for Rangers fans and Hamilton owners, after all. Badumching. What does this mean for the Rangers? We’ll be right along with plenty of waiver wire replacements, but the Rangers will obviously need to move things around.

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As you’ve all seen/read/heard by now, the big news late last week revolved around one Manuel Aristides Ramírez Onelcida and his abrupt retirement from baseball. Expected to be a big part of the Rays’ offense when he signed in the offseason, Ramirez said goodbye after just 17 (mostly hitless) at-bats rather than face whatever “issue” he was alerted of by MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Our Jonah Keri chimed in with his immediate reaction in the wake of the news, but let’s break down the fantasy fallout of Manny’s decision.

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Let’s take a look at a couple National League outfielders that might be interesting for teams of different depths.

Michael Morse (20% owned in Yahoo, 2.8% owned in ESPN)
Maybe ESPN has fewer five-outfield leagues. Maybe Yahoo has more NL-only leagues. ESPN’s projections aren’t fabulous – a .341 OBP with 15 home runs – but you’d think that would be owned in more than 2.8% of all leagues. Let’s not get too up in arms about this, though, because Morse is making it tough for us to love him. Yes, he’s playing at first base with Adam LaRoche feeling his sore shoulder, but its unlikely he’s going to be worth much more as a corner infielder than a fifth outfielder. The thing that is most concerning about his early-season work is his strikeout rate. So far he’s struck out in a third of his at-bats after putting up a 23.9% percentage over his career. It’s in a small sample size, but given that Morse struck out in 30.1% of his 55 PAs in 2009 and 24.1% of his 293 PAs last year, and that makes up about half of his 717 career major league PAs, we shouldn’t be sure that we know his true-talent-level strikeout rate just yet.

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Two starters and an outfielder as you contemplate whether or not Willie Bloomquist is actually worth a roster spot…

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Two starters and an outfielder for your team before the weekend begins…

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It’s a tough time of year to find fantasy gold on your waiver wire as your competition is picking through players just as intently as you.  But you might want to build your bench depth by taking a chance on some overlooked guys like a veteran infielder who has had batting average issues or a formerly hyped prospect who just needed a little extra time to break out. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot can change just a few days into the season. Like the 4-0 Orioles suddenly becoming World Series favorites! But surprising starts, unforeseen injuries and unexpected roster-makers will mess with even the best laid plans. Let’s hit on all three below, in the form of AL outfielders.

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As a RotoGraph positional correspondent, I’ll be updating the National League outfielder rankings and discussing all things NL OF here going forward. Since it’s a little early to be changing up the rankings, let’s just talk about a couple of outfielders that might deserve to be owned in more leagues.

Lance Berkman (33% owned in Yahoo, 97.4% in ESPN)
This is a strange one. I would actually argue that he deserves to be owned in fewer than 97.4% of leagues because I don’t think the outfield will do his body good. With knee and back problems already in his past, roaming the expansive outfield in St. Louis will probably mean more missed games over the course of the season, and his muted power upside and average-ish averages mean he shouldn’t be owned in almost every league – that sort of ownership level suggests dependability and consistent ability.

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I’ve actually never been a big fan of Jayson Werth, and when he left Philadelphia for a $126M, 7 year deal with Washington, I liked him even less.  Not only was he leaving hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park and the safety of that power lineup, but he was also slated to bat cleanup for the Nationals which had the potential of creating major problems for him and crushing the fantasy expectations of his owners.  However, now that Jim Riggleman has Werth batting second, the prospect of him retaining a quality fantasy value, in my opinion, has greatly increased. Read the rest of this entry »