We are entering year two of the post-Albert era in St. Louis and after an 88-win season that resulted in a wild card berth and a trip to the NLCS that fell just one win short of a World Series appearance, the Cardinals are returning with a largely unchanged infield configuration. For better or for worse, the St. Louis brass opted to leave things as is and let other teams play the free agent market this season. The “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy is in play here and for fantasy purposes, it’s not bad, but the upside is just as limited now as it was just a year ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Considering I just covered the A’s infield earlier this month when the team acquired infielder Jed Lowrie in exchange for Brad Peacock and Chris Carter, this one will actually be short and sweet. There hasn’t been any change in the two weeks since that last article was published. What I did do was a little more studying of the team and consulted with those who follow the A’s much more closely than I do and whose opinions I trust and respect. Read the rest of this entry »

Phew. After a nearly four and a half hour snake draft online, I have officially completed the earliest draft in my fantasy baseball career. LABR stands for League of Alternative Baseball Reality, and along with Tout Wars, is one of the two most publicized “expert” leagues. In the past, LABR has had only two leagues, an AL-Only and NL-Only, with both formats using a live auction in Arizona to select players. Last year, a mixed league with an online draft was formed and I participated in the inaugural season as well. With that background out of the way, let’s get into more league specifics.

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Jurickson Profar has a strong chance at being the consensus best prospect in baseball entering the season. Both MLB.com and ESPN’s Keith Law agree, ranking him in the top slot. And while Baseball America hasn’t divulged their list yet, Profar graces the cover of this year’s Prospect Handbook. For FG+ this season, which you should buy if you haven’t already, I did an article looking at whether it’s worth it to draft prospects in a re-draft league. Since I found playing time to be a major factor in whether a prospect can be successful during their rookie year, I did not look at whether the elite prospects were more likely to have a successful fantasy season. Profar may enter the year as baseball’s best prospect, but does that mean anything for his fantasy value?

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The Houston Astros’ shortstop is gone! Long live the Houston Astros’ shortstop.

In all honesty, Jed Lowrie probably wasn’t the kind of guy you build a dynasty around. Call him Edward VIII — to avoid the problems that might arise from entrusting your rebuilding team in the hands of a capable, but oft-injured shortstop, Lowrie abdicated his throne as Edward once did. Then again, his successor may not last long either. Well, Tyler Greene, Jake Elmore and Marwin Gonzalez are all under team control until the end of the 2016 season, but there’s the matter of the other challengers for the title. The Houston Astros have at least three top prospects at the position, including their number one (or two) prospect and last year’s number one overall pick, Carlos Correa.

No matter. In order to put one foot in front of the other and keep an orderly society, all we need to know is who will be on top of the heap this year.

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As you are no doubt aware, a venerable group of fantasy baseball zealots enthusiasts participated recently in the self-titled Ridiculously Early Mock Draft, selecting a range of players to both laud and lambaste by you all. We presented you with the first five rounds last week, and I subsequently looked at the potential for third baseman among (and omitted from) that group. Now that we have rounds six through ten, I’ll present to you a similar analysis of their swifter counterparts to the left, the shortstops.

But first, the official list:

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They both weigh 170 pounds! Okay, one’s a lithe 6-foot-2, quick-twitch shortstop, and the other is a stocky 5-foot-7 second baseman, and actually we’ll get to many more differences as we go, but in the world of fantasy middle infielders, is there room for a comparison? Andrelton Simmons could be the late sleeper we all need at a tough position, just like Jose Altuve was last year.

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In our Ridiculously Early Mock Draft — still ongoing — my first two picks ‘around the turn’ were Troy Tulowitzki and Adrian Beltre. But Evan Longoria went one pick later and I was ready to take the down on their luck pair. A year ago, that duo would have been deemed a coup, most likely — a right side of the infield filled with sixty home runs and twenty-plus stolen bases and a good batting average. This year, the picks were met with critique.

As the “Two Month Tulo” moniker from that comment suggests, most of the problem is health-related. Though the Tulo and Longo are 28 and 27 years old respectively, there’s a sense that perhaps the projections are too plate-appearance heavy for two guys that have succumbed to major injuries in multiple seasons over their young careers to date. Health does seem like a skill, but because of the way projections work, it’s a skill that should be factored into every projection you see.

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The perennially blah Stephen Drew is packing his bags again, this time heading to Boston after signing with the Red Sox last week. Drew was limited to just about a half season worth of at-bats after a long recovery from an ankle injury that cut his 2011 season short. It ended up being his worst offensive performance, as he mustered just a .291 wOBA. Now taking his craft to New England, let’s find out if park factors will help him at all.

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Stephen Drew signed with Boston for a year and ten mill, hoping to use that pillow contract to bounce back and get a better long-term deal in the future. For a player that sports an above-average career walk rate and some positive fielding years on his ledger, it’s certainly possible that Drew provides good real-life value but remains a fantasy enigma. After all, there’s a decline in many of his numbers that has nothing to do with his horrific injury at the end of the 2011 season.

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