The Chicago Cubs recently acquired Ian Stewart, ostensibly to man the position vacated by Aramis Ramirez. While those are pretty big shoes to fill, Stewart certainly has some intrigue relative to his fantasy baseball value.

Stewart, 26, seems to be a perennial sleeper on draft lists due to his singular ability to hit the ball out of the park. But both his real-life employer and his fantasy managers grew tired of his inability to make consistent contact, dragging his batting average into the range where he was barely useful — and then in 2011, the wheels fell off and he found himself routinely driving between Colorado Springs and Denver.

Stewart now gets the popular “change of scenery” to attempt to make a fresh start and revive the promise that made him a first round draft pick back in 2003. Will he be able to do it is the big question, of course.

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While we aren’t sure whether or not Hanley Ramirez is going to stick around in Miami now that Jose Reyes has come to town to take over the shortstop gig, but if he stays in South Florida, how does the Reyes’ signing affect Hanley’s fantasy value?

It’s a safe bet that Hanley’s HR and batting average aren’t likely to be affected by Reyes’, but other aspects of his fantasy value will undergo some slight changes. Let’s look at them, shall we?

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Chase Headley was an exciting and very promising player in the minor leagues after being drafted in the 2nd round of the 2005 amateur draft. Over four minor league seasons, Headley hit .301/.399/.500. In 2008 at AAA Portland, Headley hit .305/.383/.556 with 13 HR in just 65 games, earning a permanent call to the majors.

Since then, the power hasn’t really developed as the Padres probably envisioned. He has a career line of .269/.343/.392 with just 36 home runs over more than 2000 plate appearances. In real-life baseball, Headley is valuable because of his low cost and decent glove but in fantasy baseball circles, you’re typically looking for more out of your corner infielders. But there may be some reason for optimism with Headley going forward.

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It should come as no surprise that the Rockies are shopping Ian Stewart. The former top prospect is now seven years removed from being named as one of the top five prospects in the game by Baseball America; he spent much of 2011 in the minor leagues; and he has one of the better prospects in the organization, Nolan Arenado, hot on his heels. He showed promise in his half-season of work in 2008, but when the Rockies gave him a more concerted shot in 2009, he increased his WAR total by just 0.4 in nearly 200 more PAs. Whatever progress he had made toward getting a full-time job with incremental improvements in 2009 and 2010 was more or less undone by his simply awful 2011 season. Read the rest of this entry »

Several years ago I wrote an article for an old blog in which I literally argued with myself about Jimmy Rollins. I played the role of both the bull and the bear and imagined these two selves having a debate. I suddenly remembered that article while wondering what to write about for today’s post and thought it may be entertaining to try it again. As you read through the dialogue, try to figure out which side, if any, I am actually on and let me know in the comments if you were right. So, without further ado, I present to you Bull Mike and Bear Mike arguing about Brett Lawrie’s 2012 fantasy value…

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Ty Wigginton has hit 117 home runs the last six seasons combined. No kidding.

For someone who has hit 20 or more home runs in four of his last six years, Wigginton doesn’t get a whole lot of respect in fantasy baseball circles. Why? Perhaps because he’s rarely had a defined role other than “super-utility.” Wigginton, 34, has played all over the diamond in his career (those 13 innings at shortstop in 2009 were no doubt a boon to many) but for fantasy baseball purposes, it’s difficult to rely on consistent at-bats from him (even though he gets pretty consistent at-bats). But he now takes his act to Philadelphia, where that stigma only worsens.

Wigginton will qualify at first base, third base, and outfield in almost all formats and manager Charlie Manuel has indicated that Wigginton will be used mostly at the corner infield positions. At last check, those corner positions are currently occupied by Placido Polanco and Ryan Howard. So how will this play out for Wigginton?

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Over the last week or so we’ve done plenty of articles discussing the impending move of the Houston Astros to the American League and how it will impact those in the fantasy baseball community.  But no matter how many times we attempt to look on the bright side and find the silver lining in it all, there’s one common thing that seems to come through in every piece.  It’s like that early montage in the movie Major League where the Indians’ fan base is looking at their 40 man roster in disbelief — from some guy asking who Mitchell Friedman is to the groundskeepers’ claims that “these guys are sh*tty”.  There’s almost no love for the 2012 Astros and very little hope for the club moving forward.  However, just like the old fantasy adage (is there such a thing?) that states that even closers on bad teams can be good and helpful, the same can be said about everyday players from Houston.  Just because the team is in relative shambles, doesn’t mean that you can’t find some helpful players at a bargain cost.

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Pedro Alvarez was supposed to be a middle-of-the-order force by now, threatening to sink boaters in the Allegheny River with each mighty cut and working walks with his keen eye. Instead, the second overall pick out of Vanderbilt in the ’08 draft was the second-most valuable infielder named Pedro on his own team in 2011 (Ciriaco: 0.2 Wins Above Replacement, Alvarez: -0.8 WAR). Through a little less than 650 plate appearances in the majors, Pittsburgh’s $6 million man has a .230 average, a .304 OBP and a .392 slugging percentage. The main reason is his resemblance to another, albeit fictional Pedro. Pedro Cerrano.

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It’s the early offseason. Very few free agents have signed, and no trades have been completed. The GMs are in Milwaukee without internet and with wintry mix. The winter meetings are still a week or two away. Perfect time for a mock draft, or at least so thought Derek Van Riper at RotoWire. So he got us all together for a 15-team 30-round NFBC-style colossus of a mock draft last week — here are the results for your own perusal.

There are a million ways to break down a draft, so if you want more on this, let me know. to keep it simple at first, let’s just highlight some picks that seemed like the steals and reaches of the draft.

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Kansas City’s Mike Moustakas and Cleveland’s Lonnie Chisenhall are supposed to be the future of third base in the AL Central. Both are former first-round draft picks, as Moustakas was taken second overall out of Chatsworth (Ca.) High in 2007 and Chisenhall was popped at #29 out of Pitt (N.C.) Community College in 2008. And both lefty hitters ranked among Baseball America’s top 25 prospects entering the 2011 season, with Moose placing ninth and Chisenhall coming in at 25.

Unfortunately, both are also coming off pretty lousy first seasons in the major leagues. Moustakas batted .263, got on base at a .309 clip and slugged .367 in 365 plate appearances for the Royals after getting the call in June. Chisenhall, meanwhile, slashed .255/.284/.415 in 223 PA following a late-June call-up. That’s despite the Royals and Indians spotting for them against lefties: Moustakas had the platoon advantage in 73 percent of his PAs, and Chisenhall 77 percent.

A rough rookie start isn’t cause for panic for either 23-year-old. Plenty of hitters have scuffled at first in the majors before finding their footing. But for Moustakas and Chisenhall to make good on their glowing scouting reports, they’ll have to drastically improve their strike-zone judgment.

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