Roto Assist

Fantasy Relevance ’09 is a breakdown of each M.L.B. team that shows the players with fantasy value from each respective team. There are four categories the players will be broken down into and they are as follows: Studs, Role Players, Keepers and Sleepers. Hopefully this will help you in your quest for Fantasy Baseball dominance.

Studs:

Tim Lincecum- Last year’s NL Cy Young winner is probably going to come off the board as the one of the top three pitchers in most drafts. He is an excellent source of ERA, Wins, WHIP and K. The only thing he doesn’t do is get you Saves. Some people might think that there is no way he could repeat what he did last year but I am not one of those people. He is the real deal and will be for a very long time. There is a very good chance that he will repeat as the NL Cy Young award winner unless Johan Santana has something to say about it. He also has one of the greatest power pitchers of all-time as his stable mate in Randy Johnson. Having that veteran presence available will be an unbelievable resource for Lincecum to tap into. It is a toss up between Lincecum and Santana as to who I would pick first but I think but there is no arguing that you can’t go wrong with Lincecum on your roster. Expect Wins in the high teens with an ERA below 3.00 (I know it’s crazy), 240+ K and a WHIP below 1.20.

Role Players:

Randy Johnson- His veteran presence on San Francisco’s young pitching staff might be his biggest asset to the Giants but he showed last year that he is still a good pitcher and in the confines of AT&T Park, he should really have no problem having a decent year fantasywise. Last year he had 11 Wins with a sub-4 ERA, a 1.24 WHIP and almost had a K per inning. Those are probably the type of numbers you can expect from him this year also. He will be a good pitcher to have as a 4th starter on your roster but not much more.

Bengie Molina- He is probably the slowest man in baseball if not the slowest man on the planet, but luckily for him most fantasy owners don’t expect their catchers to rack up many steals anyway. What he does bring to the table is a decent BA and RBI production. He won’t score many runs but he will drive them in. He’ll hit around .285 with 20+ HR and 90+ RBI.

Randy Winn- A very good source of BA and a good source of SB and Runs, Winn played better last year than a lot of people gave him credit for. He is a useful OF on fantasy rosters as a compliment to a player like Jason Giambi or Adam Dunn who will not steal any bases and will only hit around .250 or so. Use him to make up in those categories if you find yourself lacking there.

Aaron Rowand- It is all about the timing with Rowand. Whether it be a last second snatch of a fly ball, a diving catch in Center field, robbing a homerun or just parlaying a career year into a lucrative contract with a team that has a ballpark that is twice as hard to hit HR in as your previous team’s ballpark. nobody can question his heart or his defensive abilities but unfortunately, neither of those are fantasy relevant stats. Rowand’s numbers dropped across the board last year and it had a lot to do with his new environment. Hitting in front of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard is a beautiful thing but Bengie Molina and Edgar Renteria??? The Giants made a mistake in giving him that big contract. Don’t make the same mistake by taking him in your draft.

Brian Wilson- How on Earth did Wilson get 41 SV with a 4.62 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP? Who knows and who cares? Actually, in April, June and August he was fantastic with ERAs of 2.92, 3.24 and 2.13 respectively while racking up 23 saves. It was May, July and September that killed him and his owners with ERAs of 6.55, 5.59 and 8.64!!! A simple solution to this would seem to be just start him every other month but with Jeremy Affeldt waiting in the wings, there might not be another chance for Wilson if he has another bad stint. Proceed with caution here but I wouldn’t want him on my squad.

Matt Cain- Surprise, surprise Matt Cain had a very nice second half last year just like he does every year. When is this guy going to start the season well? If he could just take two post All-Star break halves and put them together, he would be a very good pitcher. But, for some reason the light switch doesn’t get flipped until the second half. Pick him up off waivers around mid season and you’ll have a very nice pitcher on your roster.

Keepers:

Pablo Sandoval- Last year he came out of nowhere to bat .345 24 RBI and 24 Runs in 145 AB. There is a good chance that he will be the starting first baseman and will get an extended look this year. I know it is a very small sample size but he could be a very nice player down the road. It was a tossup whether to categorize him as a keeper or a sleeper but the Giants don’t really have any keepers on their roster except for Lincecum.

Sleepers:

Fred Lewis- He isn’t a spectacular player yet but he has shown that he can play some decent baseball. He’ll score runs and steal some bases and deliver a decent BA but he won’t strike fear into any fantasy opponents eyes. He is just a solid all around player that won’t hurt you in any category except maybe RBI. He did only play in 133 games last year though and he is in his prime agewise so he could be in line for a breakout season. He could reach 90+ Runs with 30+ SB and a BA around .290 though.

Edgar Renteria- It wasn’t long ago that Renteria was a top flight SS. The bad news is that he is coming from a notorious pitcher’s park to another notorious pitcher’s park. Maybe he can rekindle the magic he had with Atlanta in ’06 and ’07. There are worse SS that you could have on your roster.