January 17, 200422 yr There's sub-zero temperatures, and snow on the ground. Sounds like baseball time to us! Yes, fantasy baseball is a year-round activity these days, and we're prepared. ESPN's FLB 2004 goes on sale in early February, so we get you started with our Top 50 - and reasons to back it up - as well as more material (top starters, relievers, etc.) FLB TOP 50 1. Alex Rodriguez Surprise! Was only No. 7 on player rater 2. Alfonso Soriano 40-40 guy at middle infield? Absolutely! 3. Albert Pujols Durable, consistent masher; no 3B now 4. Vlad Guerrero Angels? Fine, but he might stop running 5. Todd Helton Not exactly a bad off year; buy now 6. Barry Bonds HR, .350 average, not much in RBI 7. Sammy Sosa Gets back to 50 HR, 120 RBI this year 8. N. Garciaparra Axe to grind? Let's see a batting title 9. Mark Prior Yes, the top SP. How bout 300 Ks? 10. Randy Johnson Hey, he was No. 2 overall pick in 2003 11. Manny Ramirez Remember, misses games, but still hits 12. Carlos Beltran No longer overlooked; definite 30-30 13. Gary Sheffield Should hit 40, knock in ton of runs 14. Pedro Martinez Last topped 30 starts in 1998; can win 20 15. Mag. Ordonez Off year, but young enough to rebound 16. Miguel Tejada Nice new park, new lineup protection 17. Derek Jeter Entering prime, is more power coming? 18. Jason Schmidt Defending Player Rater champ, but... 19. Curt Schilling With 35 starts, would top Pedro 20. Jim Thome Maybe this year he can knock in 150 21. Preston Wilson None of it was a fluke; MVP stats 22. Roy Halladay Young, dominant, 41 wins in 2 years 23. Mike Piazza Think positive! Health, and 40 HR 24. Lance Berkman No. 16 in 2003 preseason, still young 25. Bret Boone No letup in sight, and he runs a bit 26. Eric Chavez OK, but why isn't he a lock for 35 HR? 27. Carlos Delgado AL's Jim Thome should produce again 28. Edgar Renteria Same stats as Ichiro, plays shortstop 29. Scott Rolen Nothing wrong with some consistency 30. Ichiro Suzuki More power, less speed and average 31. Mike Mussina Yanks ace capable of wining 20, 200 Ks 32. Eric Gagne Truly incredible stats, ERA drop coming 33. Brian Giles Nice Padre lineup, he'll be terrific again 34. Jorge Posada Only because 30-100 catcher is special 35. Mike Lowell Figure he can knock in 120 in full year 36. Jason Giambi Oh, how we forget; top 10 pre-2003 37. Ivan Rodriguez Nothing wrong here, except durability 38. Javier Vazquez More wins as Yank, otherwise same 39. Rafael Furcal Look, a SS who does this is valuable 40. Vernon Wells Great season, but OFs are out there 41. Juan Pierre Takes care of your steals, average 42. Bobby Abreu Let's assume 30-30 isn't outta reach 43. Javy Lopez Let's assume 43 HR isn't outta reach 44. Kevin Brown Please, don't make us look foolish again 45. Jeff Kent At 2B, he's No. 3; in OF, he's ho hum 46. Tim Hudson Safe starter; where's Zito and Mulder? 47. Kerry Wood Top 14 wins once, then we'll talk 48. Jose Reyes Think 15 HR, 40 steals, 100 runs - maybe 49. Derrek Lee Beats out Sexson for the 20 steals 50. Josh Beckett World Series hero, no more blisters So let's begin by breaking down the hows and whys of the list you see to the right: Who's the man? So you get the top pick in your ML draft - obviously, things change if you're doing NL or AL only - and you wanna know who to take? Easy call. Alex Rodriguez could lead the league in homers, RBI and runs any season. He hits .300. He runs enough to make a difference. And he's a shortstop. Yes, he got beat out by Esteban Loaiza on our Player Rater last season, but A-Rod does this every year, and, did we mention he's a shortstop? But who's close? Some will select Albert Pujols No. 1, and he's clearly first in NL leagues. But steals do count for something, thus we make Soriano No. 2. Vladimir Guerrero would have looked better in Baltimore's bandbox, but that back injury might make his running days obsolete (think back to when Sammy ceased stealing). In keeper leagues, you might think twice about Barry Bonds, but he's got another two years left. Nomar Garciaparra at No. 8 rounds out the list of guys who could go top 3-4 in your draft. Pitching counts, too! Yes, it certainly does, but take a look back at ESPN 2003 preseason drafts for advice. Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez were all top 7. Barry Zito and Roy Oswalt were top 20. You're taking some risk with starting pitchers, and we've backed off a bit this year. Certainly Johnson isn't done yet, despite his truncated season. Mark Prior gets our nod, but even he might miss some starts. Be prepared. The shortstop wave: We've got A-Rod first and Nomar eighth, but the shortstop position is actually quite strong these days, and not just the big three. As many as six shortstops could figure into the first three rounds of your draft. Miguel Tejada should be in for a big year in Camden Yards, and Derek Jeter could be getting better as well. Further down you'll see Edgar Renteria, Rafael Furcal and Jose Reyes, but you wouldn't be laughed at for going with Orlando Cabrera, Angel Berroa or newcomer Kaz Matsui in early rounds either. Meanwhile, at second base, Luis Castillo, Jose Vidro and Marcus Giles just missed the top 50, but don't forget 'em. He's no Jeremy: Most probably think Jason Giambi had a miserable season, and his drop from No. 8 in 2003 preseason drafts to 41 here gives that validity. In reality, Giambi is a victim of his position depth, and the fact his balky knee might not heal perfectly (which affected his average). We've dropped all first basemen a bit since you're likely to enjoy seeing a 30-100 guy available in the middle rounds of drafts. Richie Sexson, Jeff Bagwell and Aubrey Huff could easily be in our top 50. Bouncing back: You've already seen us prop up Vladimir and Randy, since you might miss them on the final Player Rater, but there are others who didn't perform up to expectations based on injury. Lance Berkman went from 42-128 in power to 25-93, but he's 28, so it's no time to give up on him. Berkman, Jeff Kent, Brian Giles and Bobby Abreu seem like nice bounce-back guys to us, and don't forget about those who just missed, like Phil Nevin, Ray Durham, Shawn Green and the other A's starters. Closing it out: Many agree that Eric Gagne had possibly the greatest relief season ever in 2003. You can write his stats in with pen this season, right? Well... hope for another 50-plus saves, and sub-2.00 ERA, 130 Ks. Yes, Gagne looks safe, but you also can't go wrong with a big bat in round 3-4 and another top closer a bit later. The rest of the big 5 among closers are slotting in around the next 25 here, and even we don't know if this order is set: Billy Wagner, John Smoltz, Keith Foulke, Mariano Rivera. Bottom line is, don't get stuck with Shawn Chacon as your top save guy. Link
January 17, 200422 yr Posted in the Marlin forum... And there is much more than two former Marlins on that list...
January 17, 200422 yr Author Posted in the Marlin forum... And there is much more than two former Marlins on that list... Yea i saw it after i posted mines, and what i ment about 2 fromer Marlins was Marlins from 2003. I know there alot more there then just 2.. Piazza, Sheffield, Wilson, Renteria,
January 18, 200422 yr the just like rolen ova lowell..... nobody really knows lowell...... everybody has heard of rolen..... ethier way both them are good but im not sayin this cuz im fish fan but as a baseball fan... Lowell > Rolen
January 19, 200422 yr pudge... brown... man, easily 1/5 of that list has been on our roster at some point. of course, that doesn't mean much.
January 19, 200422 yr 18. Jason Schmidt? Defending Player Rater champ, but...? that's higher than I'd put him, considering he may miss a chunk of the season
January 19, 200422 yr biggest ommisions: Mulder, Zito (he had an off year- so what?), Mueller (true, he won't repeat last year but being the #1 3b last year should count for something), Hoffman, and Nen
January 19, 200422 yr Rolen over Lowell?Why? Lowell is nice, and he may be underrated, but Rolen (and Chavez) are clearly better. In every single season Lowell has played, both Rolen and Chavez have posted an equal or higher OPS+ than Lowell. Lowell is battling it out for 3rd best 3B with Corey Koskie, Bill Mueller, and Hank Blalock.
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