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March 30, 2012

Fantasy Beat

BP Preseason Fantasy Baseball Awards

by Baseball Prospectus

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This week we assembled the Baseball Prospectus fantasy crew to gather their ballots for the BP Preseason Fantasy Baseball Awards. Each writer was asked to give his opinion on which players were in for good seasons, bad seasons, and surprising seasons. We'd happy to hear your take in the comments.

Category	Derek Carty	Jason Collette	Michael Jong	Rob McQuown	Michael Street
Fantasy MVP (Hitter)	Albert Pujols	Albert Pujols	Miguel Cabrera	Matt Kemp	Ryan Braun
Fantasy MVP (Pitcher)	Roy Halladay	Zack Greinke	Roy Halladay	Justin Verlander	Roy Halladay
Sleeper (Hitter)	Edwin Encarnacion	Edwin Encarnacion	Danny Espinosa	Dayan Viciedo	Chris Davis
Sleeper (Pitcher)	Danny Duffy	Jeff Niemann	Anibal Sanchez	Frank Francisco	Hisashi Iwakuma
Impact Prospect, Non-Darvish/Moore Division	Jesus Montero	Addison Reed	Jesus Montero	Yoenis Cespedes	Yoenis Cespedes
Comeback Player of the Year	Adam Dunn	Homer Bailey	Hanley Ramirez	Adam Dunn	Justin Morneau
Sophomore Slump	Josh Collmenter	Josh Collmenter	Jeremy Hellickson	Mark Trumbo	Dustin Ackley
Sophomore Breakout	Desmond Jennings	Kenley Jansen	Jason Kipnis	J.D. Martinez	Mike Moustakas
Most Likely to Disappoint	Mat Latos	Tommy Hanson	Josh Hamilton	Brett Lawrie	Jered Weaver
Most Overrated	Brett Lawrie	Desmond Jennings	Hunter Pence	Ryan Braun (#1 ADP?)	Evan Longoria
Best $1 Pitcher	Ryan Dempster	Philip Humber	Jhoulys Chacin	Danny Duffy	Chris Capuano
Ryan Franklin Award (Closer Most Likely to Lose His 9th Inning Role)	Jim Johnson	Javy Guerra	Grant Balfour	Joe Nathan	Chris Perez
Most likely to be traded to AL, breaking hearts of NL-only owners	Andre Ethier	Matt Garza	David Wright	Joel Hanrahan	David Wright
Most likely to be traded to NL, breaking hearts of AL-only owners	B.J. Upton	Jonathan Broxton	James Shields	Gavin Floyd	Mark Reynolds

9 comments have been left for this article.

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hessshaun

(41493)

What exactly is Homer coming back for? Doesn't a player need to get there before they can come back? Not to discredit his skill-set, but he hasn't put together a full season yet. Maybe the out of options player of the year?

Mar 30, 2012 08:19 AM

link

rating: 5

Jason Collette

BP staff

(6672)

The abyss? Much like Alex Gordon last season

Apr 01, 2012 19:11 PM

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vtadave

(11550)

Would Dunn have a shot at CBPOY if he put up a .230/.340/.470 line? I guess when the starting point is a .569 OPS, the answer is probably a "yes" sadly.

Mar 30, 2012 09:20 AM

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rating: 1

Deadheadbrewer

(28364)

So (regarding the 'traded out of league' categories) there are still leagues that force an owner to drop a player who's traded out of the league?--odd. If those leagues still exist and their owners are reading this, may I gently suggest keeping those traded players and ignoring the players traded into the league?

Mar 30, 2012 10:43 AM

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rating: 1

boards

(10244)

It's not that they are forced to be dropped, but they are no longer accumulating stats for their league-only team. I would personally hold on to a keeper player traded out of the league in the event he is traded back or signs back as a FA.

Mar 30, 2012 11:13 AM

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rating: 0

swarmee

(40459)

We still do it in our 20-year-old 4x4 Rotisserie Ultra-based league. We actually like the trade deadline upheaval every once in a while, and over an infinite number of years, it evens out. Sure, you lose a Teixeira every once in a while, but sometimes you get a free Matt Holliday or Gio Gonzalez.

The real kicker in our league is that one of our owners last season had these three minor leaguers: CHC Chris Carpenter, FLA Ozzie Martinez, and FLA Jhan Marinez. Two were traded for manager Ozzie Guillen and one was traded for GM Theo Epstein. That owner now has the best front office in our league. ;-)

Mar 30, 2012 13:20 PM

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rating: 4

beerd90210

(3384)

deadhead - I'm in one of those leagues - NL only, 10 teams as well as a mixed league. the NL only requires a lot more attention as you can't just pick up a solid starting player if someone goes down. I can play the mixed league just picking up whoever's that week to fill an outfield spot which I find a little ridiculous.

as for your suggestion, i'm not sure the yahoo setup, in my experience, allows for you to keep accumulating stats in the customized manner you suggest.

plus, it's fun, figuring out who might be traded, jockeying for the #1 waiver pick, just like the real deal. I picked up CC upon his trade to the brewers and his second half helped my team a ton. It also teaches you to put a little less value in a player who's, say an aging star at the end of a contract on a team that isn't going anywhere. I don't think I've lost anyone meaningful to a trade, but I've picked up some nice parts over the years

Mar 30, 2012 13:32 PM

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rating: 0

Deadheadbrewer

(28364)

Interesting. I started an league way back when (tomorrow is our 25th auction!), and we keep it at AL-only percentages, in terms of the player pool, but we expand and contract as people come and go. Tomorrow we'll have 16 owners, so we'll use the entire AL plus the NL West teams.

Anyway, losing players who were traded to a team we weren't using drove us nuts, so we very early on went to a system wherein you keep anyone who is traded out of the pool, and for the entire season we ignore players who weren't on an MLB team we used on Draft Day. Seems like it would ruin a season for an owner to pay $30 for King Felix, only to lose him in July when he is traded to the Reds, but to each his own.

Good luck this year!

Mar 30, 2012 22:55 PM

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rating: 2

Deadheadbrewer

(28364)

p.s. CBS has no problem allowing stats to accumulate for a player who isn't on one of our "approved" teams. If my Soria gets traded to the Cards, CBS still puts his stats on my team's total.

Mar 30, 2012 22:57 PM

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rating: 0

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<< Previous Article
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