Are You a Fantasy Baseball Player?

I pose this question because it appears that there are a fair number of baseball fans that participate in fantasy baseball. For a few years, I “owned” a fantasy team through a popular website, but last year I decided not to partake in a league. There’s is a stark difference between fantasy baseball and fantasy football.

To me, fantasy baseball involves much more time than fantasy football. I’m sure those that choose to do both would agree. The reasons are numerous. The main one (to me) is that rosters can change daily. In oder to be an effective owner, you must devote a certain amount of time on a daily basis to set your roster.

Why all my banter about this? A couple of reasons actually.

First, I’m just curious as to how many of our readers take part in fantasy baseball. I’d like to hear your take on it as well.

Second, I thought I would bring you some interesting takes about Reds players and/or their ranking. Why is this necessary. Usually with rankings come projections by those that do ranking. We visited projections a few days ago. It’s interesting to compare those.

The first place I checked was ESPN.com. Matthew Berry, aka The Talented Mr. Roto, always has interesting opinions on players and all do not pertain to merely the fantasy aspect. For this post, here’s are the Reds players Berry has in his top 200 overall with 2011 projections.

#11. Joey Votto (.315, 32 HR, 108 RBI, 13 SB)
#60. Jay Bruce (.277, 31 HR, 89 RBI, 6 SB)
#63. Brandon Phillips (.273, 19 HR, 68 RBI, 18 SB)
#100. Drew Stubbs (.251, 18 HR, 69 RBI, 31 SB)
#158. Johnny Cueto (13-10, 154 SO, 3.96 ERA, 1.31 WHIP)
#166. Francisco Cordero (5-5, 35 SV, 60 SO, 3.73 ERA, 1.41 WHIP)

It’s interesting what Berry says about Votto from a fantasy standpoint:

"“As I (Berry) said, I’m a position-scarcity guy. Sure, Votto’s all that and a bag of Canadian bacon, but 1B is so deep, I can’t take him before now.”"

Berry has two first basemen lasted ahead of Votto, Albert Pujols (#1) and Miguel Cabrera (#3). In fact, Berry has four first basemen in his top 12 (Adrian Gonzalez is #12). That’s positional depth. I really do expect another 30 HR, 100 RBI and .300+ average in 2011. So does Berry.

We’ve all heard of the “sophomore slump”. Well, Berry believes Stubbs is not a candidate for such.

"“He hit seven homers in September and ended up with the quietest 20/30 season in baseball history. Hit .241 on the road last year (versus .268 at home), but I’m still buying. He’s my answer to this question: Who could become this year’s Carlos Gonzalez?”"

Wouldn’t that be awesome? The main reason you didn’t hear about Stubbs and his good offensive season was his penchant for the strikeout. Yep. Guilty on that one. Don’t think for a minute that’s been lost on the Texan either. He knows, but he also knows that he can be more than just a speed guy. Having the bunt in his arsenal may deplete his HR count, but he can make up for that in steals. To hear Berry state Stubbs could have a CarGo type season may seem far fetched, but Stubbs could be not only a relevant fantasy player, but a star in the league.

One site that I used frequently was Lester’s Legends. Ryan always had an fair assessment. The last two fantasy football leagues I was in, I won. In my last two seasons of owning fantasy baseball, I finished 3rd and 2nd. The reason I didn’t win the baseball leagues was due to a point I made earlier. Fantasy baseball does involve more time. And I’ll add to that here. To fully appreciate fantasy baseball, you must take that time. Well, Lester’s Legends always was a means to cut down on that time.

I bring up this site because Ryan Lester, the mastermind behind Lester’s Legends, authored a guest post for Rotoprofessor in regards to Jay Bruce. The title of the post is “2011 Fantasy Baseball Profile: Last Year Joey Votto, This Year Jay Bruce?”. An excerpt:

"“Then Bruce took off. As the Reds found themselves in a heated race for the NL Central title, Bruce took off. He hit .338 from August through October with 27 runs, 15 HRs, and 29 RBI in 133 at bats…”“…My feeling is that Bruce grew up during that stretch run. With that experience, he has a good chance to become one of the best power hitters in the game. I’m expecting at least 30 HRs from Bruce this year.”"

I think we all are, Ryan.

The FanSided Network also has a fantasy site, Fantasy CPR. Brian Cloney runs the show over there and he’s already given us a head start on rankings as well by covering the closers in the American League.

I’d like to know from our readers if you do participate in fantasy baseball. I’d also like to know if you would like to see a feature on fantasy baseball. Yes, I leave it all in your hands…