Take Me Out to the Ballgame

OK so my NCAA bracket rules didn't work very well this year, but I'm back again to try to help out you fantasy baseball draft. Keep in mind these rules in mind when ranking the available players.

Rule #1 - The Hellboy Rule - Or the avoid people with big heads rule. With the new steroid testing put into affect, it would not be wise to draft anyone, who in previous season, were drafted based on their power. Their numbers will decrease (or will be suspended). Look what happened to Giambi when he went of the Clear. So I would avoid every one caught up in the recent scandal. The only exception to this rule would be Pudge Rodriquez. All catchers put up low numbers anyways so it’s a coin flip on them anyways.

Rule #2 - The Ron Artest Rule - Do not draft anyone who could possibly be suspended for the entire season. Unfortunately I did not abide by this rule during my fantasy baseball draft. That was waste of a third round pick. The baseball equivalent of Artest would be Milton Bradley. Granted Bud Selig doesn't have the grapefruits of David Stern so killing a fan might only some one only a half season suspension, but that is still a lot of games to be missing.

Rule #3 - Don't Follow Trends - It happens every year, some one takes a catcher early, then the next ten picks end up being catchers. There are only three quality catchers (Lopez, Posada, and Varitek), so if you don't get one of them, wait until the later round and pick whatever is left. No catcher can make much of an impact plus they take a lot of days off. On the opposite side of the spectrum, make sure you get a good closer before they run out. Last year I had to trade some offence to get a closer because I waited too long to draft a quality reliever.

Rule #4 - The Ken Griffey Jr. Rule - Do not draft a player who is injury prone. Yet every year some one inevitably drafts Griffey saying he will be healthy and return to his Seattle day type dominance. Sometimes it goes well, but the May, Griffey will come up limp running down to first, and the team who picked him will be unmercifully mocked for the rest of the season.

Rule #5 - Draft Multi-Position Players - This will give you more options if you experience injuries or you can plug more players that are on your bench when some of your other players have off-days. This is especially handy if they are eligible at catcher but is an everyday player somewhere else. Unfortunatly the games best multi-position players, Beltran, Pujols, and A-Rod have lost eligbility and are down to one position each.

Her is my list of the top 25 players:

1. A. Pujols (StL - 1B)
2. C. Beltrán (NYM - OF)
3. V. Guerrero (LAA - OF)
4. Á. Rodríguez (NYY - 3B)
5. J. Santana (Min - SP)
6. A. Soriano (Tex - 2B)
7. I. Suzuki (Sea - OF)
8. J. Schmidt (SF - SP)
9. C. Crawford (TB - OF)
10. M. Tejada (Bal - SS)
11. E. Gagne (LAD - RP)
12. B. Abreu (Phi - OF)
13. A. Béltre (Sea - 3B)
14. D. Ortiz (Bos - 1B)
15. R. Oswalt (Hou - SP)
16. T. Helton (Col - 1B)
17. R. Johnson (NYY - SP)
18. B. Lidge (Hou - RP)
19. A. Ramírez (ChC - 3B)
20. J. Pierre (Fla - OF)
21. S. Rolen (StL - 3B)
22. C. Schilling (Bos - SP)
23. M. Cabrera (Fla - OF)
24. B. Sheets (Mil - SP)
25. P. Martínez (NYM - SP)