biggentleben

Kershaw absolutely, in fantasy terms. He's the #2 pitcher in every mixed-league format, and #1 in NL-only.

I put them at the position they'd rank highest. Zobrist would be my #5 at either 2B or SS but farther down at outfield, so I put him at 2B.

If you're getting that from ESPN, I wouldn't trust that number. Too many autodrafts in there to make it viable. I like using the NFBC ADP's, which, of course, I don't have access to at work to look up his position there. All of those leagues are pay leagues and the players tend to be more committed.

I'll agree with this. What I've done in leagues where I've waited on 3B is I've gone after 2-3 of those type of guys. I have one league with Pedro Alvarez, Moustakas, and Todd Frazier. I'm almost certain I'll get fantasy starter production from at least one of the three. I do get the low floor, though, which is why I bank those guys with someone behind them as well.

Has to be Kirby. I love Killer, but Kirby was the absolute face of not just the Twins, but baseball at times in his career. Baseball's first $3M man, and he played for Minnesota, go figure. On top of that, you put together the most iconic moments in Twins history, and Kirby's all over them. Killer's easily the best player that ever played for the team, but Kirby's the face.

If you're getting Lester after the 15th, you're not playing with smart players.

Any pitcher can have injury issues, but the greatest predictor of missing time due to arm injury is previous arm injury. Felix had comments made at the time of his new contract, but no reported discomfort this spring, and it came out that there was no structural damage, it was simply worry about workload that he has had so far. That didn't get near the publicity that the "ZOMG his contract is over because his elbow is about to blow up!!" crap did. I'm enjoying people letting Felix fall to me in drafts as he's very consistent. I'm not sure about rounding out a staff with groundball guys either. I tend to do flyers on guys off a bad year or young high-upside pitchers, like Josh Beckett, Mike Minor, etc.

Those from BYTO days will confirm that I am more than willing to come back to my projections and eat crow where I should. That said, I never said Stras couldn't do that, but when guys like Felix and David Price are in the same area, I simply cannot take him with the worries I have about how he holds up.

I can agree with this, but I think 3B is very deep personally, at least with guys who give SOME value, in comparison to 1B where I think after about 14, it's UGLY. Guys like Mike Moustakas or Manny Machado could easily be top 5-7 3B next year and aren't top 10 this year, for instance.

I'm not touching Strasburg at the price I have to pay/draft him this year for a one year league. I can see #3 at best, but there's plenty of injury risk. Same reason Sale is lower for me than most. Goldschmidt is in a group of 7-10 guys who are pretty much interchangeable. I'd have him #11.

I completely missed Darvish. I didn't copy it straight, so somehow I missed him. He's top 10 for me. I agree on Goldy, but there's a group of about 7 1B, and he's in it. He and Rizzo would be my 11-12.

Catcher 1. Buster Posey 2. Joe Mauer 3. Miguel Montero 4. Victor Martinez 5. Yadi Molina 6. Brian McCann 7. Carlos Santana 8. Matt Wieters 9. Salvador Perez 10. AJ Pierzynski First Base 1. Prince Fielder 2. Albert Pujols 3. Joey Votto 4. Adrian Gonzalez 5. Edwin Encarnacion 6. Freddie Freeman 7. Billy Butler 8. Allen Craig 9. Paul Konerko 10. Mark Trumbo Second Base 1. Robinson Cano 2. Ian Kinsler 3. Dustin Pedroia 4. Brandon Phillips 5. Ben Zobrist 6. Jason Kipnis 7. Rickie Weeks 8. Chase Utley 9. Aaron Hill 10. Jose Altuve Third Base 1. Miguel Cabrera 2. Adrian Beltre 3. David Wright 4. Evan Longoria 5. Brett Lawrie 6. Chase Headley 7. Ryan Zimmerman 8. Pablo Sandoval 9. Aramis Ramirez 10. Martin Prado Shortstop 1. Troy Tulowitzki 2. Jose Reyes 3. Hanley Ramirez 4. Starlin Castro 5. Asdrubel Cabrera 6. Elvis Andrus 7. Jimmy Rollins 8. Derek Jeter 9. Alexei Ramirez 10. Ian Desmond Outfield 1. Ryan Braun 2. Mike Trout 3. Matt Kemp 4. Andrew McCutchen 5. Giancarlo Stanton 6. Carlos Gonzalez 7. Josh Hamilton 8. Matt Holliday 9. Jose Bautista 10. Jason Heyward 11. Justin Upton 12. Bryce Harper 13. Yoenis Cespedes 14. Adam Jones 15. Carlos Beltran 16. Jay Bruce 17. BJ Upton 18. Jacoby Ellsbury 19. Shin-Soo Choo 20. Austin Jackson Starting Pitchers 1. Justin Verlander 2. Clayton Kershaw 3. Felix Hernandez 4. David Price 5. Jered Weaver 6. Cliff Lee 7. Stephen Strasburg 8. Cole Hamels 9. Adam Wainwright 10. RA Dickey 11. Zack Greinke 12. Matt Cain 13. Chris Sale 14. Gio Gonzalez 15. Jordan Zimmerman 16. Madison Bumgarner 17. James Shields 18. Roy Halladay 19. Josh Johnson 20. Yovani Gallardo Relief Pitchers 1. Craig Kimbrel 1.5* Aroldis Chapman 2. Jason Motte 3. Jon Papelbon 4. JJ Putz 5. Mariano Rivera 6. Sergio Romo 7. Huston Street 8. Joel Hanrahan 9. John Axford 10. Brandon League * If moved back to closer

With not anyone screaming "No!!!" or clamoring, either, I'll simply post my rankings without commentary, and feel free to comment/question/criticize to your heart's content!

Pascual's demeanor cause arguably the biggest bench-clearing incident in baseball history. On an individual level, it is very difficult to do. Kirk Gibson said off the record that he enjoyed beating Eckersly in the series because "That ****er has to fist pump every time he strikes someone out. Act like you've been there!" That said, I think the Twins may have two examples of teams that really got expressive as a team on the field - the Piranha squad and the 91 squad. 1987 was fun to watch, but they weren't as team expressive as the 1991 team. A team with that sort of environment is a whole different issue in the majors, and I think it can be done to a certain level. I doubt that level is fully what we're seeing from the Dominicans, but it's a level above dull at least.

ESPN reporting that Greg Jennings is your newest Viking.

Something I'd done on BYTO in the past that created some good commenting back and forth was annual fantasy rankings and a review at the end of the season as to how those rankings panned out. I've already posted them on another site, and I'm curious of the interest here. To save board space, I'd post them all in this thread with a new one each day.

I can tell you he'd be the 8 guy on my favorite squad. With the low OBP (.305 even in his great season last year), he won't be near the top half of the order, so best spot would be 5 or 6 if he's not 7/8. With his combination of speed and that power, it'd be wise to put him 7th so he's not getting pitched around in the 8th spot and still is on base for the pitcher to move over with his speed. Gomez still never topped 500 PA in 2012 even with his production, so there's some legit concern about full-time play.

His offense is good from a 7/8 hole hitter in a NL lineup as long as he's used in that way. The issue of that trade was never Gomez. It was so quickly bailing on Hardy.

He wasn't a FA when he left.

I wish I could get Summit here. I had some in my fridge often when I lived in the cities.

I don't understand the fade on all of them, though. Did I miss where I can make mine not turn to goo at the bottom of the image?

You all know of my interest in the league as well from previous years. I'm a guy who has a ton of leagues as well, but I don't feel I have a problem keeping up with them as I've trimmed down a ton in the last few years.

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/33267067.jpg

Revisionist history, but it's remarkable to look how the WRs fell in that draft: 1.3 Braylon Edwards 1.7 Troy Williamson 1.10 Mike Williams 1.21 Matt Jones 1.22 Mark Clayton 1.27 Roddy White 2.3 Reggie Brown 2.7 Mark Bradley 2.23 Roscoe Parrish 2.26 Terrence Murphy 2.29 Vincent Jackson Heck, some very valuable WRs didn't even get drafted: Lance Moore, Nate Washington, Josh Cribbs, Greg Camarillo The non-drafted was very good, frankly. Here's the list of Pro Bowlers from that draft that were not drafted: Josh Cribbs, Lorenzo Alexander, Jon Condo, Brandon Browner, John Denney, Heath Farwell, Ryan Grant, Cameron Wake, John Kuhn, Leonard Weaver. Here's a few more that haven't gotten a Pro Bowl, but have been significant players: Chris Kluwe, Chase Blackburn, Atari Bigby, Jim Leonhard, Rashied Davis.

Roided up a'hole. Be glad that stain isn't on the Vikes.