2010 Fantasy Baseball Rankings - National League

My American League ranks + explanation are here.

1B


1.Pujols

2.Fielder

3.Howard

4.Gonzalez

5.Votto

6. Dunn

7. Berkman

8. Lee

9. LaRoche

10. Loney

11. Huff

12. Helton

13. Jones

14. Murphy

15. Clement

16. Sanchez

2B

1.Utley

2. Phillips

3. Uggla

4. Weeks

5. Stewart

6. Johnson

7. Prado

8. Barmes

9. Polanco

10. Matsui

11. Iwamura

12. Sanchez

13. Schumaker

14. Kennedy

15. Fontenot

16. Baker


3B

1.Wright

2. Zimmerman

3. Reynolds

4. Sandoval

5. Cantu

6. Jones

7. Ramirez

8. Headley

9. McGehee

10. Glaus

11. Blake

12. Rolen

13. LaRoche

14. Hairston

15. Feliz

16. Freese

OF

1.Braun

2. Kemp

3. Upton

4. McLouth

5. Holliday

6. Werth

7. Bourn

8. Bay

9. Lee

10. Pence

11. Ethier

12. Bruce

13. McCutcheon

14. Gomez

15. Victorino

16. Ludwick

17. Hawpe

18. Gonzalez

19. Hart

20. Soriano

21. Morgan

22. Young

23. Coghlan

24. Ross

25. Rasmus

26. Fowler

27. Beltran

28. Ramirez

29. Milledge

30. Jackson

31. Stubbs

32. Blanks

33. Maybin

34. Ibanez

35. Byrd

36. Willingham

37. Rowand

38. Francouer

39. Cabrera

40. Schierholtz

41. Fukodome

42. Smith

43. Dickerson

44. Harris

45. SHairston

46. Venable

47. Hinske

48. Heyward

49. Church

50. Diaz

51. Spilborghs

52. Velez


P

1.Lincecum

2.Halladay

3. Haren

4. Wainwright

5. Johnson

6. Broxton

7. Hamels

8. Carpenter

9. Hanson

10. Santana

11. Nolasco

12. Rodriguez

13. Cain

14. Kershaw

15.Billingsley

16. Wagner

17. Street

18. Jimenez

19. Oswalt

20. Lilly

21. Wilson

22. Qualls

23. Hoffman

24. Gallardo

25. De La Rosa

26.Marmol

27. Cordero

28. Rodriguez

29. Sanchez

30. Dempster

31.Harang

32.Blanton

33. Dotel

34. Latos

35. Bell

36. Nunez

37. Jurrjens

38. Franklin

39. Lohse

40. Myers

41. Happ

42. Cueto

43. Capps

44. Zambrano

45. Jackson

46. Webb

47. Penny

48. Kuroda

49. Hudson

50. Lidge

51. Medlen

52. Lindstrom

53. Arroyo

54. Wolf

55. Madson

56. Padilla

57. Norris

58. Motte

59.Hammel

60.Wells

61. Kawakami

62.Garcia

63.Gorzelanny

64. Kennedy

65. Betancourt

66. Maholm

67. Zito

68. Lyon

69. Lannan

70. Adams

71. Romo

72. McClellan

73. Maine

74. Vandenhurk

75. Maine

76. Marquis

77. Saito

78. Kuo

79. Cook

80. Calero

81. Miller

82. Rhodes

83. Ohlendorf

84. Lowe

85. Sherill

86. Neise

87. Affledt

88. Correia

89. Strasberg

90. Buckner

2010 Fantasy Baseball Rankings - American League

Today's my first day off in 2010.  I have one more exam to give tomorrow - then I'm taking the weekend off, I've got a full, hard week of work prep next week.

I'm backing up the Wrestlemania 26 preview to Thursday and/or Friday.  With my 3 fantasy drafts coming, I had to prep - and since an unblogged about life is not worth leading, I thought I'd offer the results.

My AL Draft is first - 5x5 Weekly.  I'm going to do position by position as opposed to an overall board as I tend to look at position choice as fluid dependent upon how each draft unfolds - but were, for some unknowable reason, people (that's you!  You are people!) were to have questions (who to pick between OF X and 3b  Y) I have answers.  Players with multi position eligibility I've tried to just keep in one place for clairty. 

1B


1.Cabrera

2.Teixeira

3.Morales

4.Morneau

5.Youkilis

6.Cuddyer

7.Butler

8.Swisher

9.Pena

10.Davis

11.Konerko

12. Branyan

13.Atkins

14.Johnson

15.Kotchman

16. Overbay

17.Barton

2B

1. Kinsler

2. Pedroia

3. Cano

4. Roberts

5. Zobrist

6. Hill

7. Lopez

8. Kendrick

9. Hudson

10. M Izturis

10. Ellis

11. Valbuena

12. Getz

13. Sizemore

14. Nix

SS

1. Jeter

2. Bartlett

3. ACabrera

4. Andrus

5. Ramirez

6. Aybar

7. Hardy

8. Scutaro

9. Pennington

10.Betancourt

11.C Izturis

12.J Wilson

13.Gonzalez

14. Everett

15. Harris


3B

1.Rodriguez

2.Longoria

3.Figgins

4.Young

5.Beckham

6.Tejada

7. Gordon

8.Teahan

9.Peralta

10 Beltre

11.Encarnacion

12. Kouzmanoff

13.Wood

14.Inge

C

1. Mauer

2. Martinez

3. Posada

4. Napoli

5. Suzuki

6. Weiters

7.Pierzynski

8.Laird

9.Buck

10.Saltalamacchia

11.Johnson

12.Navarro

13.Shoppach

14.Marson

15.Kendall

16.Pena

17. Teagarden

18.Moore

19.Mathis

20. Castro

OF

1.Crawford

2.Sizemore

3. Ellsbury

4. Upton

5. Cruz

6. Span

7. Abreu

8. Hunter

9. Davis

10.Pierre

11. Markakis

12. Choo

13. Lind

14. Quentin

15. Jones

16. Hamilton

17. Suzuki

18. Granderson

19.Rios

20.Gardner

21.Damon

22. Snider

23.Cameron

24.Gutierrez

25.Borbon

26.Dejesus

27.Reimold

28.Rivera

29.Kubel

30.Drew

31.Scott

32.Wells

33.Cust

34.Ordonez

35.Ankiel

36. Podsednik

37Jackson

38Young

39. Laporta

40.Crisp

41Guillen

42. Brantley

43.Bradley

44Sweeney

45. Batista

46Raburn

47Murphy

48. Pie

49. Byrnes

50. Rodriguez

51. Gross

52. Thames

P

1. Greinke

2. Verlander

3Lester

4.Beckett

5.Lee

6.Hernandez

7.Vazquez

8.Papelbon

9.Rivera

10.Sabathia

11.Soria

12. Shields

13. Lackey

14. Scherzer

15. Garza

16. RSoriano

17. Harden

18.Peavy

19.Anderson

20. Francisco

21. Bailey

22.Aardsma

23.Danks

24.Baker

25.Lewis

26.MGonzalez

27.Valverde

28.Buchholz

29.Burnett

30.Weaver

31.Floyd

32.Masterson

33.Duchscherer

34. Fuentes

35.Price

36.Kazmir

37.Niemann

38. Hughes

39.Jenks

40. Slowey

41. Sheets

42. Marcum

43. Wilson

44.Frasor

45.Buehrle

46.Santana

47.Rowland Smith

48.Liriano

49. Perez

50. Rauch

51. Bedard

52.Davis

53.Matsuzaka

54.Chamberlain

55.Pettitte

56.Braden

57. Thornton

58. Guerrier

59. Wood

60.Meche

61.Morrow

62.Matusz

63. Guthrie

64. Downs

65. Cahill

66. Snell

67. Bergeson

68. Pineiro

69. Pavano

70. Gregg

71. Bannister

72. Tillman

73. Wuertz

74. Millwood

75. Hochevar

76. Blackburn

77.Porcello

78. Feldman

79. Saunders
80. Wheeler

81. GGonzalez

82. Garcia

83. Rzepczynski

84. Wakefield

85. Bulger

86. Holland

87. Hellickson

88. Tejada

89. Okajima

90. Westbrook

At the Sweet Sixteen - New Bracket Thoughts

Like many, my brackets are busted with Kansas getting bounced in Round 2 - but a good chunk of my smart bracket remains otherwise intact - regardless, here's how I'd call this weekend's games.

Midwest:
Northern Iowa over Michigan St.
Ohio St. over Tennessee
Ohio St. over Northern Iowa

Ohio State's the only team I had right, in both smart and fun brackets - I had them going to the Elite 8 and then losing to Kansas.  With as much confidence as you can have given the nature of the tournament thusfar, I'll take the Buckeyes to come out of the weekend - Northern Iowa was good this year, every bit the team that Michigan St was - their making it to the Sweet Sixteen is only a shock because of who they took out - given the Spartans injury situation, I'll take them to go one more successful round and root for them to make the final four.

Ohio St's giving 4 1/2 and that's a stay away: Northern Iowa's getting one and a half, and since I like them outright I like the number - but just a tiny bit.  None of the numbers this weekend is appetizing - like my thoughts when we got to the NFL playoffs, the lines are really too tight at this point in the season to present real opportunities. 

West:
Syracuse over Butler
Kansas St over Xavier
Kansas St over Syracuse

The only team I have left in my fun bracket is Xavier (the other 3 teams, BYU, Florida St, UTEP) - but the smart bracket has 3 of the 4 (I had Pitt and not X) - I'll stay with my original smart guy bracket result and go 'Cuse, KSt - and then Kansas St. to come out.  I'll root for Butler in the region.

Looking at the numbers, Butler's getting 6, which seems a little fat given the Syracuse injury.  KSt is giving 5, which is a stay away. 

East:
Kentucky over Cornell
West Virginia over Washington
Kentucky over West Virginia

I had Kentucky/West Virginia still here in both brackets (with Wisconsin in both, and Marquette/New Mexico as my 4th team).  The fun bracket had Wisconsin beating WVU - the smart bracket WVU beating Kentucky - and now I'm hedging my bets; like the West, I'll stick with my orginal Elite 8 matchup with Kentucky/West Virginia - but I'll bend to the poor Big East performance and go Kentucky to come out.  I'll be rooting Cornell and Washington. 

Looking at the numbers, WVA is giving five, which looks like a tick heavy given how well the Huskies (Pac 10, baby!) are playing right now.  Kentucky is giving 9 and that's a stay away game. 

South:
Duke over Purdue
Baylor over St. Marys
Duke over Baylor

In both brackets I had Duke beating Baylor. 

Now, here's where, despite what looks like a rough tournament run thusfar, I spin it in my direction.

If the Sweet Sixteen games turn out the way I expect - my smart bracket will have 7 of the 8 final teams left, only Kansas called incorrectly.  The lesson being that even in a Cinderella heavy tournament - it's smart guy chalk that carries the day at the end. 

St Marys is the team I'm most rooting for the rest of the way; I'm gonna root for Duke to beat Purdue. 

Baylor's giving 4, and since the game's in Houston I'd be inclined to give them.  Duke's giving 8 and I don't want any part of that game.

So - let's reset - my original fun guy final four:

Kansas
BYU
Wisconsin
Duke

My orginal smart guy final four

Kansas
Kansas St
West Virginia
Duke

And my current final four

Ohio St
Kansas St
Kentucky
Duke

We'll see how this works out.

I haven't written anything, so I'm largely making this up - but my plan is a Wrestlemania 26 preview for Wednesday; my 3 fantasy baseball drafts are over the weekend, I'll probably do something.  My baseball picks will be mid next week.

1st and Ten: The Weekly Tendown: March 14-20 2010

Dear Internet:

I have a cold. 

Your pal,

Jim

Okay - perhaps that's insufficient to satisfy my contractual obligation to provide you Issue 19 of The Tendown, your weekly look at the most important cultural happenings of the previous 7 days - but the fact is that I do have a cold, and that's going to mean a half assed job with this week's Tendown.  Unlike Last Week, when I discussed the Handsome Men's Club, Simple Jack comparing the Census to slavery, and found my new favorite phrase - The Rapture Generation.

But this week, this week I'm busted.  Busted, I tell you - busted like the very bestthing that happened over the past 7 days:

First: Cake v. Pie

After the first 7 games of the tournament Thursday, I got this text message alert from the NY Times:

NYT Men's NCAA Bracket:
Score: 52
Tourney Rank: 1
Sign up for groups @ ncaabracket.nytimes.com

That's first as in - my fun bracket was in first place in the NY Times pool halfway through the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament.  First.  First!  In the New York Times!  Everything's comin' up Milhouse!

Yeah, that's all gone now.  I had Kansas winning, so, thanks, Kansas. 

My brackets are officially thrown away. if I were more rugged, I could have used them as Kleenex.  That aside, the tournament now - with St Marys and Northern Iowa as officially minted Cinderellas - is wide open and far more interesting than even my most medicinal prognostication would have anticipated. 

But the busting of those brackets should not close our eyes to the limitless other bracket possibilites that the interwebs brought us this week - in fact, it's one of those Cake v. Pie which wins the crown as the best thing that happened over the past 7 days.  Let's play the game!

Birthday faces a nice contrast in styles in the 2nd round against Pound; that's like a Kentucky/Cornell game; Birthday is loaded with flashy highly recruited marquee athletes but Pound is small and white and fundamentally sound. So compact and scrappy is Pound - gritty and gutty - with veteran ingredients who just want it so badly!  Birthday goes over, pulling away late after a nip and tuck first half.  I'm going to take Carrot as the Cinderella coming out of its region, knocking off ICC in the second and doing it with surprising ease - then riding that wave in taking out Wedding, which benefited by a few terrible officials calls in defeating Red Velvet.  

In the pie bracket - Apple and Pumpkin make their way cleanly to their Elite 8 Match; silky smooth like a George Gervin finger roll, Pumpkin just can't miss from the field in that one, shooting 67% from the floor to earn a Final Four spot - but there - there it has to face an underseeded Juggernaut - Cheesecake - sort of like a Hakeem Olajuwon with dual citizenship - the taxonomic classification of cheesecake as not cake but custard pie creates one of the great second round matchups in tournament history - Cheesecake v. Cherry - Cheesecake v. Cherry, to use the language of wrestling, could be a main event in any promotion in the world - it's like if we got Phi Slamma Jamma against Hoya Paranoia in the second round of the '84 tourney - a half dozen blocked shots, a near brawl, Sleepy Floyd going coast-to-coast!  Cherry is up by eleven at the half, but a canny substitution by Cheesecake...

...putting in Cherry Cheesecake....

 Leads to a torrent of thunderdunks - including the shattering of a backboard (Send It In Jerome!) that rains delicious graham cracker crust along press row.  

That leaves us a Final Four for the Ages:  

1. Birthday v. 7. Carrot

2. Cheesecake v. 4. Pumpkin

Birthday's an overwhelming favorite, giving a dozen points at the closing line - but Carrot has two tide turning factors leading to one of the great semi-final upsets in sports history, included in the same conversation with the US beating the USSR in the '80 Olympic hockey semi-finals (Do you believe in Cream Cheese Frosting?  Yes!) the first is that in 2009, my birthday cake was a carrot cake - and that type of versatility (Look, Carrot can run up and down the floor with Birthday! - Carrot can play Birthday's style!) caught the overconfident Birthday flat-footed.  The second - and the factor that really wins the game down the stretch - is you have to share Birthday cake.  Most birthday cakes are consumed after someone has spit all over them after blowing out candles - then you have to hustle for a piece - and while there are presents - really it's commemoration of being a year closer to death.  If you think about it; celebrating birthdays is macabre; hey, let's gather around and sing: 

Happy Birthday to you

 Your Life Will End Soon,

Everyone in the Graveyard,

 Had a Birthday Party Too

Who needs that pressure?  I can huddle alone, in the dark, with my huge slab of carrot cake and watch my Will&Grace reruns and not bother anyone.  

Carrot wins - they go the final - where they meet Cheesecake, which solidly handled Pumpkin - can Carrot - which took out heavily favored Wedding and Birthday keep the glass slipper on against the monstrous Cheesecake?  

Yeah, no.  Cheesecake dominates from the opening tip - it's a coronation.  

Your winner in the great Cake v. Pie Tournament - Cheesecake.

After the jump - the rest of the Tendown

Brackets

Welcome to my process.

Essentially, I've got two brackets - a smart bracket where I pick some targeted upsets early and then mainly chalk late - and then one where I go for it.  The above is the latter.  Prior to tip, I'll have clean, large copies of both on the glass table in my living room; for at least the last two decades, I've gone out the morning after selection Sunday and purchased two USA Todays; even now, when all of my research is done online and it may well be the only day of the year I physically buy an issue - I still look forward to taking my scissors to cut out my giant brackets.  I'll be working during Thursday's early games, but save for the times when I'm with my lady type friend, you'll be able to find me on my couch, drinking canned diet lemonade (another Jividen tourney tradition) for much of the balance of the tournament.

If you're like me (I'm sorry) you get increasing pleasure out of feeling like yourself; part of its age, part life circumstance, but the experience of being me is increasingly foreign, I'm more estranged from myself today than I can ever recall being.  So when I have a "hey, this is how it feels to be me" sensation - like seeing my giant brackets on my glass table, feeling the bitterness of the diet lemonade in my throat - it's comforting.  I feel that same comfort on NFL draft weekend (we'll see what happens watching on DVR since I'll have work) and Wrestlemania; all coming right in a cluster over the next few weeks (not to mention Oscars last week and the fantasy baseball drafts, and then Opening Day - it's always a crazy flurry of paperwork at Camp Me) I always look at this time of the year as a bit of a mental homecoming.  And I need it in a hard way. 

Onto the brackets. 

Let's start with the Midwest, it's the bracket in which I have the most confidence; all the way through, the only difference between my fun bracket (again, that's pictured above) and my more scientific bracket is Tennessee/San Diego St in Round One; that's what I think of as a good upset pick for a pool - because the upsets you want to avoid are the ones that cost you multiple rounds - if you take San Diego and they lose - you're only losing in that round, as neither team is getting past Georgetown over the weekend.  Everything else is exactly the same, all the way to Kansas going to the final four.

The West is icky.  My smart guy bracket, like my fun bracket has Syracuse and Florida St up top - and BYU/Kansas St on the bottom.  But the middle of the bracket...the smart guy bracket has Butler and Vandy coming out of Round one; whereas the fun guy bracket has UTEP and Murray St - they both look like super close games to me, way closer than the seeds would indicate; and in a close round one game - why not root for the dogs?   The problem is someone's gotta go to the Sweet 16; my fun guy bracket says UTEP - my smart guy bracket has Butler.  Either will lose in the next round - as you can see, my fun guy bracket says they'll be losing to Florida St., who I have beating Syracuse in one of my more fun upset picks.  And then rounding out the fun - take a look at who I have Florida St losing to in the Elite 8 - it's BYU, who I have beating Xavier in the Sweet 16 after X takes out Pitt.  The smart guy bracket has Syracuse and Kansas St in that Elite 8 game (Kansas St to win) and I put K St over Pitt, Pitt over Xavier.  I really like BYU, I really don't like Pitt - and that Florida St/Syracuse game is exactly the kind of matchup begging to go for the underdog. 

On the other side - Kentucky, Texas, Temple, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Clemson, West Virginia is the same in the first round of both brackets.  Washington's in the fun bracket - Marquette in the bidness bracket.  And then that leads to the only difference in the next round - New Mexico in the bracket above - Marquette in the smart bracket.  The smart bracket's got Kentucky and West Virginia - but I do love me some Wisconsin, they're my East bracket version of BYU - and here's where I contradict the scan I'M CONTRADICTING THE SCAN! - I've got Wisconsin going to the final four (and not West Virginia, even though the bracket indicates otherwise) on the fun bracket - and - West Virginia on the business bracket.  No Kentucky!  No Kentucky! 

Down South - the only first round differences are Texas A&M and ODU in the smart bracket,  Utah St and Notre Dame in the fun bracket (I recognize I need to switch ODU and Notre Dame, I will)  It's A&M in the sweet sixteen in the smart bracket - Utah St, as you can see, in the fun bracket.  Everything else is the same - Duke beating Baylor in the elite 8, Baylor having knocked out Nova. 

In every version of every bracket, I've got Kansas beating Duke in the title game. 

I'm in a handful of pools - my most common final four includes Wisconsin and BYU.  I also like Utah St.  And if Florida St beats Syracuse I'll get my dance on.  My typical entry looks more fun than smart.  'Cause it's March, and when I'm feeling the most like myself - I pick fun over smart.

That part's totally untrue, no one would ever, at any point in my life, have called me more fun than smart, but I was so hoping to be able to carry that all the way through. 

Enjoy the hoops.