 Mike Trout went from 18th-round preseason selection to the most valuable player in all of fantasy baseball, according to Yahoo! rankings. And he played only five months. (Reuters) |
TORONTO - In fantasy sports, or any fantasy league for that matter, it’s not always the best players who determine the final standings, but those who do the most in relation to where they were drafted or how much the owner paid to get him.
For instance, the team that narrowly beat me out for our AL-only league championship had an enviable list of players who far exceeded their auction-night price tags, specifically: A.J. Pierzynski ($4), Edwin Encarnacion ($16), Adam Dunn ($15), Tom Milone ($7) and Wei-Yin Chen ($2). Add their totals to what the team received from its studs such as Billy Butler, B.J. Upton, Jered Weaver and James Shields and it's easy to see why it won.
On this page is a list of the top 25 players who out-performed their draft day ranking and another 25 who turned out to be the biggest busts. For simplicity’s sake, we used the rankings set out by Yahoo! at the beginning and the end of the fantasy season. Players are listed with pre-season ranking (MARCH), final ranking and difference.
To be fair, in the latter category, we’re not including anyone who lost a significant amount of games to injury such as Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria and Matt Kemp.
The biggest jump belonged to Rays RP Fernando Rodney, who entered the season as Kyle Farnsworth’s setup man, was ranked as a 26th-round pick and likely wasn’t even drafted in many pools. But Rodney took over the closer’s job early and never relinquished it, converting 48 of 50 save opps and allowing only nine earned runs all year to finish as the 17th best overall fantasy pick for the year.
The most significant jump however belonged to Angels’ rookie phenom Mike Trout, who was tabbed as an 18th-round pick (but probably went a round or two sooner on spec alone) and with a .326 AVG, 30 HRs and 49 SBs, wound up as the No. 1 all-around fantasy performer. The only thing that could keep him from being the top pick in next spring’s drafts is that he doesn’t have the track record of a Miguel Cabrera or Ryan Braun.
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In a season replete with pitching horror stories — Tim Lincecum, Jon Lester, Heath Bell — it’s no surprise that that is where the most notable collapses can be found. The biggest drop? That would be Blue Jays’ Ricky Romero who went in as a 10th-round pick (123rd overall) and finished as No. 1,489 .
OVER-ACHIEVERS
MARCH FINAL DIF
Mike Trout ANA 223 1 +222
R.A. Dickey NYM 265 5 +260
Edwin Encarnacion TOR 198 10 +188
Chase Headley SD 253 12 +241
Alex Rios CHW 168 16 +152
Fernando Rodney TB 320 17 +303
Kris Medlen ATL 335 20 +315
Aroldis Chapman CIN 294 21 +273
Aaron Hill ARIZ 244 26 +218
Kyle Lohse STL 321 35 +286
Chris Sale CHW 242 37 +205
Jake Peavy CHW 298 56 +242
Adam LaRoche WAS 325 65 +260
Jim Johnson BALT 232 71 +161
Bryce Harper WAS 322 78 +244
Wade Miley ARIZ 341 88 +253
Chris Davis BAL 285 90 +195
Josh Reddick OAK 327 99 +228
Marco Scutaro SF 300 104 +196
A.J. Burnett PIT 347 108 +239
Norichika Aoki MIL 363 110 +263
Matt Harrison TEX 339 114 +225
Garrett Jones PIT 343 118 +225
A.J. Pierzynski CHW 351 132 +219
Wilin Rosario COL 381 140 +241
UNDER-ACHIEVERS
MARCH FINAL DIF
Roy Halladay PHIL 16 286 -270
Mark Teixeira NYY 23 180 -157
Tim Lincecum SF 28 947 -919
Carlos Santana CLE 44 224 -180
Dan Uggla ATL 46 235 -189
Mike Napoli TEX 55 392 -337
Jon Lester BOS 60 879 -819
Kevin Youkilis BOS-CHW 61 338 -277
Eric Hosmer KC 62 334 -272
Brian McCann ATL 72 454 -382
John Axford MIL 84 202 -118
Drew Stubbs CIN 91 301 -210
Alex Avila DET 109 865 -756
Heath Bell MIA 110 451 -351
Ricky Romero TOR 123 1489 -1366
Josh Beckett BOS-LAD 130 725 -595
Adam Lind TOR 135 931 -796
Peter Bourjos LAA 139 1080 -941
Ubaldo Jimenez CLEV 147 1141 -994
Jemile Weeks OAK 150 979 -829
Jeff Francoeur KC 160 564 -404
Lucas Duda NYM 162 718 -556
Jhonny Peralta DET 165 490 -325
Yunel Escobar TOR 167 524 -357
Gaby Sanchez MIA-PIT 188 1065 -877
1ST ROUND 2013?
Ryan Braun MIL of
Mike Trout LAA of
Miguel Cabrera DET 3b
R.A. Dickey NYM sp
Robinson Cano NYY 2b
David Price TB sp
Jered Weaver LAA sp
Andrew McCutchen PIT of
Justin Verlander DET sp
Josh Hamilton TEX of
Clayton Kershaw LAD sp
Albert Pujols LAA 1b
MY TEAMS
The ZZ Flops wound up second in my 12-team AL-only keeper league, but this one feels more like a loss after holding down first place for the first four months, then cutting a 17-point deficit to 11/2 with just three days to go. But my starting pitching – so spotty until August, then so dominant over the final six weeks — didn’t have enough to get over the final hurdle, the second-inning implosion by Clay Buchholz (above) on Monday all but sealing my fate. Here are the high and lows:
Best bang for the buck: Josh Reddick $5, Jason Kipnis $7, Jim Johnson $6.
Worst worst bang for the buck: Peter Bourjos $8, Ubaldo Jimenez $20.
Best in-season pickup: Pedro Ciriaco ($8)
Worst pickup: Actually picked up Xavier Avery TWICE ($8, then $10 a month later) for basically four steals.
Best trade: Got SP David Price (12-1, 2.26 ERA, 0.97 WHIP after trade) for 3B Brett Lawrie (.267, 6 HRs, 5 SBs) in Week 13.
Worst trade: Strictly on final numbers, Buchholz 1-5, 5.30) for Evan Longoria (.274, 13 HRs) in Week 21.
Best move: Drafting Tom Wilhelmsen on the one win he vultured in Japan.
Worst move: Dropping a $1 Dewayne Wise after the Yankees released him.
As for my Yahoo! mixed league, not much to report. The Zanesville Kickapoos finished fifth out of 14 teams with too much speed and not enough power. My fears about taking Ryan Braun seventh overall proved to be unfounded.
— Joel Colomby