Catcher

Fan Pick – Ivan Rodriguez

The player formerly known as Pudge must have found religion at Nutri-Systems. No longer the power hitting catcher we’ve come to know and love, IRod is seriously svelte these days, as is his declining production. But the catcher most likely to be voted your AL All-Star is the same guy fans have voted in four straight years and 14 of the last 17. While his defense is still solid, last time we checked very few leagues give points for throwing out base thieves.

3^rd base

Fan Pick – Alex Rodriguez

Even though he wouldn’t make our fantasy team, having Willy Aybar as the Rays representative instead of Evan Longoria is an absolute travesty. We might be homers here…ok we are Rays homers, but Longoria does have as many jacks as ARod and in less at bats to boot. Truth is, we’d rather see former Toronto Blue Jay now Tampa Bay Ray Eric Hinske on the ballot before Aybar, but it seems the Rays are getting little respect, at least for the moment. Regardless, it’s a sad time in AL-ville as there are no clear choices. No other corner man is doing much to unseat Rodriguez, so the fans win this one by default. Sorry, please understand Chone Figgins lovers that while he has a batting average over .300 and 11 SB’s already this year, his constant vacations on the DL knock him out of contention. And recent NL transfer Miguel Cabrera is still figuring out AL pitching…go figure…so we can’t really choose him Tiger fan. By the way, didn’t ARod have something like 20 jacks at this point last year? We’ll take a perennial producer considering the weak options available to us.

SS

Fan Pick – Derek Jeter

There is something to be said about the man who has dated five of Maxim’s top 100 most beautiful women. In fact, we stat nerds can confess to a little jealousy when The Captain is out cavorting around Manhattan with the lovely ladies, but what has he done for us lately? Not much we say, and certainly not enough to earn his likely ninth All-Star appearance. Always a fan favorite and hitting cleanup with a grand total of one dinger and no stolen bases, Derek is having simply an average year on an average team.

Our feelings for this year’s short stops are similar to the current malaise at 3rd base… slim pickins. We’re really not feeling anyone. While these guys are for the most part like the skinny girl in high school (really nice but not much to look at) and known more for their defense, here at RotoExperts, we are looking for numbers baby. None of your starters are running (Maicer Izturis leads all shortstops with five steals but has been on the DL until recently); Jhonny Peralta is the top slugger but with a batting average stumbling around barely above .200, he’s not even in the picture as a few others have five home runs, but that’s nothing special. Jeter is hitting over .300 but his other numbers are similar to Erick Aybar and he’s not starting on any all-star team anytime soon. With little left to choose from, we admit to settling for Michael Young.

OF

Fan Picks – Magglio Ordonez, Ichiro Suzuki, Vladimir Guerrero

We think it’s safe to say that baseball fans will vote in the same outfield they had last year. While we could give a big "hell yeah" for Maggs, sending Ichiro over Jacoby Ellsbury is paramount to a criminal act. Again the ballot makers lost one in the lights by not including Jake on the ballot, so I guess we Rays fans aren’t the only one’s getting dissed And while Vlady’s numbers aren’t bad, like the other likely starters, he is winning the popularity contest based on his career stats and not what he has done so far this year. There are many sexier players with sizzling stats, and that’s who we want on our team.

And this is where it gets tricky.

You see, Bob Poe, the man behind the curtain on this article, built a solid logic set for calling for Ellsbury as a write-in candidate. When I looked at the stats I had to disagree with him, so I set out to boil down the top ten AL outfielders by the five most common fantasy scoring categories; Runs, Home Runs, RBIs, Stolen bases and Batting Average.

Poe’s contention was that since this was an All-Star team we needed a speed merchant. Looking at the top guys – Carlos Gomez, Carl Crawford, Ellsbury, and Suzuki, the similarities were striking, with one major exception. Ellsbury had similar stats with a lot less at bats. So I broke down the three speed merchants remaining (Gomez didn’t make the cut) and almost decided that he was right.

I’d ruled out Ellsbury because of his batting average. But as I dug into Poe’s logic, I realized a couple of things. First, while all three are within percentage points in slugging, Ellsbury, even with the lower BA, had them both by a considerable margin in OBP. That’s strong, since it meant he was getting on base at a higher rate per at bat.

So I compared Ellsbury again by extrapolating his numbers as if he had similar at bats.

Now I saw what Poe saw. Ellsbury, with a similar number of opportunities, would be the easy pick of the three.

Of course it was only an object lesson, since the underlying premise of this column is to determine who the best producers for your fantasy team have been so far this season. In essence, it meant that while it seems obvious Ellsbury could be better with the same number of opportunities, the reality is, he can’t compare. He still has Coco Crisp taking at bats away from him, and that reduces his value.

Poe had determined that the two players who belonged in our OF with Ellsbury were Magglio Ordonez and Josh Hamilton. He was money with the Hamilton selection, and I quote – "Our sexiest stud is the Hammer, Josh Hamilton. Another Rays' connection, it’s hard for us to write about him without getting a little puke sensation in the back of our throats. You see, we were around when Josh was the "Can't Miss Kid." And we remember when Josh’s life just seemed to be lost forever. And we remember when the Rays decided it was more important to protect a guy like Damon Hollins (who?) on the 40-man roster than Josh "the Hammer" Hamilton. So while long time Rays fans (all 16 of us) will never forget him, at least he seems to have turned his life around and is killing the ball for Texas."

I needed a Kleenex for that one. As one of the 16, I can only imagine what it would be like with Hamilton and his league-leading 44 RBIs roaming the outfield at Tropicana Field with BJ Upton and Carl Crawford.

However, the next two selections I disagreed with. While speed is certainly an important component, from a fantasy perspective guys who score in multiple categories provide more value. That seems like a simple equation. And the two guys who fit the bill are Carlos Quentin and Carl Crawford. Not the veteran presence he wanted, Maggs. Again, it’s all about production, and I found Ordonez lacking in the final analysis.

Before you start throwing rotten vegetables and calling me a homer, which I’ve readily admitted on several occasions, a look inside the numbers makes this a fairly easy call. Crawford has double digit SB, was by far the best producer of the speed guys in RBI, and is tied with Ellsbury with 30 runs scored. Toss in a BA just shy of .290, and he easily makes the grade.

Quentin gets the nod over an almost-deserving Manny Ramirez, who I rated higher than Ordonez. Ramirez out-pointed Maggs in runs, HR, RBI and a slightly better batting average. But Quentin, with 20 or so less at-bats than either, beats both in all categories except BA, and of the three is the only one with SB (also three.) And for those of you who use OBP and/or OPS, he ranks higher in both stats.

RotoExperts Picks

Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers

Carlos Quentin, Chicago White Sox

Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays

DH

Fan Pick – David Ortiz

Bob Poe says-

How is it that David Ortiz is hitting just .234 but is still sixth in the AL in RBI? He has good stats over all but we are not having a starter on our team hitting under .250. No, our starter is the ageless Hideki Matsui, mostly because he has the fifth best batting average in the AL and is getting decent production. The Yankees still have not started putting up the big numbers of years past and you know…they just might not this year. Did someone bean Travis Hafner in the head again? Wherefore art thou Jim Thome? In another sparse offering, we are again settling, this time for Matsui.

RotoExperts Pick – Hideki Matsui, NY Yankees