MLB Tickets - Fantasy Baseball: First Round One Mock

So fantasy baseball isn't exactly right around the corner, but it's never too early to start preparing for your draft. The best fantasy players are usually the best players in real life and the guys who sell the most MLB tickets. These are the type of players you want to target in the first round. (Note: The amount of picks in the first round here is based on 10-team leagues.)

1. Alex Rodriguez, 3B, New York Yankees: Some people are ready to give the title of best fantasy player to Florida's Hanley Ramirez, but I'm not quite ready to do so. A-Rod is the most reliable fantasy player ever and has a tendency to put up bigger numbers in odd years.

2. Hanley Ramirez, SS, Florida Marlins: This guy is a fantasy beast, and he does it from a premium position. He's got 40-40 potential and has the ability to hit for average as well. I'd expect 30 homers, 35 steals and a .315 batting average.

3. David Wright, 3B, New York Mets: Wright has the all-around game that fits fantasy baseball perfectly. Last season, Wright hit 32 home runs, drove in 124 runs, scored 115 runs and stole 15 bases. He also plays a premium position. He's still improving too, so he may even eclipse last year's numbers in 2009.

4. Albert Pujols, 1B, St. Louis Cardinals: Pujols had yet another great season in 2008 and I'd expect a better one in 2009 now that he's fully healthy. He's going to hit for average while giving you good to great power numbers. The only downside is he plays a loaded position.

5. Miguel Cabrera, 1B/3B, Detroit Tigers: I'm not sure how many people noticed, but Cabrera had a monster second half last season after getting off to a slow start. I'm expecting his best fantasy season yet, and his third base eligibility makes him valuable enough to be a top five pick.

6. Jose Reyes, SS, New York Mets: You know you're going to get the steals from Reyes, but he really showed his ability to hit in the second half of 2008. If you can get a guy that can hit 20 home runs and steal 60 bases, you've got to be pretty happy about it.

7. Grady Sizemore, OF, Cleveland Indians: Sizemore has an elite combination of speed and power and was a steal for a lot of owners that nabbed him after the first round last season. His average was down last year, but he did manage to hit 22 bombs while swiping 38 bases. Don't rule out a 30-40 season in 2009 with a much-improved Indians team.

8. Ryan Braun, OF, Milwaukee Brewers: Braun has been a beast in his first two seasons and he's only going to get better. Even if he doesn't, he's still an elite fantasy player. He's a streaky hitter, but he'll go on tears throughout the season that are unparalleled.

9. Mark Teixeira, 1B, New York Yankees: I believe that we're still yet to see Teixeira at his best, and I think he's hitting his prime right now. In the stacked Yankee lineup he should be able to knock in tons of runs and put up some fantastic numbers.

10. Carlos Beltran, OF, New York Mets: My big surprise of the mock. I think Beltran will have a huge season in 2009. If he can stay healthy all season and avoid playing injured, I'd look for something along the lines of a .295 batting average, 38 home runs, 120 RBI, 120 runs and 25 steals. That's top 10 material in my book.

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

Add Comment

Popular Articles in this cathegory

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.