2011 Players to Watch

Salty hopes to play pepper with the Green Monster

Just a few days until the regular season begins and here’s a few guys you should have your eyes on for 2011.  They are solid value picks that will carry you to your fantasy baseball league title.

Mike Aviles, Royals, 3B — Mike Aviles will hit leadoff for the Royals this year.  He started the ’10 season in the minors after recovering from Tommy John surgery.  Aviles is a lifetime .298 hitter and hit 8 homers and stole 14 bases last year.  He showed power in September when he hit 6 long balls.

Madison Bumgarner, Giants, SP — Madison Bumgarner is still only 21-years-old and on the stellar Giants staff, he won’t be leaned on too much.  Probably doesn’t matter; Bumgarner already has 2 playoff wins and 1 World Series win to his credit.

J.J. Hardy, Orioles, SS — Just a few years ago with Milwaukee, J.J. Hardy was a 24 and 26 homerun player.  Moved from cavernous Target Field to cozy Camden Yards, we see Hardy as the Sleeper Pick of the Year and a 20 homerun guy for the O’s.

Jeremy Hellickson, Rays, SP — Great control and a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate for Tampa Bay.  Hellickson made it look easy last year by going 4-0, 3.47, with a 1.10 WHIP last year.

Hong-Chih Kuo, Dodgers, RP — Kuo had such a good season last year that he made the all star team as a setup man.  His final numbers were amazing: 1.20/0.78 in 56 games plus 12 for 13 in saves after Jonathan Broxton went down.

Andrew McCutchen, Pirates, OF — Andrew McCutchen was .286/16/56/33 in his first full season in Pittsburgh.  McCutchen is a player that can help you in all fantasy baseball categories and could be a 20 homerun 40 stolen base guy in 2011.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Red Sox, C — Salty teased the Rangers with greatness and the Red Sox thought enough of him to make him their primary catcher going into the season and moved Jason Varitek to a backup role.  Salty, only 25, blasted 11 homeruns in limited duty in 2007.

Mike Stanton, Marlins, OF — Mike Stanton missed the fist 24 games of the Marlins spring season with a strained quad then made his debut on March 24 and hit 2 homeruns and drove in 7 runs in his first game.  Not bad.  Stanton hit 22 homers in just 359 at bats last year and is a favorite for being the biggest breakout player of the 2011 campaign.

Danny Valencia, Twins, 3B — With Nick Punto gone, the 3B job belongs to Valencia who is coming off of a .311/7/40/2 season in just 299 at bats.  In a full time role, Valencia is a 20 homerun, 80 RBI guy.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 28th, 2011 at 1:06 am and is filed under 2011 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Sleepers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.