My fantasy baseball draft is in two weeks or so and my fantasy team name is The Reverse Cowgirls, so I have a lot to live up too.
Both ESPN and Yahoo (where I play) have Manny ranked as the 28th player to be drafted. The other night, while doing research I changed my personal pre-draft settings to make Manny the 7th best player overall.
Here’s who I’ve got in front of him: (Note that I rank David Wright 9th based solely on the fact that I hate the Mets. So Wright is better, but I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I ranked two Mets in the top 5.)
Hanley Ramirez – SS Florida
Jose Reyes – SS New York Mets
Albert Pujols – 1B St Louis
Grady Sizemore – OF Cleveland
Miguel Cabrera – 1B/3B Detroit
Ryan Braun – OF Milwaukee
Then I’d follow those guys with Manny Ramirez at 7 and Alex Rodriguez at 8 (and yes, David effing Wright is at 9).
It’s early in the process and I haven’t taken the time to think about strategy or position needs or anything like that. However, I feel like with the exception of Manny, my top 9 is effectively the same as everyone else’s top 9 just possibly in a different order. (Note: Yahoo always undervalues pitchers and ESPN always overvalues them in their pre-draft rankings.)
So here’s the question I pose to you sports fans: Why is Manny not a top 10 fantasy guy?
He’s not only a great hitter, he’s a historically great hitter. He hits bad pitches, gets on base, doesn’t care who is batting behind him, and doesn’t get hurt. Now that LA has signed him he seems happy so should play hard for the whole season. On top of that the NL West is always the weakest division so outside of San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum, he will face subpar pitching. Ultimately, don’t you think you’d rather have Manny Ramirez than the oft hurt, historically not clutch, uber-sensitive A-Rod who is going to face vitriolic booing at every away game? So why would ESPN and Yahoo advise me to take Manny in round three instead of round one?
Or am I as crazy as Manny for believing in him?
