For example, I don’t care that Fernando Martinez hit two home runs this weekend because it really means nothing in 2010 with Jeff Francoeur, Carlos Beltran (when healthy) and Jason Bay in the New York Mets outfield.

Injuries:

Catcher Russell Martin of the Los Angeles Dodger has an injured groin and is expected to miss four-to-six weeks which means he will likely miss opening day. I would knock 50 at bats from his projections just to be safe.

Third basemen Alex Gordon will be out for three-to-four weeks with a broken thumb. With Gordon usually being drafted two to three rounds earlier than he should every year, the injury just puts him back to where he should have been all along.

Hitters:

For those people concerned about Justin Morneau and his back problems from last year affecting his power in 2010, it was nice to see him get his first home run of the spring today.

The recent signing of Orlando Hudson by the Minnesota Twins bumped J.J. Hardy from the second spot in the batting order. On Sunday, Hudson was hitting second with Hardy in the sixth spot.

Value going up for Jason Bartlett as it looks like he might open the year as the lead off hitter for the Tampa Bay Rays. Value going down for B.J. Upton who was hitting seventh in the order on Saturday.

Mmmm, Matt Kemp as the new number two hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers? Not sure I like that. In 55 at bats in the number two hole last year, he hit two home runs with only five RBI. It definitely means he is going to have a hard time breaking 100 RBI if he stays in that slot the entire season.

Pitchers:

Kyle McClellan threw three shutout innings with four strikeouts in his bid to secure one of the St. Louis Cardinals starting rotation spots. The magic of Dave Duncan continues.

Ian Kennedy threw two scoreless innings for Arizona and is a good late game play in National League only formats after missing the majority of the 2009 season.

While spring training numbers are usually not that important for the majority of pitchers as they work on new pitches, get used to being stretched out, etc., for some coming back from injury it does has some impact to their draft status. Jeremy Bonderman of the Detroit Tigers was pounded on Sunday, allowing six runs in only 2/3 of an inning.

Shaun Marcum tossed two scoreless innings on Saturday with two strikeouts. He is a great end game option in mixed league formats in 2010.

Francisco Liriano hurled two scoreless innings with three strikeouts as he looks to carry over his strong performance from the winter league. Another outing or two like this and he is going to start rocketing up draft boards.

At some point this season Jaime Garcia is going to have some value for the St. Louis Cardinals. He might have to start the season in Triple-A to build up arm strength after missing part of 2008-09 with Tommy John surgery, but he is worth holding onto in NL only leagues. He tossed three hitless innings on Saturday with three strikeouts.

This is the sixth article in the series looking at the current 2010 fantasy baseball ADP (average draft position) for players in the outfield. The data uses ADP numbers from Mock Draft Central using the NFBC scoring system.

The chart below lists players arranged by my 2010 fantasy baseball rankings with the current ADP broken down by where that player would fall in a 12 or 15 team league by round and pick. The one caveat being that the 12 team numbers may be skewed slightly as some players may go later than others due to the larger player pool to pick from.

Undervalued:

Juan Pierre is currently being selected after the majority of base stealers like Michael Bourn, Nyjer Morgan, Julio Borbon and Rajai Davis which is baffling to me. He has a proven track record in the major leagues and out of all the players on the list has the best chance of hitting .300, scoring 100 runs and stealing 50 bases. Each of the players going before him have questions that he does not carry. The only downside to him the last two years was his lack of playing time which will not be an issue in Chicago this year.

I like Nolan Reimold this season based on his current average draft position. His limited at bats upon arriving in the major leagues his suppressing his value this year it seems.  Hit .299 after the All-Star break in 187 at bats with 6 home runs, 22 RBI and 6 stolen bases. If you pro-rate that to 540 at bats, you are looking at a line of roughly 78 runs scored, 18 home runs, 66 RBI and 18 steals. I expect the RBI to be a little more than that and steals less, but he should still crack double digits.

Cody Ross, not a sexy pick, but is good value based on current ADP with the ability to get you 20-25 home runs late in the draft with 80-90 RBI.

Overvalued:

One dimensional speed demons. I wrote about this back in the article on 2010 fantasy baseball rankings for outfielders. It is not a good idea to take an outfielder as high as Michael Bourn that has value tied up mainly in one category. If your team goal is 180 stolen bases and you have him projected for 60, that accounts for 33% of your teams total. Any type of pulled hamstring or injured ankle and then your team is scrambling for stolen bases during the year. There is also a lot of fluctuation in stolen bases from year to year so 60 stolen bases for him last season might only be 50 in 2010.

I also mentioned when discussing Bourn that taking him that high weakens you are another position that has less depth than in the outfield. I would much rather have the choice to pick between an outfielder at the end of the draft where the talent pool is much deeper that having to take a scrub middle infielder. Then you are taking hit in multiple categories like home runs and RBI by rostering Bourn plus a scrub infielder late, than getting an infielder where Bourn is being drafted and then grabbing an outfielder to close out the draft.

You are much better off getting stolen bases in the first four rounds of the draft spread out between four players rather than have the risk of your speed tied to the legs of one individual.

Andrew McCutchen is an exciting young player but much like Joey Votto at first base, the expectations for 2010 are pushing him very high in mock drafts lately. Started out as a 9th round pick back in December and has steadily been moving up the ladder ever since. Current ADP is toward end of 6th round in a 15 team mixed draft and I would not be surprised to see him going at the end of the 4th round by the time the season starts.

You have to remember though just like in an auction format, your goal when drafting is to get the best value out of each pick. The higher in the draft he goes, the higher his stat line you are forecasting becomes.

The FBT Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide is now available for purchase for just $9.99. You can view a sample here to see the template for the top 10 catchers and top 10 starting pitchers.

The Draft Guide includes the following:

• Projections in Excel for 480 players using the standard 5 x 5 fantasy baseball categories
• Cheat sheets already set up to be printed out
• Expanded player rankings for all positions
• Ages for all players as of opening day
• Word / PDF document that explains how to use the projections and some tips for some neat things to do in Excel.
• The first article that will be only available to subscribers (and not posted on the website) for “how to win your fantasy baseball draft league”. This is a seven page document with 3,500 words of fantasy baseball goodness based on my 20 years of playing in fantasy baseball leagues.
• You will also receive weekly reports every Monday that feature updates to rankings and a new article all the way up to opening day.
• Support for any questions you have in regards to Excel to ensure you get the most out of the data.

Order now to get the information you need to dominate the competition!!!

Next up in the 2010 Fantasy Baseball ADP rankings will be starting pitchers.

This is the sixth report in the series of our 2010 fantasy baseball rankings looking at the top 20 outfielders. Before I get a flood of emails from readers, I will tell you that Ichiro Suzuki is not in the list, so no, I did not miss him.  I see a lot of people are drafting him high as he has a current fantasy baseball ADP of 42 and is the 10th outfielder being selected.

To me, he is one of those people that are drafted based on his name and not necessarily his value. I will shows you my projections for two players and you decide how much difference there is.

Player A 95 runs  8 home runs  65 RBI  24 steals  .295 avg.

Player B 90 runs  7 home runs  46 RBI  29 steals  .318 avg.

Player A is Denard Span who has an ADP of 123 and is currently going 81 picks after Ichiro, who is Player B.

With that said, let’s take a look at the 2010 fantasy baseball rankings to see where the players rank.

1) Ryan Braun – made small gains in plate discipline which was nice to see in his second year. Has roughly the same stats as Chase Utley, only difference is the position scarcity which puts Utley number four overall and Braun number five.

2) Matt Kemp – fell just short of the 30-30 club in 2009 and should be ready to break that barrier this year. Drove in over 100 runs despite batting seventh or eighth for 41% of his at bats.

3) Matt Holliday – when it was all said and done, put up similar stats to the year before in Colorado. Should continue to post stats long the same lines now back in the National League with St. Louis.

4) Jacoby Ellsbury – put in a nice sophomore season, stealing double figure bases every month except for August when he stole eight. Should score 100 runs or more every season in the Red Sox lineup. Has improved his stolen base percentage since reaching the major leagues, as he now as a career 85% success rate.

5) Carl Crawford – 2009 numbers returned to 2007 levels after injuries derailed his 2008 season. Went crazy on stolen bases in the first-half of the season with 44 bags, but only stole 16 after the All-Star break and was caught nine times.

6) Jason Bay – looks like he become more home run conscious last season as his strikeout rate went up almost seven percentage points. Showed he could handle playing in a big market environment. Now the question is whether he can handle the dimensions of Citi Field.

7) Justin Upton – turned in a 20-20 season at the age of 22. Much more patient at home than on the road with 37 walks compared to 18 in similar number of at bats. Still has power upside into the 30 home run range.

8.) Grady Sizemore – elbow and abdominal injuries wrecked his 2008 campaign. Still struggles to hit left-handed pitching, batting under .225 three of the past four years. Set your expectations against his 2006 season, with less runs and a lower batting average.

9) Jayson Werth – exploded at age 30 in his first season as a full-time starter. The at bats were the most he has had in a season since 2002, when he split time between Triple-A and the Toronto Blue Jays. Power should regress a little bit but the stolen bases should continue thanks to a 89% career success rate.

10) Nick Markakis – two straight seasons of declining stats in home runs and stolen bases, which is not the right direction to be trending when you are only 26 years old. Still has solid stats and has hit 40+ doubles the last three seasons so there may be a few more home runs lurking.

11) Adam Lind – turned in a monster power season with 46 doubles and 35 home runs. Stats were solid all around; every month of the season, home vs. road and lefty vs. right pitching.

12) Nelson Cruz – numbers would have been even better if not for an injury last season that kept him under 475 at bats. I have him ranked higher than his current fantasy baseball ADP so I think there is draft value here. Numbers were in line with his pro-rated line from the end of the 2008 season. Steals were an added bonus, but not out of the blue as he had 24 in ’08 at Triple-A.

13) Curtis Granderson – will enjoy hitting in Yankees stadium for half of his games. Needs to improve against left-handed pitchers to get his batting average back up. Hit only .183 in 180 at bats with nine RBI against southpaws.

14) Andre Ethier – gradual increase in power the last two years although part of the jump in home runs was just due to more at bats. Average dropped as he had trouble with lefties, batting only .194 in 165 at bats.

15) Manny Ramirez – was on fire in April hitting .372 and then was suspended for PED use. Put up so-so numbers upon his return and hit 10 home runs in 231 after the All-Star break. Will be 38 in May so I would not count on a return to over 30 home runs again.

16) Adam Dunn – as consistent as they come in power with close to 40 home runs and 100+ RBI each season. You know his batting average is going to be in the .240 – .260 range so you will need to offset it with other people in your lineup. Offers the added bonus of qualifying at first base as well this season.

17) B.J. Upton – gave back the gains in his walk rate from 2008. Second straight year of almost 30 point drop in batting average. Went on a tear in June hitting .324 with five home runs, 22 RBI and 14 steals; then disappeared for the rest of the season. Stole 31 bases in 81 games and then managed to only swipe 11 after the All-Star break. Still have to hold out hope that he turns things around at age 25 and gets back to his 2007 numbers.

18) Carlos Lee – fifth straight season of 100+ RBI. Disappointing to see him score almost the same number of runs as 2008 despite an additional 188 plate appearances. A number that does not figure to get any better after  losing Miguel Tejada from the lineup. The days of his double digit steals seem to be over.

19) Shin-Soo Choo – numbers in line with pro-rating his 2008 stats. Has the speed to go 20-20 for the next few seasons. Solid batting average and an overall ADP of 69 makes him a nice value in the fifth or sixth round.

20) Bobby Abreu – you have to love the consistency that Abreu brings to the table, driving in 100+ RBI in seven straight seasons and scoring no less than 96 runs during that time period. His lowest at bat total in the last 10 years was 546 back in 1999. Now at age 36, he still should be good for another couple of years.

The FBT Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide is now available for purchase for just $9.99. You can view a sample here to see the template for the top 10 catchers and top 10 starting pitchers.

The Draft Guide includes the following:

• Projections in Excel for 480 players using the standard 5 x 5 fantasy baseball categories
• Cheat sheets already set up to be printed out
• Expanded player rankings for all positions
• Ages for all players as of opening day
• Word / PDF document that explains how to use the projections and some tips for some neat things to do in Excel.
• The first article that will be only available to subscribers (and not posted on the website) for “how to win your fantasy baseball draft league”. This is a seven page document with 3,500 words of fantasy baseball goodness based on my 20 years of playing in fantasy baseball leagues.
• You will also receive weekly reports every Monday that feature updates to rankings and a new article all the way up to opening day.
• Support for any questions you have in regards to Excel to ensure you get the most out of the data.

Order now to get the information you need to dominate the competition!!!

Next up in the series for the 2010 fantasy baseball rankings will outfielders 21-40.

It was a good day for the New York Yankees offense on Sunday, as it scored nine runs off of Johan Santana in three innings en route to a 15-0 victory over the New York Mets. The Yankees scored 15 runs without receiving a RBI from Mark Teixeira or Alex Rodriguez. Robinson Cano went 3-for-4 with three RBI, including his 11th home run of the season. Hideki Matsui hit his 1oth home run of the year and Derek Jeter went 4-for-4 to raise his batting average to .310. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Sunday…

Hitters:

B.J. Upton is not delivering at the plate, but at least he is stealing bases in bunches to provide help in one fantasy baseball category. Upton stole two bases again on Sunday giving him three consecutive games with two steals.

Ty Wigginton went 3-for-4 and clubbed two home runs, giving him five on the season.  Wigginton isn’t much of an option in fantasy baseball leagues with his reduced playing time. Since May 26th, Wigginton has started only six out of the last 17 games.

There must be some kind of curse on National League East third basemen this year that have stripped them of their power and turned them into high batting average hitters. Much like David Wright and Andy LaRoche, Pedro Feliz has followed suit in 2009, reducing his home runs and jacking up his batting average. Feliz went 3-for-5 on Sunday with two RBI and is now hitting .318 on the season.

Casey McGehee went 3-for-4 and hit his first home run of the season. He is definitely an option in National League only leagues with Rickie Weeks out for the season. McGehee has raised his batting average 82 points in the last 10 days to its current level of .338.

Corey Hart hit two solo home runs giving him eight on the season, in what has been a disappointing year so far. All he needs is the correct slot in the batting order for him to turn his season around. Batting first or seventh, Hart is hitting only .170 this year in 65 at bats. Compare that to the second or sixth spots in the line up and Hart is batting .290. Memo to Ken Macha, please adjust your batting line up accordingly!

Juan Rivera went 2-for-4 and belted two solo home runs. Rivera has hit three home runs and driven in nine runs in his last seven games.

Miguel Olivo continued his week 10 power surge, going 2-for-4 and hitting his ninth home run of the season. The home run was the fourth this week for Olivo who knocked in eight runs in six games.

Casey Blake went 2-for-4 with four RBI and collected his 10th home run of the season. The home run ended an almost month long drought for Blake who last homered on May 19th.

Ronny Paulino went 4-for-5 and delivered two home runs while driving in three. Paulino has gotten off to a good start in June, as he is now hitting .379 for the month.

Pitchers:

Jered Weaver tossed a complete game shutout with five strikeouts to improve to 7-2 on the year. Weaver has allowed two runs or less in his last five starts while going 4-0 in that stretch.

Matt Cain tossed a complete game, allowing one run with a season-high nine strikeouts.  Cain, who has battled control problems in several starts this season,  did not walk a batter for the third time this year.

A.J. Burnett tossed seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts to pick up win number five on the year. Burnett’s inconsistencies have been a direct result of his increase in walks and lack of control compared to previous seasons. His strikeout to walk ratio of 1.78 is currently the lowest it has been since 2003 and his batting average against of .261 is the highest since 2006.

Josh Johnson picked up a complete game victory, allowing three runs with six strikeouts to improve to 6-1 on the season. Johnson has been amazingly consistent this season. Outside of his start on April 18th, he has allowed three runs or fewer in every other start this year.

Chad Billingsley allowed two runs in seven innings with three strikeouts to up his mark to 9-3. It was the third consecutive win for Billingsley who moved into a tie for first place in wins in the National League with Matt Cain.

Brian Bannister hurled eight scoreless innings and fanned four to gain his fifth victory of the season. Bannister has allowed two earned runs in his last 13 innings.

Scott Baker allowed two runs in seven innings with five strikeouts in a no decision. Baker now has a 2.87 ERA in his last three starts with 23 strikeouts in 22 innings.

Jason Hammel allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings with six strikeouts to pick up his fourth win of the year. Hammel has reeled off three straight wins with a 2.46 ERA in those outings.

Ross Ohlendorf allowed one run in six innings with two strikeouts to pick up his sixth win of the season. The win for Ohlendorf was his first since May 13th.

Closers:

Trevor Hoffman allowed a run for the first time this season, taking the loss against the Chicago White Sox. Hoffman had worked 18 scoreless innings coming into Sunday’s game.

Jose Valverde returned from the disabled list and worked a scoreless inning with three strikeouts.

Frank Francisco was placed on the disabled list with right shoulder tendinitis. C.J. Wilson will take over as closer while Francisco is out.