Decide For Yourself

Whatever magazine you buy or wherever fantasy source you go to, everyone that plays the game today has a collection of tools to help them make better fantasy baseball decisions. Through out these magazines, you'll probably find a correlation of the top players, Pujols, Santana, Arod, etc, and they'll probably all tell you, 'yeah these guys will produce for you'. But the fact is, even though they will all produce at an above average level, relative to THIS group, there will still be winners and losers. Don't be so quick to assume that because everyone says Ryan Howard is going to hit 50 bombs that he will. Don't be afraid to draft or pay for someone that goes against the grain. Pay attention to all the information you can get your hands on and add up your own formula. Be your own fantasy source.

Below is a list of 'studs', their statistical projections going into 2006 and their actual performance. Only Albert Pujols and David Ortiz was able to exceed their projected numbers. Everyone else barely met their expectations or fell below it.


Albert Pujols
projected:
ABS:590 RUNS:135 HRS:43 RBIS:122
actual:
ABS:535 RUNS:119 HRS:49 RBIS:137

Alex Rodriguez
projected:
ABS:605 RUNS:121 HRS:44 RBIS:119
actual:
ABS:572 RUNS:113 HRS:35 RBIS:121

Vladimir Guerrero
projected:
ABS:555 RUNS:106 HRS:35 RBIS:115
actual:
ABS:607 RUNS:92 HRS:33 RBIS:116

Bobby Abreu
projected:
ABS:585 RUNS:108 HRS:28 RBIS:103
actual:
ABS:548 RUNS:98 HRS:15 RBIS:107

Jason Bay
projected:
ABS:560 RUNS:98 HRS:33 RBIS:104
actual:
ABS:570 RUNS:101 HRS:35 RBIS:109

David Wright
projected:
ABS:560 RUNS:97 HRS:30 RBIS:103
actual:
ABS:582 RUNS:96 HRS:26 RBIS:116

David Ortiz
projected:
ABS:590 RUNS:108 HRS:44 RBIS:148
actual:
ABS:558 RUNS:115 HRS:54 RBIS:137

Manny Ramirez
projected:
ABS:555 RUNS:111 HRS:43 RBIS:131
actual:
ABS:449 RUNS:79 HRS:35 RBIS:102

Miguel Cabrera
projected:
ABS:615 RUNS:102 HRS:36 RBIS:117
actual:
ABS:576 RUNS:112 HRS:26 RBIS:114

Todd Helton
projected:
ABS:545 RUNS:111 HRS:26 RBIS:94
actual:
ABS:546 RUNS:94 HRS:15 RBIS:81