Biggest Fantasy Baseball Surprises: Infielders

As the regular season starts to heat up so to does the fantasy baseball season. A few months removed from draft day decisions we see the errors or our ways or the fruits of our search for super sleepers. Although the fans of some of these teams would not see them as surprises, 5x5 fantasy leagues do so. Going position-by-position, let's look at the biggest fantasy surprises and disappointments so far in the season (data from Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball including the rankings), starting with the infielders

Catcher

Biggest Surprise - Miguel Olivo. He came into the year ranked as the 380th best player in baseball and right now is the top ranked catcher at 124. His .297 average with 18 runs, 8 HR, and 22 RBI have been a pleasant surprise, especially considering many didn't even know if he would be the starting catcher (and he may not be for much longer). 4 stolen bases have helped his cause even further. Amazingly, he's only owned in 67% of fantasy leagues. Honorable Mention - Rod Barajas (#380, 21 runs, 10 HR, 27 RBI) and John Buck (#933, 18 runs, 8 HR, 26 RBI). Picture from the Denver Post

Biggest Disappointment - Victor Martinez. The fact that he's the 6th best catcher is irrelevant since he was supposed to be one of the best players in baseball and was drafted likewise. So far, he's put up an extremely disappointing .258, 6 HR, 20 RBI line--which has actually an improvement from his slow start. For a guy who was picked so early in so many drafts, that's not acceptable, especially considering Martinez was picked as the second catcher in most leagues. His bruised toe suffered this week shouldn't help things much, either. Honorable Mention - Brian McCann (#34, .263, 5 HR, 18 RBI) and Matt Wieters (#105, .253, 11 runs, 4 HR, 15 RBI).

First Base

Biggest Surprise - Paul Konerko. I could have gone with a lot of names here, but Konerko has been the most surprising, even considering his recent slump. His 14 HR is tops at a position where slugging is king after he was only ranked #271 coming into the season. He's the 45th best player in baseball so far and has provided the power numbers for many fantasy teams. And his 14 HR equals of the output of Mark Teixeira and Prince Fielder--combined. Honorable Mention - James Loney (#155, .298, 29 runs, 4 HR, 29 RBI, 6 SB) and Adam LaRoche (#198, .281, 30 runs, 7 HR, 32 RBI) Picture from the Chicago Sun-Times

Biggest Disappointment - Mark Teixeira. For a guy drafted in the first or second round of every draft, these are not the stats you want to see: .210, 25 runs, 7 HR, 30 RBI. While most of the offensive stats actually match up with Albert Pujols', his average is almost 100 points lower. A notoriously slow starter, Tex has gotten off to an extra-slow start this year frustrating both his Yankee fans and his fantasy owners. Him and A-Rod have made the middle of the order quite unproductive. To put it in perspective, former Yankee Eric Hinske is ranked higher on the season than Teixeira despite having only 73 ABs. Definitely can't get worse. Honorable Mention - Derrek Lee (#52, .242, 24 runs, 6 HR, 23 RBI, 1 SB) and Carlos Pena (#85, .189, 23 runs, 8 HR, 28 RBI).


Second Base

Biggest Surprise - Kelly Johnson. It was really close between a bunch of guys, but I'll go with Johnson who was ranked behind all of them at #328. So far he's scored 32 runs, hit 12 HR and drove in 25 to go along with 4 steals. Not bad for a guy who is still owned in less than 80% of leagues. He's been struggling a bit lately (hasn't driven in a run in over a week), but so far the NL Player of the Month for April has been my biggest surprise at 2B. Honorable Mention - Casey McGehee (#326, .306, 9 HR, 40 RBI), Ty Wigginton (#324, .285, 13 HR, 32 RBI), and Alberto Callaspo (#323, .304, 7 HR, 31 RBI, 2 SB) Picture from Sports Illustrated

Biggest Disappointment - Chone Figgins. Ian Kinsler, Brian Roberts and Aaron Hill have all missed time with injury, but Figgins, Seattle's big free agent signing, has just been bad. He's hitting .194 with 19 runs, 0 HR, 14 RBI and 9 SB. Not much production for a guy who came into the season ranked as the 66th best in all of baseball. Amazingly, despite his high ranking, he's been dropped in so many leagues that he's owned in less than 80% of them at this point. Luckily for his fantasy owners, he's not moving out of the top of the lineup anytime soon. Honorable Mention - Ian Kinsler (#17, only 1 HR in 91 ABs), Aaron Hill (#45, .154, 6 HR, 14 RBI), Gordon Beckham (#134, .191, 1 HR, 9 RBI, only 46% owned), and Jose Lopez (#144, .214, 10 runs, 1 HR in 182 ABs, 16 RBI)


Third Base

Biggest Surprise - Jose Bautista. The 327th player in all of baseball coming into this season, he's now ranked 12th despite having a .246 average. Why? Because he has 34 runs scored, a major-league-leading 15 HR, 39 RBI and 3 SB. He's amazingly only owned in 76% of leagues and the Blue Jays--of all teams--have had to find time to play him now that Edwin Encarnacion is back. And the past month has been his time to shine as the 5th best player in baseball (and best third baseman) with 24 runs, 11 HR, and 23 RBI. Not too shabby. Honorable Mention - David Freese (#1080,  .310, 19 runs, 3 HR, 28 RBI despite late call up) and Martin Prado (slow last few weeks, but still .307, 32 runs, 4 HR, 21 RBI). Picture from CBC News

Biggest Disappointment - Aramis Ramirez.  Just awful. Murdering fantasy teams right now as well as the Cubs. He was the 50th ranked player coming into the season and many teams were happy to get him as their third basemen. So far he's rewarded those picks with a .160 average, 15 runs, 4 HR, 20 RBI. Ouch. That leaves him as a the 1,106th best player in baseball this season meaning you were better going with 47 3rd baseman before Ramirez including names like Delwyn Young, Willy Aybar, Jerry Hairston, Jr, or Adam Rosales. And forget about Adam Kennedy or Eric Hinske who have lapped him at this point. Honorable Mention - Pablo Sandoval (#30, 20 runs, 3 HR and 16 RBI) and Chipper Jones (#133, .219, 16 runs, 2 HR, 24 RBI).


Shortstop

Biggest Surprise - Alex Gonzalez. We have another Blue Jay on this list. There are many fantasy owners (and the Red Sox too) who would like a redo on this one. Despite cooling off recently, Gonzalez has 28 runs, 10 HR (most among shortstops) and 30 RBI, leaving him as the 4th best SS behind Elvis Andrus (another nice surprise), Troy Tulowitzki, and Hanley Ramirez (ahead of Ben Zobrist, Derek Jeter or Jose Reyes). Pretty amazing play for a guy that was replaced in Boston because of his lack of offense--and they're now getting .250 with 2 HR and 8 RBI from Marco Scutaro. Honorable Mention - Elvis Andrus (#109, now the best SS with .305, 34 runs, 12 RBI and 17 SB) and Juan Uribe (#418, 19 runs, 6 HR, 26 RBI) Picture from CBC News

Biggest Disappointment - Jose Reyes. There's a few candidates here but I'm going to go with Reyes who was picked extremely high in many of my drafts by Mets fans who were hoping for a bounce-back year. Right now, he's hitting .238 with 1 HR, 15 RBI and only 11 SB. And before you tell me about how he's been hurt, his 185 ABs are more than all but two SS. But with Reyes coming around and getting healthy, it may be time to look elsewhere for this category. Truthfully, the NL East shortstops outside of Florida have been awful, and Yunel Escobar could definitely claim this stop with his #116 rank coming into this season and his .188, 13 runs, 0 HR, 9 RBI season so far. Honorable Mention - Escobar (for the reasons mentioned above), Scutaro (ditto) and Alexei Ramirez (#131, .245, 13 runs, 3 HR, 2 SB).

So what do you think? Who has been the biggest surprise/disappointment on your fantasy infield so far in the young season? Who do you think in the surprise group will come back to earth and who do you think amongst the disappointments will start heating up? Let us know in the comments below!