2010 Sleeper: SS Alcides Escobar

There are a number of new names to know for 2010, guys who should see quite a bit of playing time relative to what they’ve seen in the past. This is called a fantasy sleeper. Draft them as late as you can (but before other owners do), and you’ve got yourself quite a bargain. Knowing the average draft position of a player is extremely helpful in this instance. Okay, on to the post – in case you missed it, the Brewers dealt shortstop J.J. Hardy to the Twins this offseason, opening up the full-time shortstop job to young Alcides Escobar.

2010 Minor league pitching sleepers

Rookie pitchers will break your heart, but you can live off their potential all year long. Here are the most optimistic projections from this year’s class of minor league pitchers:

2010 Minor league positional sleepers

It’s never too early to start thinking about next season… is it? With the minor league 2009 season in the books, I have started developing my new and improved projections for 2010. I now use a projection system that takes minor league statistics at the Triple-A or Double-A level and regresses them to give a pretty conservative prediction for the following season. Here are some of the top projections for position players next season, should they see a full season of 600 PAs.

2009 Sleepers: Valuable when they play

There are many players who have very little draft value because they are expected to miss significant time with injuries or they are going to stay in the minor leagues to delay their arbitration clocks. Still, when they do see duty, they can give your team quite the boost. Here are some of those players for this year:

2009 Sleepers: Rookie SPs

Rookie (or rookie-ish) starters are always a bit tricky, because it almost inevitably takes a little time for them to adjust to the big leagues. The question is, is that time period short enough for you to gamble on them their first year?