Twenty not-so-essential players who shouldn’t be dropped
by Eriq GardnerApril 07, 2009
Last week, I covered toxic assets in fantasy baseball—players that fantasy managers may feel tempted to drop but resigned to keep as the baseball season gets out of the gates.
Now that spring training is over, some players owned in many leagues have failed to win starting gigs, others have been sent to the minors, and some are starting the year on the disabled list. We suspect that in the coming weeks, fantasy baseball managers may be forced to make some hard decisions as they see and read about players on the waiver wire whose hot April tease entices a rash decision.
So here's a list of 20 players with little or no immediate value who we'd recommend to hold steady. We've left off players like Alex Rodriguez, Joe Mauer, and John Lackey, who we couldn't imagine anybody would be tempted to drop.
The catchers:
1. Matt Wieters
2. Kelly Shoppach
3. Mike Napoli
The pitching prospects:
4. David Price
5. Thomas Hanson
The injured question marks:
6. Ervin Santana
7. Scott Baker
8. Kelvim Escobar
9. Troy Glaus
10. Joel Zumaya
The middle relievers:
11. Chris Ray
12. Carlos Marmol
13. Jose Arredondo
14. Grant Balfour
15. Rafael Perez
16. Manny Corpas
The players without an everyday starting gig:
17. Ian Stewart
18. Elijah Dukes
19. Denard Span
20. Travis Snider
The above players offer enough upside to hold onto in lieu of a hot April hand. Some players who are less essential and we recommend can be dropped include middle relievers who are injured or in the minors (Joey Devine, Chris Perez), Nick Swisher, Sean Gallagher, Dallas McPherson, and Justin Duchscherer.
Eriq Gardner is a New York-based writer and founder of Fantasy Ball Junkie, a website for advanced fantasy baseball enthusiasts.
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