How many times have you heard this refrain? “If only my guys hadn't gotten hurt, I would have won the league." We've all said it at one time or another. Sometimes you're snake-bitten by bad luck, like those that drafted Prince Fielder last year. That moose of a man never missed games. From 2006-2013 he appeared in at least 157 games each season and he missed all of one game from 2009-13. You drafted him with confidence last year. You got slapped in the face with a wet sock drenched in sewer water as Fielder went out and appeared in 42 games for the Rangers. Things like that happen each year and there's nothing you can do about it.

On the flip side we've got the folks who draft Troy Tulowitzki and say, “If only he had stayed healthy, I would have won my league." I'm calling shenanigans (I wanted to call B.S., but this is a family Guide). You draft Tulo and you complain about it... go home, shut your mouth and climb in a hole. He is always hurt. Just who he is. Over the last seven seasons he's had efforts of 101, 122, 47, 126 and 91 games played.
 
I don't know if staying "healthy" is a skill or not - I think most would say it isn’t - but the fact of the matter is that there are tons of players that always seem to be beat up, hobbling or outright disabled. The truth of the matter is that roughly 40 percent of the top-300 players in fantasy baseball, on an annual basis, end up on the DL at some point. Don't compound the odds of that taking your team down by doing something dubious like rostering injury-prone players. You can take a shot on one guy, maybe two, but don't load up on them. Additionally, it's different taking a risk on an injury-prone player in the 16th round versus making a guy who visits the doctor's office as frequently as I visit a gentleman’s club in the first couple of rounds of your draft (trying hard to remember this is a family Guide). At some point, every player no matter what their track record of health says is worth the risk. I personally draw that line in the sand — and again, it can change based on what is occurring in the draft — at the fifth round. I don't want to take, if I can help it, a risk on an injury-prone fella at a point where my team would be crippled if he was hurt and missed an extended period of time. Of course, that's a situation-dependent call. 

Here is a list of players that, personally, I would only roster IF the price dropped substantially below their talent level on draft day.

Joey Votto, Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Coco Crisp, Jose Reyes, Ryan Zimmerman, Hanley Ramirez, Jacoby Ellsbury, Desmond Jennings, Jason Heyward, Yoenis Cespedes

Yu Darvish, Stephen Strasburg, Matt Harvey, Mat Latos, Anibal Sanchez, Francisco Liriano, Scott Kazmir, CC Sabathia, Garrett Richards