The following is an excerpt from the Fantasy Alarm Fantasy Baseball Guide Powered By Baseball Guys which is on sale now:

Hitters

Brandon Belt had a better batting average than Chris Davis, more homers than Billy Butler, more RBIs than Nick Swisher, more runs scored than Adrian Gonzalez and his total of five steals matched the combined total of Freddie Freeman, Allen Craig, Prince Fielder and Adrian Gonzalez. Belt went .289-17-67-76-5.

Marlon Byrd, yes the guy who was almost out of baseball entering the 2013 season, hit .291 with 24 homers, 88 RBIs, 75 runs scored and an OPS of .847. There were only eight other players in baseball who could match all five of those numbers: Adrian Beltre, Josh Donaldson, Mike Trout, David Ortiz, Robinson Cano, Paul Goldschmidt, Chris Davis and Miguel Cabrera. Seriously.

Five players went .300-10-75-100 with an .870 OPS in 2013. Some of the titans of the game and one other guy: Matt Holliday, Paul Goldschmidt, Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera and Matt Carpenter.

Ian Desmond went 20/20. I never hear anyone talking about him as a player they are targeting on draft day. Why is that? Is it because he’s only gone 20/20 in back-to-back seasons? You know who else has pulled off that feat? How about only Carlos Gonzalez, Andrew McCutchen and Mike Trout.

 

Pitchers

Matt Cain was better than his career average in WHIP, K/9, BB/9, BABIP, GB/FB, SIERA and xFIP in 2013. He was also one hit allowed above his career BAA. Maybe his 2013 season wasn’t as bad as you thought?

Andrew Cashner owns a 3.55 ERA and 1.23 WHIP over 286.1 innings. He bettered those numbers last season at 3.09 and 1.13. The numbers were even a wee bit better in the 26 games in which he served as a starter (3.04 ERA,1.12 WHIP).

Jhoulys Chacin struck out 126 batters in 2013. Aroldis Chapman struck out 112 batters in 2013. Chapman threw 133.2 fewer innings than Chacin (63.2 compared to 197.1).

Jarred Cosart had a 1.95 ERA for the Astros. He also walked two more batters than he struck out (35 to 33). Since 1920 no hurler who has tossed 162 innings with an ERA under 2.00 and a K/BB ratio under 1.00.

 

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