What this means for you the reader: First off, all of our annual player rankings and infamous player countdown (which has already started) will still be available for free.  All you have to do is visit the special FBHotStove section on the FB365 Website:

http://fantasybaseball365.com/articles/fantasy-baseball-hot-stove/

Second, you’ll also be able to read all of Charlie’s great analysis and advice as well.  A definite upgrade from today!

What this means for us: Well, it means that we won’t be continuing to update this site.  All our past articles will still be available to our readers, however, all new content will be posted on the FB365 website.

It’s a bittersweet day for all of us but we are excited to team up with Charlie at FB365 to provide the most comprehensive fantasy baseball advice on the web.

Check us out at http://www.fantasybaseball365.com.

Thanks!

- Mark

In my two head to head leagues I made the playoffs and lost in the first and second round respectively. In my NL Only, my co-manager and I ditched the 2011 season in August and traded for Bryce Harper – ultimately finishing in 7th. In my AL Only, my brother and I choked a first place first half away to limp into third. In my expert league with Fox I finished in second and in my expert league with Charlie Saponara of FB365 I finished in third. Finally in my traditional roto league I finished in second for a third straight season. That’s seven leagues, 6 top three finishes, and most importantly zero titles.

Now that the year is over, it’s time to regroup and get ready for next season. During the postseason we will not be posting much if anything in order to put together the preseason rankings for the 2012 season. Once again we will post one player profile per day from the day after the World Series ends until Opening Day. Thanks for reading all preseason and season long. We can’t wait to start talking about strategy for next season. Until then, good luck with fantasy football and enjoy baseball’s playoffs.

April

May

June

July

August

And now here were the top 50 for the brutal (how did the Red Sox do that?) month of September.

1. Javier Vazquez
2. Doug Fister
3. Matt Kemp
4. Adrian Beltre
5. Ian Kinsler
6. Jacoby Ellsbury
7. Miguel Cabrera
8. Eric Hosmer
9. B.J. Upton
10. Cliff Lee
11. Madison Bumgarner
12. Clayton Kershaw
13. Ryan Braun
14. Albert Pujols
15. Roy Halladay
16. Mike Napoli
17. Evan Longoria
18. C.J. Wilson
19. Dee Gordon
20. Victor Martinez
21. Ian Kennedy
22. Pablo Sandoval
23. Mat Latos
24. Hunter Pence
25. Marco Scutaro
26. David Murphy
27. Prince Fielder
28. Derek Holland
29. James Shields
30. Matt Garza
31. J.J. Putz
32. Ted Lilly
33. Nolan Reimold
34. Jose Valverde
35. Chris Carpenter
36. Emilio Bonifacio
37. Michael Morse
38. Robinson Cano
39. Delmon Young
40. Alejandro De Aza
41. Brandon Phillips
42. Dustin Pedroia
43. Josh Hamilton
44. Gio Gonzalez
45. Vladimir Guerrero
46. Kenley Jansen
47. Brandon McCarthy
48. Guillermo Moscoso
49. Michael Young
50. Justin Verlander

1. Ben Revere. Since the all-star break only Cameron Maybin has more steals. On top of that he’s been doing the bulk of his steals over the last two weeks with 8 of them in that time and he isn’t owned in 83% of Yahoo leagues.
2. Casey Coleman. It’s all about matchups and who’s hot right now. Coleman struck out a career best 8 in his last outing. If strikeouts is what you need, 8 strikeouts qualifies as “hot.” Coleman will draw the Padres in Petco tomorrow. The padres are last in baseball in runs this month and will almost certainly finish that way.
3. Marco Scutaro. If your fantasy team is desperate, you might as well try to target someone who is on an MLB team that is equally as desperate. Scutaro has hit .320 since the break and .378 in September. He’s second base and shortstop eligibile. He’s also facing the Orioles pitching staff that hasn’t announced it’s starters for the last two games according to Orioles.com.
4. Brent Morel. Third base has been weak all year, so if it is still weak for you and you need home runs grab Morel who has 8 of them over the last month. Just don’t do it if you need average too.
5. Randall Delgado. He is auditioning for a role both next season and in the playoffs when he takes on the Phillies tomorrow. He also has a great deal of ability and an ERA of 2.25 this month.
6. Kenley Jansen. If you are close to your innings cap and have a close race in strikeouts, you need not look further than the player that is striking out more than two hitters per inning this month.
7. Wilson Ramos. Only owned in 8% of leagues, but lately he has outplayed Alex Avila, Geovany Soto, and Yadier Molina among others who are owned in more than 50% of leagues.
8. Brandon McCarthy/TBA A’s Starter on Wednesday. McCarthy will pitch tomorrow, but there’s a good chance he’s not available. If it comes down to it, I’d add whoever the A’s will send out there in Wednesday’s game. Playing in Seattle (Mariners have a .625 OPS this month), I just would take my chances with just about anybody.
9. Eric Young Jr. The Rockies are playing in San Francisco which is unfortunate for offensively challenged teams, but thin or thick air Young will run. He has stolen a base in 3 of his last 5 games and has reached base in 13 straight games. Hitting lead off could lead to run opportunities too.
10. James Loney. The Dodgers are trying to give Matt Kemp every statistical boost they can in the final three games to increase his chances at an MVP. Loney, who has been on fire, is a big part of that.

• The Yankees don’t plan on using C.C. Sabathia until the division series despite all the talk about Russell Martin (did he really say anything outlandish?) hating the Red Sox.
• As if the Red Sox don’t feel bad already, Brian Cashman elected to rub salt in the wound that is Carl Crawford’s contract.
• Edwin Encarnacion hit his 17th home run yesterday and now has a .919 OPS in the second half of the season.
• The Brewers can clinch tonight with help from the Cubs. Yovani Gallardo goes for his 18th win in what will likely be his last chance for a win this year.
• The St. Louis Post Dispatch suggests that Lance Berkman’s one year deal won’t impact the team’s ability to bring back Albert Pujols. I should hope so.
• Back at the trading deadline, many folks believed Leo Nunez would be dealt since the Marlins were out of it and he could help contenders. As it turns out, there was a good reason Nunez couldn’t be traded.
• Jose Reyes claims he feels comfortable in New York, but also said baseball is a business. It will be very interesting to see what kind of deal he gets since so many people are asking if he will get Crawford money. Given what’s happened to Crawford, Reyes would rather drop the comparison.
• Theo Epstein denies any “disconnect” between himself and Terry Francona.
• Eric Hosmer could be the AL Rookie of the Year, but his UZR won’t help him. Interesting to note that UZR doesn’t include scoops at first base nor does it account for line drives that are snagged.

• The Yanks and Rays have a double header today, I would start just about any one of their position players if you have a share in them. James Shields and Phil Hughes are squaring off in game one, and Jeremy Hellickson and CC Sabathia in game two. Shields and CC are no brainers but I would hold off on using Hellickson today. Hughes has been solid his last two outings, but they were against Baltimore and Seattle. He’s a coin flip in my opinion.
• Eric Hosmer was 5-5 with a 3 run shot last night and has 16 hits in his last 29 AB’s. He is the 2nd best player in yahoo over the last week.
• Ben Revere (which this handsome blogger marked as a good pickup about a month ago) is ranked number 1 in Yahoo over the last week.
• Matt Holliday can start swinging off a tee now. The St. Louis Post Dispatch is reporting that he is “doubtful” to return this year, though the team is holding out hope he can play vs the Cubs this weekend.
• Bud Norris was pulled with shoulder soreness after 2.2 innings last night, and will probably miss his last start of the year. I really, really like Bud Norris next year.
• Hunter Pence has patellar tendenitis in his left knee and will probably be used sparingly the rest of the way leading to the playoffs. Maybe you want to pick up Revere or even Nolan Reimold (3rd best player in yahoo over the last 7 days) to fill in?

Statistically, this season has been his worse. His average and OBP are easily career lows. His .402 slugging percentage is almost 100 points off from what it was last year in his contract year in Tampa. Crawford was never great against lefties, but this year went into the awful category. So bad at times that the Red Sox would bench him in favor of Hall of Famer Darnell McDonald. He has had his second worst fielding season on record while trying to cover an area of about 5 feet by 3 feet in left field at Fenway. Of course he isn’t going to have the run and RBI production we’re used to seeing or expected to see. People assumed that the best was yet to come. After all, he had never played with a combination like Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, and Adrian Gonzalez in Tampa. The aforementioned on base and slugging percentages didn’t help matters and didn’t give Terry Francona an excuse to hit him higher in the order. And then there’s his 18 steals. Even when he played in just 109 games back in 2008 he still swiped 25 bases. In more games this year he has 7 less steals.

And then there’s the recent issue of Crawford playing in games. Yesterday against a tough lefty, Crawford did not start. It would have been nice to get your $20 million man in for the biggest game of the Red Sox season, but he sat. He eventually came into the game to pinch hit and smoked a double the other way off of another lefty. Whatever. It was done. The Red Sox lost the game and had their Wild Card lead – which was all but handed to them (if not the division) back in early June – reduced to two games. Today was different though. Crawford was in the lineup as of this morning. The Red Sox were facing a righty in Jeremy Guthrie. And then later on in the day, Crawford was scratched with a stiff neck. This story will naturally have Red Sox fans thinking back on another $20 million per season left fielder who used to be scratched with some weird injuries from time to time. Crawford’s reputation going into this year would lead you to believe that at least the Red Sox weren’t getting a player that wouldn’t give 100%. Then again, a stiff neck in the heat of a playoff race? What would Willis Reed, Jack Youngblood, or a 1999 ALDS version of Pedro Martinez say to that?

• So Money Ball will come out soon. It’s on the cover of SI. Those Oakland A’s, run by the same GM, are currently 20th in MLB in on base percentage.
• Jose Bautista argues that Miguel Cabrera should have won the MVP last year when he was playing for a team that did not make the playoffs. The same argument should be made for Bautista this year who will have to compete with several players in the AL East for votes.
• By the time this season is over, Albert Pujols will have 30 home runs, 100 RBI, and a .300 average for the 11th straight season.
• Stopped me if you’ve heard this before, but Kerry Wood is done for the season.
• James Loney has been the 8th best player in fantasy baseball over the last thirty days. Sigh.
• The Orioles appear to be the early front runners for Prince Fielder according to Jon Heyman. That would be a nice park for Fielder.
• Domonic Brown has been recalled by Philadelphia and will likely go to instructional league following the season.

Before this season, Braun had never stolen more than 20 in a year. Now he’s running wild on the basepaths, and next year there’s good reason to believe the trend will continue. Part of the problem with Braun running from first over the last five seasons is that it left pitchers the option of pitching around Prince Fielder. Fielder already has one foot out the door, so Braun won’t feel any reluctance taking the bat out of the next hitter’s hands next season.

That said, it will be interesting to see what it does to Milwaukee’s offense and Braun himself. Category by category, there isn’t a better player in fantasy this season as far as hitting “the milestone numbers” mentioned in the last post. Braun’s average, runs scored, RBI, and home runs are all positively impacted by Fielder’s presence in the lineup. The chances of him putting together another 30/100/100/.320ish season without Fielder have to be considered slim. If your league does have walks as a category though, Braun can help there at least.

• The agents for Fielder and Albert Pujols have to be feeling the pressure of making sure that the contract one receives looks good in light of the contract that the other gets.
• Curtis Granderson has hit .176 this month. Given how much better this season has been than every other year of his career, if the last 13 games and the playoffs don’t go much better, this poor finish significantly downgrades Granderson on draft day in my mind.
• Jemile Weeks has been a nice little find in leagues that carry the middle infield position, but it is interesting to note he has 0 home runs in 360 at-bats. Let’s end the comparisons to his brother please.
• Tyler Pastornicky could have been with the Braves right now had it not been for an ankle sprain in August. The Braves could make him the everyday shortstop next season.
• Jonathan Broxton will have minor elbow surgery and should be ready for the start of spring training. Key word there is should.

Number of Players with More Than 100 Runs

2007: 30

2008: 28

2009: 22

2010: 17

2011: 7

How many more should make it (based on current pace): 6 (Kemp, Braun, Votto, Cano, Gordon, Pujols)

On the fence: 1 (Pedroia)

Has a chance: 5 (CarGo, Melky Cabrear, Andrus, Reyes)

Number of Players with 100 or more RBI

2007: 33

2008: 29

2009: 28

2010: 25

2011: 10

How many more should make it: 5 (Young, Miguel Cabrera, Braun, Votto, VMart)

On the fence: 3 (Pujols, Ellsbury, Ortiz)

Has a chance: 2 (CarGo, Aramis Ramirez)

Number of players with a .300 average or better (min 400 at-bats)

2007: 45

2008: 40

2009: 42

2010: 25

2011: 28

How many more should make it: 0

On the fence: 4 (Bourn, Melky Cabrera)

Hanging on for dear life: 4 (Sandoval, Avila, Pedroia, Parra)

Has a chance: 1 (CarGo)

Number of players with 30 or more stolen bases

2007: 18

2008: 16

2009: 17

2010: 18

2011: 14

How many more should make it: 3 (B.J. Upton, Rollins, Aybar)

On the fence: 0

Has a chance: 1 (Juan Pierre)

Number of players with 30 or more home runs

2007: 26

2008: 28

2009: 30

2010: 18

2011: 14

How many more should make it: 6 (Ortiz, Konerko, Kinsler, Cruz, Votto, Braun)

On the fence: 4 (Trumbo, Morse, Ellsbury, Pena)

Has a chance: 5 (Longoria, Adrian Gonzalez, Cano, Miguel Cabrera, CarGo)

Number of players with 17 or more wins

2007: 12

2008: 14

2009: 8

2010: 14

2011: 6

How many more should make it: 4 (Cliff Lee, C.J. Wilson, Gallardo, Daniel Hudson)

On the fence: 2 (James Shields, Jon Lester)

Has a chance: 2 (Dan Haren, Ricky Romero)

Number of players with 200 or more strikeouts

2007: 8

2008: 10

2009: 10

2010: 15

2011: 9

How many more should make it: 3 (C.J. Wilson, Anibal Sanchez, Jered Weaver)

On the fence: 0

Has a chance: 2 (Brandon Morrow, Madison Bumgarner)

Number of players with an ERA under 3.20 (min 150 innings)

2007: 10

2008: 11

2009: 16

2010: 22

2011: 22

How many more should make it: 0

On the fence: 1 (Justin Masterson)

Hanging on for dear life: 0

Has a chance: 2 (Hiroki Kuroda, Ervin Santana)

Number of players with a WHIP under 1.20 (min 150 innings)

2007: 16

2008: 21

2009: 17

2010: 29

2011: 33

How many more should make it: 0

On the fence: 3 (Daniel Hudson, Lilly, Santana)

Hanging on for dear life: 2 (Gavin Floyd, Kyle Lohse)

Has a chance: 1 (Jon Lester)

Number of players with 30 or more saves

2007: 18

2008: 15

2009: 16

2010: 14

2011: 16

How many more should make it: 3 (Papelbon, Santos, Soria)

On the fence: 1 (Feliz)

Has a chance: 0

• Matt Holliday was pulled from the lineup last night due to a mystery hand injury. Unknown at this point what the problem is or if he will miss time.
• David Ortiz was also a late scratch with back spasms. He is day-to-day.
• Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, and Zack Greinke were pretty much all the Brewers had to go on last night in their win. They are making a push for a run in the playoffs right now, and those three are going to need to be on their A-game if they expect to go anywhere. They know this, and I wouldn’t expect them to start slumping now.
• Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia continued to provide Boston some power sparks from really (really)  surprise sources. I never pegged Ellsbury as a 20 HR player let alone one with a shot at 30. If he can do this again next year, where are you drafting him? I don’t think there is a chance he makes it past the 2nd round.
• J.P. Arencibia collected his 23rd HR of the year. As he matures lets hope he can cut down on the K’s. We can give him a pass on the low AVG since he’s a catcher so long as he keeps giving us 20 HR seasons…
• Brent Morel is having a hot week, with 4 homers in the last 7 days. Tip for all you kids out there, the only way to bat .300 over a 7 day stretch with a BABIP of .154 over the same span is hit homers.
• Nick Hundley is on fire, batting .478 over the last week. He doesn’t get much in the line of runs or RBI’s, but getting on base eventually leads to all that.

From a fantasy perspective, he brings next to nothing in your standard mixed league. He will be used out of the Rays bullpen because he is already ten innings over the innings threshold he finished on last year. Leagues that have innings restrictions (think strikeouts) or require a player to be called up in order to get kept get some benefits. Still it will be an exciting player to watch and an important player to evaluate as he will almost certainly be used as a starter in 2012.

• Hunter Pence has 5 multi-hit games in the Phillies last 8 games. B.J. Upton has 4 multi-hit games in his last 5 games.
• It sounds as if Jair Jurrjens will have his great season finished with a knee injury.
• At 33, Aramis Ramirez is having his best year since 2008. He hit his 25th home run of the season tonight and has an average over .300.
• Albert Pujols hit his NL leading 35th home run of the season. He is hitting close to .300 and all year we’ve heard about how maybe the contract talk is bothering him. Isn’t he in the conversation for MVP?
• Cubs pitching coach Mark Riggins is openly asking if Jeff Samardzija can start next year. He has a 2.53 ERA and 1.09 WHIP since the break.

On that day and in the moments after, you couldn’t get away from hearing about the towers, Al Qaeda, and the NYPD and NYFD. Sports wouldn’t matter for the rest of that year relative to everything else that was happening in the country, but they were a nice distraction. And while it was a fitting that a team called the Patriots would win the Super Bowl, there was no sport that provided a better distraction than baseball.

The image that will forever be with everyone was George W. Bush throwing a strike in New York during the World Series with a protective vest hidden underneath his jacket and giving the crowd a thumbs up. Rudy Guliani could be spotted at every game with his NYPD hat. Then there was the electric atmosphere inside the Yankee Stadium when Derek Jeter and Scott Brosius hit walk-offs in back to back games. The city that took the brunt of that day had something else to take their minds off of everything that had happened. The Yankees would ultimately lose that series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. And those Diamondbacks all visited Ground Zero during their time and were deeply impacted by that.

On the day where games resumed, there was nothing more memorable than Jack Buck rhetorically asking, “Should we be here?”. It was time to pick up the pieces. To show the world that America was grieving, but would recover.

Another broadcasting legend, Vin Scully, had some great words before the Dodgers first game.

Nothing on the field was as great as Mike Piazza hitting an 8th inning home run to give the Mets a win in the first game played in New York. It was hit at a time when the Braves and Mets rivalry was peaking. Before the game the Mets and Braves exchanged handshakes and hugs. One fan brought a sign that read “Once rivals, now united.”

The pre-game ceremony tonight at Citi Field was very well done with one exception. MLB didn’t let the Mets wear NYFD and NYPD hats. They claimed they didn’t want to pick and choose this issue among all thirty teams. Probably about 2% of the fans in the game see their point. Still it was important ten years later that there was a star spangled banner and a chant of U-S-A.

• Adam Lind was back in the Blue Jays lineup after missing the last couple of games with wrist discomfort.
• Nyjer Morgan and Chris Carpeneter don’t like each other.
• The New York Times has an interesting piece about Cliff Lee. He has 20% of the league’s complete game shutouts. That hasn’t happened since the 19th Century. The Times also wrote about Curtis Granderson’s strangle hold on the runs scored category, but FBHS beat them to the punch on that one over three weeks ago.
• Nick Swisher wasn’t in the lineup tonight with an elbow injury.
• Troy Tulowitzki is out tonight with a hip injury he might have hurt in the batting cage, but claims he will try to go tomorrow night.
• Josh Hamilton wasn’t in the lineup tonight because his wife was giving birth.

While the bullpen situation looked bleak for YOUR…Los Angeles Dodgers at the beginning of the year, two arms emerged from the pile of broken bodies. After Jonathan Broxton and Hong Chi Kuo went down with maladies that affected the body and mind, rookies Javy Guerra and Kenley Jansen have become two of Don Mattingly’s most reliable relievers.

Guerra has the job locked up right now; there is absolutely no doubt about that. He’s gone 15 for 16 in save chances, with a 2.15 ERA, a 1.19 WHIP, 33 k’s in 37.2 innings. He’s given up one home run this year and walks 2.9 batters per 9. Jansen’s no slouch either; he’s got 3 saves this year (only when Guerra’s been over-used), with a 3.30 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and a staggering 73 k’s in 43.2 innings (which amounts to 15 k/9. Crazy!). His splits are even better; after the All-Star break, Jansen has a 0.69 ERA, 0.54 WHIP, with 25 strikeouts in just 13 innings. He’s allowed three hits and given up 4 walks.

Despite Jansen’s incredible hot streak as of late, if I was Don Mattingly, I would have to give the closer job to the incumbent Guerra. Just a week ago, Mattingly said that “Guerra has the makeup of a closer”, and showed no fear going into the ninth, despite being a rookie reliever. Javy came into this season with no expectations, but when his manager called on him, he stepped into the closer’s role effortlessly. Jansen on the other hand, was a dark horse candidate coming into the season to end up in the 9th inning role. He failed to live up to these expectations with a 4.40 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP, along with blowing his only save opportunity in the first half. Jansen is more a swing and miss guy, but when he misses, he misses big. Guerra is a little bit more of a surgeon-type pitcher, picking his spots and hitting them.

• Stephen Strasburg made his grand return last night, going 5 scoreless, giving up only 2 hits, no walks or earned runs and throwing 40 of his 56 pitches for strikes against the Dodgers. The beast seems to be back.
• Jerome Williams just won his 3rd game for the Angels after being out of baseball for years. Is he fantasy ownable? He’s gotr a 3.51 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 19 k’s and 4 walks, along with going at least 7 inning in all of his starts.
• Mother nature picked the worst week possible to mess with everyone’s fantasy teams during the playoffs. Yeesh.
• Jesus Montero continued to tear it up today with two more RBI, on 1 -4 day.
• I’m betting Jason Verlander wins 25 games this year. If he wins his next 3 starts, that is.
• Since coming off the DL, Roy Oswalt has given up 5 runs, 3 runs and tonight, 2 runs in 5.2, 6.1 and 7 innings, respectively. He’s Hulking up.