2012 Fantasy Baseball Rankings & Projections – Top 40 Outfielders

Hey! We have finally reached the final week of our rankings & projections. How exciting is this? About time! Hey, you in the back, pipe down! Today we look at some more outfielders. Tomorrow we take a brief sabbatical and knock out the Top 10 and 20 Lists, and then we return Thursday with a day full of pitchers, and then Friday we launch the Top 100 list and follow it up with a double shock, the Top 300!

A quick note on these rankings and projections that have been featured over the last few weeks and will culminate with the Top 10, Top 20, Top 100,  and Top 300 rankings…these are how I think they should be valued. You may disagree at times and fall in love with me at times (but hey let’s just stay friends for now…I’d just break your heart….unless you have a huge bankroll for drinks.) Any-who I break things out into tiers when I can. When you see guys in the same tier it means it doesn’t really matter who is ranked ahead of whom…I just prefer the guy on top (well that came out wrong.) All the rankings will also be featured on their own page (look above…higher…higher…there), which can be found here.

After we wrap up the rankings I’m going to hold a live chat on fantasybalk.com to answer any questions you may have and try and help you with any last minute keeper question, draft questions, relationship advice, etc. that you might be facing. I’ll be announcing the date and time shortly. Feel free to start sending in your questions now to fantasybalk@gmail.com

Ok so the 2012 Top 40 Outfielders for Fantasy Baseball:

The Top 20 List can be found here

21. Drew Stubbs – So I was super high on Stubbs going into last year and he kind of disappointed. The truth is the guy swings and misses more than that popular dude from high school who stayed local after graduation and went to community college only to drop out, knock up some busted girl and is now trying to go out at night when everyone knows the dude has a kid at home….and probably the clap. Holy run-on sentence! Stubbs doesn’t have the clap (that I know of) but he sure does swing and miss a lot. 2012 Projections: 80/18/65/.250/35

22. Chris B. Young – Everyone should know by now that Chris B. Young will never get you the average you want, but he is very good at giving you everything else including front row tickets to Radiohead. Thanks Chris! Wait, these are tickets to Justin Bieber. I have no problem grabbing him here. 2012 Projections: 80/20/75/.240/20

23. Shin-Soo Choo – I didn’t own him anywhere last year so it is easier for me to say this than it probably is for those that owned him, but we just need to write-off last year for Shin-Soo. You see, all these big companies they write off everything. (I don’t know what a write off is.) 2012 Projections: 80/17/80/.285/20

24. Jason Heyward – Last year was Yikes City for Heyward. I’m not convinced he will be a 30/20 guy just yet but 20/10 is still valuable at this part of the draft. 2012 Projections: 80/20/80/.270/10

25. Carl Crawford – Really not liking the news we are hearing about CC so far this spring. Seems like one step forward, two steps back, oh goodness now he is doing the electric slide. My guess is he misses the first 2 weeks or so. I’ll be avoiding him on draft day. This is a new brief tier and it is called just that. No not “brief tier”, it is called “I’ll be avoiding them on draft day.” It goes through Gordon. 2012 Projections: 80/12/70/.280/30

26. Alex Gordon – .358 BABIP, career year, I’m staying away…much like if I was ever locked in a room with Lindsay Lohan. 2012 Projections: 90/20/75/.275/15

27. Howie Kendrick – I already covered him here. This is a tier of more guys I love. One of these guys could easily be my third or fourth outfielder. This is tier: “Climb aboard guys…no pushing.” It goes through Zobrist.   2012 Projections: 90/15/75/.290/14

28. Michael Cuddyer – I already covered him here. 2012 Projections: 80/22/85/.275/8

29. Jayson Werth –20/15 Production is pretty great stuff even if the other stats suffer. I’m starting to fall in love with the Nats lineup this year, and as such I could see owning Werth in a league or two. 2012 Projections: 75/22/75/.250/18

30. Logan Morrison – Oh I love me some Morrison this year. Improved lineup and (probably) an improved park. He has shown flashes of power and in a separate season flashes of being able to hit for a great average. Put those together and he could be a top 20 outfielder this year.  2012 Projections: 70/24/75/.270/3

31. Alex Rios – Here’s another guy that is buried in most rankings. I’ll gladly scoop him up if he is falling (you’re welcome Rios). I’ll even sing him a little Tom Petty Free Fallin’ to help him sleep at night. 2012 Projections: 80/15/75/.270/20

32. Ben Zobrist – I already covered him here. 2012 Projections: 90/18/85/.260/18

33. Brett Gardner – So Brett Gardner is fast. How fast you ask? Well if I invited him over to play Ken Griffey Jr. baseball on N64 and asked him to get the mail while I fired up the game he would totally be back in the room before I had a chance to complete the All-Word Griffey cheat code. This is a new tier, and it is a short tier (no I’m not talking about David Eckstein) it only goes through Bourn. It’s called “These guys will only get you runs and steals, only draft if you are dying in speed, and they fall…you can get the same players by waiting.” It’s a working title…deal with it! 2012 Projections: 90/6/40/.270/50

34. Michael Bourn – See above. Bourn strikes me as a guy who would throw the controller if he lost.  As a result he would not get any Sunny D after we were done playing. 2012 Projections: 90/2/50/.275/55

35. Colby Rasmus – This is a new tier and it creeps into the Top 60 list. I call this list “If I miss above I’ll build out one or two outfield spots with these guys…but I pray I don’t miss.” 2012 Projections: 80/20/75/.255/10

36. Corey Hart – If he wasn’t banged up Hart would have been in the Kendrick Tier. But now I am a little worried about him so I moved Corey Hart down. So I can, so I can. 2012 Projections: 85/22/75/.270/10

37. Andre Ethier – I really don’t like to take guys that I can’t trust to stay healthy. I don’t trust Ethier. I also don’t trust people from Kentucky. I’ve probably watched one too many episodes of Justified. 2012 Projections: 75/18/85/.285/1

38. Vernon Wells – Wells can’t be as bad as he was last year. Plus he’ll have an improved lineup. I kind of like him. How’s that for hard-hitting analysis. 2012 Projections: 70/25/75/.265/8

39. Torii Hunter – Can we get out of this post already. How many people are in the Top 40 list anyways? Oh only one more to go? Nice! 2012 Projections: 75/20/80/.265/8

40. Nick Markakis – Should be good to go for Opening Day. I ran an experiment last weekend and came to the conclusion that no one has ever won a fantasy baseball championship with Markakis on their team…he is just so Bleh. *There are no facts behind this study. Celebrity Apprentice was on, and I was doing the fact checking with my toes. 2012 Projections: 85/15/75/.290/8