Compared to recent years, the Giants farm system is lackluster. For the first time in recent memory, it lacks a high ceiling pitcher thanks to a deal bringing Carlos Beltran to San Francisco. They also graduated their top hitting prospect, Brandon Belt, through an exhaustive yo-yo process that saw him start the year in the majors, get demoted to Triple-A, and serve as a bench bat/part-time player. That leaves the organization with some good prospects, but ones that lack the allure of previous incarnations of the Giants. no comments

Key Stats: Jimmy Rollins has been ranked in the top 90 five out of the last six years. Only Hanley Ramirez has been a more steady force at that position during that time. Rollins has averaged 18 home runs, 96 runs scored, 70 RBI, 34 steals, and a .271 average during that time. He’s also managed to stay healthy over that time with almost 4,000 plate appearances during that stretch. In three out of the six seasons he led the NL in plate appearances.

Skeptics Say: You can play with the numbers in so many ways. Over the last two years, Rollins has only made just over 1,000 plate appearances and missed 96 games. And last year he had the motivation of a contract to play for. This year he’ll be 33 and could be heading down in a number of categories especially steals. no comments

Key Stats: Paul Konkero has averaged 33 HR's a year since 2004. His worst season in that span (2008) he appeared in only 122 games, and still produced 22 bombs. That was also the only time in that span his ISO has been below .200 (it was .199). He has appeared in 149 games each of the last two seasons, and has batted .300 in both of them. There has been no noticeable, consistent decline in any of Konerko's peripheral numbers to suggest anything other than another season of lots of HR's, RBI's and solid batting average. His walk rate has gone up each of the last three years, leading to some nice OBP numbers.

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Our 2012 keeper rankings focus on leagues that must gage the value of players for at least the next 3-5 years.

C – 1B – 2B – 3B – SS – OF – DH – SP – CL

The third base keeper ranks feature some very solid talent toward the top, but some of the sophomores on this list should be taken with caution for various reasons.

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Scott Boras is damn good at what he does. Today he landed Prince Fielder a nine year $214 million deal with the Tigers. The fantasy ripples will be big in Detroit. Flying under the radar was that the Rays have officially inked one time Tiger first baseman Carlos Pena to a one year deal, and the Blue Jays signed Francisco Cordero to further revamp their bullpen. no comments

Key Stats: Yu Darvish's 1.44 ERA last season was almost a full run lower than that of Daisuke Matsuzaka's in his age 24 season as Charlie pointed out last week. More on Dice-K in the Peer Comparison, but that's a very low ERA. Zips believes he will strikeout 169 and have a 3.62 ERA while Oliver has him perhaps contending for the Cy Young with a 2.40 ERA and 223 strikeouts. 

Skeptics Say: Hey come to Arlington! Wouldn't you like to have the great Nolan Ryan as your boss? With him in town this place is where all the pitchers want to come. Ok it's not like the Rangers had to sell him on this since he was sold to the Rangers, but the ballpark is less than ideal. It's also not an entirely ideal situation in terms of what's expected of him. The Rangers have been knocking on the doorstep of a championship the last couple of seasons, and obviously now fans will expect that he is going to be the guy that puts them over the top.  no comments

Key Stats: Carlos Santana is currently the first catcher off the boards in early mock drafts going in the 2nd or 3rd round. He has displayed power at every step of his young career and also shown an ability to hit for average, so the abysmal .239 he hit last year can safely be dismissed as a young player adjusting. Despite that he still pounded 25 HR's and 79 RBI's on fairly pedestrian Cleveland offense. He also has eligibility at 1B, meaning on days where a catcher would normally be resting, he'll just be using a different type of glove and still getting AB's, further fueling our fantasy rosters. Did I mention he is an OBP machine getting on at clips of .401 and .351 his first two years in big league ball?

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Key Stats: Despite missing 22 games with an oblique strain to start off 2011, and then not getting a HR in his first 21 games back (that was a span of 76 AB's) Hart still finished the year with impressive power numbers, belting 26 HR's and posting a 19.7% HR/FB ratio. Perhaps more importantly was that he had his best month last season in August going .321/.385/.594 with 8 HR. It was nice to see him hold up over a whole season after starting off with an injury that is so detrimental to a swing.

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Key Stats: Shane Victorino is one of only four outfielders in fantasy baseball to be ranked in the top 100 each of the last four seasons. The other players in this club are Ryan Braun, Matt Kemp, and Matt Holliday. Not bad company. 

Skeptics Say: Hopefully the .186 average in September is just a bad month and not a player getting worn down. Victorino will be 31 this season, so it's unlikely he's getting worn down. What is likely to happen though is that he will start to see a decline in his stolen base attempts. Victorino attempted only 22 steals last season compared to 40 in 2010.  no comments

Key Stats: A few years ago, Joe Mauer could have been considered a teriffic find at pick number 83, but now it's essentially where he belongs. That doesn't mean he can't outperform this ranking by a few spots. He had a very rough 2011, but was ranked in the top 83 in four out of five seasons before that and got as high as 12th overall in his pre-contract season in 2009. He has won 3 batting titles as a catcher and is still only 28 years old. The potential is still there for Mauer to be a great player in real and fantasy baseball if he can stay healthy. 

Skeptics Say: That is a huge if. Catchers are going to play less anyway, but considering 162 games to be a full season, Mauer has missed 20% of a season three different times and was right on that mark in 2005. There's also a huge question about him in the categories outside of batting average. Since moving to Target Field, Mauer has hit 1 home run in 396 at-bats. The lineup around him isn't going to help with RBI and runs either.  no comments