The Amazing Carlos Quentin transcends fantasy baseball.

But has no spot on this team.

Who wins a game between the '07 squads? The A team, or the B team?

Antonelli at 2B for 2012 seems like kind of a stretch at this point, even as an alternate. He's really struggling right now.

The A team wins a series, but barely.

The OFs are interesting. Grady, Hamilton, and Markakis while passing on Bruce, Kemp, and BJ Upton in their primes. I know BJ Upton strikes out a lot, so that one I can see. But, Grady hasn't progressed last season or this one. I think I'd rather have Kemp.

THe Hamilton pick could end up looking really smart or really dumb in 2012.

Will the blacklisting of Barry Bonds really last until 2012? I would think someone would sign him by then.

So who will be the 2012 teams's version of Ryan Wagner?

Is this guy's name really Tristan H. Cockcroft?

There's no reason Utley's prime can't extend that far, and I'll go a step further and say that by then, he's being talked up as potentially the greatest second baseman of all-time.

Whoa! The talent is there, both offensively and defensively, but having his first full season at 26 pretty much means he won't have the career totals.

I like Utley, and I know we have this discussion every time, but if he's taking "peak" to mine that Utley is still posting a 140+ OPS+ in 2012, I'll pass. There's only been 13 players to see signifigant time at 2B (i.e., 100 games or more) at 2B and post OPS+ of 140 or better at age 33 or older in all of baseball history.

Utley is a fabulous talent, but projecting something like that is asking a lot.

Utley is a fabulous talent, but projecting something like that is asking a lot.
It is asking a lot but Utley is still improving offensively at 29. If any 2B can, it would be him.

But as #9 said, Utley will not be in the best 2B ever discussion until long after 2012. I hope he continues his excellence long enough that he will be the poster child for a MSM discussion about pure-peak HOF candidate.

I would be impressed with his Crystal Ball had he picked 2007's ERA leader John Lackey back in 2004. But he did not so I am not.

This just in: Thom Brennaman reports that Chase Utley may be the GREATEST hitting second baseman the game has EVER seen.

Is this guy's name really Tristan H. Cockcroft?

I'm going to go waaaaay out on a limb here & guess that he's white.

I would be impressed with his Crystal Ball had he picked 2007's ERA leader John Lackey back in 2004. But he did not so I am not.

I was actually pretty impressed with his 2004 starting pitcher picks. OK, Prior bombed out. But the rest are Beckett, Peavy, Greinke, Halladay, Vazquez, Zambrano and Hamels. He got badly hit by injury in only 1 of the 8, Greinke's emotional/mental issues to the side. And those guys are still looking pretty nice in 2008. Sure, he just picked hugely talented guys and maybe got lucky on the injuries, but still a nice job.

In the current list, I'm not sure there's a reason to prefer Longoria over Gordon, Zimmerman and maybe others ... at least not to the extent that he deserves "first line" mention.

Of course I have to keep in mind he's doing fantasy baseball projections and I'm guessing traditional fantasy stats. That might explain Rollins who I really don't think is going to be a particularly productive player by 33.

I can't really argue with the OF picks ... but at the same time, there's only one major HR threat there which seems odd. And that's Braun who at his very best will be Manny Ramirez, not a Sosa-Griffy 50+ HR type. Who are we missing? (Again, the steals you'd get from Upton, Young, etc. are part of what's driving their fantasy value.)

I really don't see the Verlander pick. His K-rate is not particularly outstanding (just 8th in K/9 last year, his only good K year so far) nor is his K/BB (and he hits a lot of guys too). I'm not saying he's bad but I'll be surprised if he's one of the top 6 starters in MLB in 2012 -- by ERA, ERA+ and even wins, he wasn't top 6 in the AL last year.

And Carlos Marmol is a god! In his last 103 IP, he's K'd 145 and given up just 55 hits. Holy f'ing crap! Those are Gagne-Papelbon type numbers. Granted, he's on pace for 100 relief IP this year which probably means his arm will fall off but man it will be fun until then.

Why there's endless clamoring about Joba to the rotation while nobody even seems to consider it for Marmol is a mystery to me.

Anyway, this article seems like it was written before the season started and not updated. Verlander, Gallardo (injury), Joba (as a reliever given the move to the rotation), Buchholz (performance), D Young, Cano, Towles, Howard, Butler are all guys you might be a bit more hesitant labelling as among the best in 2012 given what they've done so far this year. (Yes, small sample sizes should not change your projections much ... but someone like D Young hitting worse with even less power than last year has to be seen as a hint that he's more likely to come in on the lower side of his 2012 projection.

Anyway, this list isn't as impressive as what he posted from the last one because he's got so many honorable mentions -- he'll be able to claim all sorts of success in 2012. :-)

Now, where's Dan Uggla?? :-)

I'm well aware I've excluded Troy Tulowitzki (27), but I'm still more impressed by his defense than his offense, as his home/road splits are troublesome.

Meanwhile, he put Stephen Drew on his best of the rest - despite the fact that Drew's overall batting numbers last year were worse than Tulowitzki's road numbers.

There are reasons to exclude Tulowitzki, but this ain't one of them.

Shouldn't Darren Daulton be on the all-2012 team?

If They Only Knew