Fantasy Answers

I'm not sure yet whether I'll make a separate post for each question, or if I'll put them all here, but I'll figure that out later. For now, I'll answer the first question:



65mustangs: I've been riding Alexi Ramirez but the Sox benched him for Uribe 2 nights in row. I can pick up Polanco for average and he is hot. Does anyone think Johnson or Kaz will be better over the long haul. I like Kaz but he seems awfuly streaky.

Good question. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to give you that ever-so-common answer: It all depends on the rest of your team.

Assuming your team is average in every category, I'd give the edge to Kazuo Matsui. He's owned in just about every league, and rightfully so. While he's not going to give you much in the HR/RBI departments, he'll score some runs, probably raise your team's batting average, and definitely will improve your team's stolen bases.

Polanco will probably give you a better average, but not by much. Their other stats will be fairly similar, with the exception of steals, in which Matsui will be a huge help.

Unless your team is dead last in average, I'd probably pick up Kaz.




finsandcanes: B.J. Upton or Grady Sizemore?

Surprisingly, I'm going to go with Upton.

Most rankings (such as Yahoo! and ESPN) have Sizemore slightly ahead of Upton (if I recall correctly). This is understandable, as Sizemore is one of the best HR/SB combos in the league.

Now, let's compare their 5x5 stats.

Sizemore has 1 more run and 1 more RBI. Very even there. His big edge has been HRs, of which he's hit 11 more than Upton thus far. That's a big difference.

Upton has 5 more steals and is batting 27 points higher.

Based solely off of this, most would say Sizemore is the better choice. But Upton hit 24 HRs last season (the same amount of Sizemore) and his hit a couple in the past few days. His power should soon return. Additionally, his batting averages this season and last season are both higher than Sizemore's career high. In fact, last year, Upton led in 2 categories, Sizemore led in 2, and they tied 1. But Sizemore had many more at-bats.

From here on out (meaning the rest of the season), I would slightly favor Upton. However, that really just depends on what you need. I expect runs and RBI to be about even, Upton to steal a few more bases and bat for a better average, and Sizemore to hit about 8 more home runs than Upton. If they were both only eligible at OF, I'd say they were exactly even, maybe even give Sizemore a tiny lead.

Upton is eligible at 2B, as well as OF, however so I'd give him an ever so slight edge over Sizemore (unless you're looking for HRs).