Shiny New Toys

It’s the next big thing.  Take a closer look because it’s new and improved.  Bigger, shinier, faster.  Be the envy of your friends and neighbors.

Call it the shiny new toy syndrome.  Just try not to fall for it in your fantasy league.

In the previous post, I looked for the underrated players in baseball as a sport.  Fantasy baseball has underrated players too.  However, the parameters of what to look for are somewhat different.

Eric Hosmer is the first baseman for the Kansas City Royals.  In 2012, he was the exciting pick.  The twenty two year old was just dripping with upside.  After a successful rookie season in 2011, just imagine what he could do in his second season.  The sky was the limit for this shiny new toy that many couldn’t wait to draft.

Yet sometimes the sky comes crashing down.  This leads us to one version of the underrated player which is the older veteran.  For example, Paul Konerko is one such player.

Konerko probably just didn’t seem as exciting a pick in the draft.  We know who he is and have an idea of what the thirty six year old would provide.  The two men were generally selected as the seventh and eighth first basemen off the board.  But last year you would have been much happier drafting the grizzled old vet than the new guy on the block.

 

The numbers don’t lie. 

Sometimes the shiny new toy works out.  Of course Mike Trout worked out spectacularly last year.  But the downside is littered with Jemile Weeks, Dee Gordon, Mike Moustakas and Justin Masterson just to name a few. 

Paul Konerko, CC Sabathia, and Torii Hunter are the well-worn and familiar favorite old toys.  You have a pretty good idea of what you’re getting.  Sometimes old and reliable isn’t a bad thing.