The True Guru's 2008 Season In Review: Top Preseason Picks

We are continuing with our review of our calls and picks for the 2008 fantasy baseball season.



In this post we will cover some of our top picks during the preseason. These were picks we made back in February armed only with stats, top secret information and a copy of the Colonel's famous receipt.



Jacoby Ellsbury - What more can you say about this guy. Unlike some other experts we knew he would be the starting CF in Boston and he hasn't disappointed. He did injure his wrist in early June derailing his to start. As he continues to adjust to pitching as all rookies do he will go through slumps. We called him our #1 sleeper and told everyone he's worth a 10th or 11th round draft pick. So far with 50+ stolen bases, 90 runs, 45 RBI, and 7 home runs I think he proved our point. He did disappoint us with his batting average, but we expect him to make adjustments and improve that next season and he matures.



Ryan Braun - We ranked him the 13th best player in fantasy baseball and he has not dissappointed us. It was even commented on our show by another expert that he could be the best overall fantasy baseball player and he did match up well against AROD who was the overall #1 pick.

Albert Pujols - Allot of experts got scared because of his bad elbow and ran away from this guy. Other followed that rush like a Wall St. crisis. The True Guru did not. After reading everything that was going on, we rated him #10 only because of concern. He will be the National League MVP.

Kevin Youkilis - We didn't rate him as high as he should have been, but we drafted him across the board and got a great value in him. He overwhelmed fantasy baseball with 29 home runs and 115 RBI. If you drafted him in the late rounds you got yourself a 2nd or 3rd round value pick.

Tim Lincecum - Yes we called this guy a sleeper. Why shouldn't we? e was on a terrible team and was coming off a 7-5 season witha 4.00 ERA. We saw last year that he had incredible pitches especially his fastball, but he lacked control of it. It was just a matter of time and he's looking for a Cy Young award this year.

Rich Harden - Another guy we liked, but fell because of injury. Our logic on him was, he has to have a healthy year at some point! Well he did and had a great season going 10-2 with 181 K's in 148 innings. Add in only 61 walks. Very good.

Kerry Wood - He knew he'd be the closer for the Cubs and not Marmol. There's 34 saves from your 16th round or later draft pick.

Hanley Ramirez - We rated him #2 overall and he outperformed Jose Reyes, Jimmy Rollins, and Matt Holiday. We expected more stolen bases from him, but overall very good.

Grady Sizemore - We loved this guy coming in and knew he had 30/30 potential. We rated him #11 and he didn't let us down with 33 HRs and 38 SBs.

Francisco Rodriguez - We rated him the #1 closer and overall #19. Most experts would tell you to stay away from closers early, but we liked him too much with that improved Angels team. 62 saves and 77 K's proves his value.

Jon Lester - We rated him our #40 sleeper this season and he exceeded those expectations. 16-6, 125 Ks, and a low 3.21 ERA showed that is will now command respect next season.

Some other great preseason picks by The True Guru:

• Brandon Lyon
• Kevin Kouzmanoff
• Alex Rios
• Miguel Cabrera
• Carlos Beltran

We did have seom bad picks that we are not proud of. Here is a short list:

• Matt Diaz
• Willy Mo Pena
• Rafeal Soriano
• Alex Rodriguez
• J.J. Putz
• Josh Beckett
• Justin Verlander