BaseballHQ.com

One of the pleasant surprises of the 2011 was Jeff Francoeur who earned a career high roto value of $27, which was driven by 20 HR and a career high 22 SB. While the 20 HR weren't completely out of line for him (he had hit 29 HR in 2006), the SB seemingly came out of nowhere, after posting a previous high of just eight SB in 2011. Even in hindsight, there's no way we could have seen this outburst coming. Right?

Teams that win fantasy titles often have players on their rosters that deliver more value than either their draft round or their auction price would predict. Often these are players who have breakouts in one or more scoring categories that weren't anticipated. Three players who exceeded expectations in SBs last year were Emilio Bonafacio (SS, MIA), Jason Bourgeois (OF, HOU), and Ben Revere (OF, MIN). We can target players in drafts who have a possibility of returning significant profit in the SB category by developing a profile of players who have had a SB breakout in the past.

Sergio Romo knows how to get Ks and weak contact. It's a powerful combination.

With the introduction of the unbalanced schedule just over a decade ago, Major League Baseball introduced a system where teams face divisional rivals for a greater number of games than teams outside the division. From a fantasy perspective, one has to wonder what impact this macro-level divisional factor might have on player performance over the course of a season and how it could be leveraged to positively effect draft strategy.