Bay, Jason

Jason Bay has earned fantasy owners quite a lot over the past five seasons as one of the most consistent 30-100 type outfielders over the period. That he runs a little and runs efficiently has been a nice little bonus for Bay owners. An old rule of thumb says that the later that a player comes up the earlier he burns out and while that may be true of the general population, it's mainly because in general the players who get called up early are the better players. When a good player, like Bay, arrive late (and to be fair, he was 24) there's no real reason to think he'll fade early. Bay has largely been a top notch offensive performer and, despite all the gloom and doom talk, is coming off career highs in both home runs and RBI. Most of the home runs came from on the road, so it is not solely due to Fenway.

The two most important points here are the different context with a hopefully healthy Mets squad and pitcher's park. And the risk associated with Bay due to his injury history and elevated strikeouts from a year ago. We can't recommend reaching for Bay, but in early drafts he is going at a discount, sometimes a severe discount. You'd want to make sure to manage your other risks, but if healthy Bay represents second round talent. .275-95-28-100-10 in 570 AB