Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

What are the three top value cards in 2012? Curious to hear opinions

Hard to say until we get a couple of seasons under our belts. Cards data and how they end up actually playing out, doesn't always correlate.

That said:

B Moss as a hitter looks to be great.
Ian Kennedy in a pitchers park could be a great value as your #4 in a 80 mil league.
I had 3 RP I had my eye on before the pricing, Avilan, Atchison and Tazawa. Avinlan is my choice, as the other 2 are around 4.5 mil, where Avilan is barely over 3, so he looks to be a great bargain as well.
If Stanton can stay healthy, that card is a monster as well.
Frazier and Colvin both look like nice mid-range options.

Of course we've all seen cards that always suck no matter the park, so until we get some concrete data, who really knows.

Moss has so much offense and one of the few lefties that can mash a lefty. He has to be #1 on my draft card this season

Moss has so much offense and one of the few lefties that can mash a lefty. He has to be #1 on my draft card this season

Josh Vitters

mmm

It's early but E Cabrera is looking good
15 steals in 24 games 350 on base will work
BA OB SLUG OPS
Cabrera, Everth sb 15 cs 1 errors 2 .230 .350 .287 .637

I'm using Asdrubal Cabrera at ss in both my leagues, good all around player for $3 mil

Platooning Everth Cabrera and Ian Kinsler at 2B. Through 66 games:

Kinsler, Ian .300/.371/.519/6 doubles,6HR/21RBI
Cabrera, Everth .291/.373/.418/11 doubles, 12 SB

Here are 2 "value" recommendations, from very different perspectives - Miguel Cabrera, and Tony Campana:

Through 114 games at Fenway Park, in a $100 mil salary cap league:

Cabrera, Miguel R 3B 4e14 469 AB 84 runs 161 hits 30 2b 38 HRs 114 RBIs .343 .398 .655

Campana, Tony L CF 2(+1)e5 325 AB 46 runs 84 hits 9 2b 3 triples 44 SB 7 CS .259 .299 .305

(Campana's stats are "everyday", not platoon. I recommend a platoon vs RHP).

I realize that most people are meaning "great value for low cost" when they say "value", but I think that the triple crown winner card is undervalued at $10,080. Lots of great cards have been $13 mil and up in the past 3 years.

Hitting- awesome OB (esp against LHP), huge HRs and still very good OB vs RHP. 35 card hits vs RHP (i.e. other than ballpark effects) is really awesome for a guy who has 11 card home runs vs RHP (again, excluding ballpark HRs). At Fenway he's going 1 RBI per game. His main weakness is that he hits into lots of double plays. But I'm definitely not complaining.

Fielding - sure he's a 4 range, but at 3b I believe the e-rating at 14 is the real story. Very few errors at the hot corner. 1b isn't bad either for the same reasons. And as a 1b/3b, defense isn't heavily weighted (bad pun?).

Injury - max lost games is 3. Check.

If you're going to slug it out at 1b/3b, Miggy (and Moss too) are great "value" choices.

Campana - Just $1,250 for a superb base stealer with solid defense. Stealing 2-7,11,12 (20-16). 32 on base die rolls vs RHP isn't great, but it's enough to be a gazelle at the bottom of the order. CF-2 e5 is very solid, +1 arm could be better but it's OK. No limit on injury but is a basic 1 die roll for injury. At $1,250, can add value as a platoon vs RHP at a tiny cost.

Totally agree on Moss, but you also make some really good points about "Triple Crown"