Top 10 Baseball Rookies to Watch in 2009

Every season fantasy owners divulge into the great unknown that is that year rookie crop. One of the many traps that owners fall into is looking to the appeal of the enormous upside of a virtual fantasy unknown as opposed to a safer veteran player. However we are here to separate the Evan Longorias from the Alex Gordons, the Geovanny Sotos from the J.R. Towles and even the Daisuke Matsuzakas from the Kei Igawas. So we present to you the top 10 rookies to watch for the 2009 fantasy baseball season.

1. Matt Wieters, C, BAL
Every fantasy mag and website is going crazy for Baltimore's 2007 1st round pick. However expectations need to be tempered in this case as he may put on his best Ryan Braun impression and not come up until June. Wieters should be drafted just after the top 10 catchers on the board but a June start date knocks him down a bit as he will have missed at least a third of the season. However when he does come up his insane minor league stat line of .355/.454/27/91 suggests that he will hit right away after he is called up.

2. Cameron Maybin, CF, FLA
The prize piece to the trade that sent Miguel Cabrera to the Detroit Tigers, Maybin will be handed the reins to the starting centerfield position in South Florida. Maybin has a good combination of power and speed and could very well be a 25/25 player right out of the gate. However like youngsters Chris Young and Justin Upton before him, Maybin will struggle with making a lot of contact right out of the gate. He is recommended as a low end number 3 fantasy outfielder with upside for more. With Hanley Ramirez switching to the number 3 hole, look for Cameron to hit leadoff right from the start.

3. Chris Perez, P, STL
With the talks of Chris Carpenter switching to a bullpen role dying down, the closer role should belong solely to Chris Perez. Perez should be a great source of cheap saves this season closing for the Cardinals who won 86 games in 2008. A close eye should be kept on Perez though as he did have control problems last year that resulted in a 5.19 E.R.A in September. However his 3.46 era on the year shows that there is room for hope and that fantasy owners should go all in on this reliever in the middle round of fantasy drafts this season.

4. David Price, P, TB
Fantasy pundits everywhere are falling all over themselves to line up to draft David Price this season. Price looked remarkable during the Rays 2008 World Series run and people are lining up for more of the same in 2009. However most will be disappointed as it is doubtful that the Rays future ace is more than a mid season call-up with the team having no options left on starting pitchers Jeff Niemann and Jason Hammell. Expect to see Price called up more around June or July of this season to keep his arbitration clock from starting up. The Rays can afford to be more patient with their future star this season like they were with Evan Longoria last year.

5. Elvis Andrus, SS, TEX
After coming over to the Rangers in the trade that brought Mark Teixera over to the Atlanta Braves, Andrus didn't disappoint as he hit.295 and had 54 steals in Double A last season. Texas believes in this kid so much that they moves franchise stalwart Michael Young over to third base and brought in all time great shortstop Omar Vizquel to mentor him. Andrus projects as a .300 hitter with 10 homer power and 30 steal speed but if he could keep up his minor league stats he could profile to a poor man's Jose Reyes in his prime. Don't look for that prime to shine through just yet as a 21 year old in his rookie season but for those of you in keeper leagues he is one to stash away.