my buddy was telling me about that last night. He said that Rent was listed as like #19 overall...? I haven't clicked on that link above.

__________________


Lifetime sponsor of Albert Pujols per the welcomed request of Albert Pujols.
Canada. America's hat.

Depending on which statistics you use in your league, Renteria was probably the No. 2 shortstop last year behind A-Rod. If I were to guess, this year I would guess the order of rank (health permitting) would be Nomar, Jeter, Renteria and then Tejada. I think Nomar has a big year since he's due for free agency and has a lot of motivation given what happened this offseason, and Jeter is going to have a LOT of chances to score and drive in runs playing in that lineup.

I'm unsure about Tejada because he's definitely going to benefit from going from the worst hitters' park in the AL to one of the best, but he doesn't have nearly as deep a lineup to support him as Jeter, Nomar and Renteria do. No matter, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the four this year.

Renteria over Jeter is a no-brainer.

A-rod will qualify in just about any league as an SS, dev, so I am not sure why he wouldn't be on your list.

I'd put Cabrera and Furcal below Edgar but WAY above Jeter and perhaps Tejada too.

__________________
Dude. Can. Fly.

dvyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy:

You're right about A-Rod. Yahoo, which I always use for fantasy games, has him as a shortstop. I guess I'm just trying too hard to consider him a third baseman now and am generally not including him when discussing third basemen. But for fantasy purposes, you're right--he's still a shortstop.

As good as Cabrera and Furcal are, both are going to have a much more difficult time scoring runs this year with the guys their teams lost. That's a big reason why I place them behind the other group.

With regard to Jeter vs. Renteria, I don't think Renteria was significantly better than Jeter when you consider Jeter only played in 119 games because of the shoulder injury. Jeter scored runs more frequently, Renteria drove them in more frequently, Renteria's OPS was a bit better and their OBPs were virtually identical. Renteria is definitely a better base stealer. Don't get me wrong--Renteria was the better player last year. I'm just saying that it wasn't by a gigantic margin.

I think Jeter will have a slightly better fantasy value than Renteria this season (assuming both play a similar number of games) because he'll have a lot of RBI chances in that lineup AND will have a lot of chances to score runs with the hitters behind him. Depending on where Renteria ends up in the lineup, he'll only have one or the other. Either he'll be hitting in front of the Matheny/LF/P black hole or behind them. Hitting second, Jeter will be hitting behind perhaps Posada or Bernie Williams/2B/Lofton, and in front of some combination of Giambi/A-Rod/Sheffield. I think that gives him a better opportunity to be a better fantasy player.

FANTASY, Renteria over Jeter no doubt.

__________________
Sometimes nothing can be a pretty cool hand

I had Renteria last year...he kicked ass

__________________

Jeter was hurt last year and that may have been a career year for Renteria.

I think I would go Jeter over Edgar in Fantasy in 2004 but in real baseball I'd rather have Renteria.

__________________
Go Mizzou!

I had him also... thanks to him and a very strong pitching staff I managed to take a firm grasp of the #1 spot in my league and hold it midway though the season...

__________________

Official Lounge Sponsor of Lou Brock (really) and Ryan Franklin (really)*

* Payment processing. It will be official soon.