Fantasy Baseball Rankings 2012: Overrated Stars Sure to Cost You a Title

Superstars are the lifeblood of fantasy baseball. The top players are the ones that will carry your team to a title. It is just a question of finding the right ones.

At some point, every elite player hits a wall and then the decline starts. The biggest thing for you, as a fantasy player, is to keep away from these players at all costs. We all love the names, but the performance is not going to be there. You need to find the right mix of proven talent and untapped potential in order to win your league.

We have all the information that you need in order to get to the top of the mountain. Here are the star players that you need to avoid in the draft. 

Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

His decline has been going on for the last three years. He only played in 99 games last season. His home run (16) and RBI (62) totals were his worst since 1995, when he only played in 48 games for Seattle. 

He has not played in more than 140 games since his MVP season in 2007. Even if he plays in more than 100 games this year, he is not going to approach the numbers that he did when he was in his prime. 

He can still be a productive player, and it is possible that he stays healthy, but why would you bet on a 36-year-old?

Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies

Let's start with the fact that Howard is going to miss the first month of the season as he recovers from ankle surgery. 

In addition to the ankle injury, you have to bank on his swing coming back to where it was before the surgery. His numbers have been trending down the last three years anyway, so how much does he really have left in the tank? He can't hit left-handed pitching, so you have to hope that he is just facing righties.

There is no reason to draft him this year. The odds of him playing in more than 115-120 games are slim, and his power is not going to come back right away. 

Michael Pineda, New York Yankees

I like Pineda, and I think he will eventually be a No. 2 starter in the big leagues. But he is going to get so overrated by drafters now that he is in New York, to the point where he is going to be a huge bust. 

He just turned 23 years old and is going to be asked to pitch in the brutal American League East after one year in pitcher-friendly Safeco Field. The environment is going to be much more difficult, and the competition will be vastly improved. 

The odds of him being a complete bust this year are slim, and he will probably win enough games to be a decent fantasy pitcher, but don't bank on him being one of the top 20 pitchers in the American League. 

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