The fantasy baseball season is here and names like Matt Kemp, Emilio Bonifacio, Casey McGehee, Masahiro Tanaka and James Paxton are some sleeper free agent options to check out on waivers and fantasy owners should be quick to snatch up some of these players heading into the first weeks of the season in April.
Matt Kemp is making his return to the Dodgers after dealing with numerous injuries last season and he comes into the starting lineup after Yasiel Puig was pulled for showing up late and this makes things pretty interesting for the Dodgers. Kemp came into the season and was likely going to be the fourth outfielder with Puig, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier and now he will be in the lineup. Kemp said that he would not accept a fourth outfielder role and that could lead to some awkwardness with manager Don Mattingly and the other players.
Kemp is an interesting option to pick up, as he could end up raking this season if he is healthy and gets playing time, but right now that is up in the air. Kemp comes back after having surgery at the end of last season and he was activated off the disabled list for this game. Kemp has had two injury plagued seasons since he was the actual NL MVP (umm yeah Ryan Braun) and he hit .270 last season while playing in 73 games and the season before that his numbers took a hit when he played in 106. In 2011 he had his best season, playing in 161 games and hitting .324 with 39 home runs and 126 RBIs and now the Dodgers are hoping he can get back to that level.
Masahiro Tanaka is making his first start of the season against the Toronto Blue Jays and his upside is as good as anyone's this season with the Yankees. Tanaka went 24-0 last season and now is getting his first taste of the major leagues and it comes after he had a strong spring and he doesn't have much pressure on him now, as he is slotted in as the number four starter for the Yankees.
McGehee could end up being a nice surprise this season and he is coming in as the cleanup hitter with Giancarlo Stanton and that means he should have some nice chances this year hitting behind the slugger. The Marlins have had him in a good position to start the season well and he has come through with a .400 plus average so far in three games and he already has eight RBIs and three doubles this season. The Marlins won't be good, but McGehee may end up being a great pickup.
Bonifacio has started off hot and he went 4-for-5 to start the season in the opening game and he had five hits in the next game and has also been a base stealing star early on. Paxton is one of the best young pitchers in the game and he went seven innings of shutout ball against the Angels to open his season for the Mariners and he had nine strikeouts in that game. The Mariners could be a surprise team in 2014 and he is one reason why.
