It appears as though both Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez will have new homes next season.

Pending a physical, the Reyes and the Miami Marlins have agreed to a six-year, $106 million deal. The 28-year-old shortstop hit .337 last season for the Mets and with Miami trying to draw good attendance for its new stadium, the Marlins put on a full-court press in attempts to sign Reyes over the past few weeks.

Reyes, who gives the Marlins an upgrade at shortstop defensively, will essentially force Ramirez to move to third base. When previously asked if he would be willing to change positions following reports that the Marlins were interested in Reyes, Ramirez said that, “I’m a shortstop.” But apparently he has agreed to play third now that Reyes is heading to Miami.

With the winter meetings starting up this week, more big signings could be on their way. Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, Carlos Beltran and C.J. Wilson are some of the biggest names that could be heading to different cities next season. There was a report last week that the Cubs were interested in signing Pujols, although that may just be a ploy in order to drive up the price for the Cardinals, who are Chicago’s most bitter rival. It’s assumed that Pujols wants to stay in St. Louis, but only if the price is right. His last contract was rather owner-friendly and he has already said that he isn’t willing to give a hometown discount to the Cardinals, although that could change.

While Fielder’s next destination is largely unknown, it appears as though it won’t be Milwaukee, where the first baseman has spent his entire career to this point. There has been at least one report, however, that said Fielder has narrowed his choices of where he wants to sign to the Blue Jays, Rangers and Brewers, with Toronto thought to be the favorite.

Now that Reyes is off the market, Jimmy Rollins should become the most sought after shortstop. There is speculation that the Brewers and Cardinals are the Phillies’ primary competition when it comes to signing Rollins, who batted .268 with 16 home runs and 30 stolen bases in 142 games this past season for Philadelphia. Rollins just turned 33 on November 27.

All 2011 Fantasy Articles | 2011 Position Rankings

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. Shortstop is the new second base, a fantasy wasteland where only six (!) players are projected to be drafted in the first ten rounds. Six, out of a hundred. That’s bad.

“Hello. I’m Derek Jeter, and you’re not.”

Worse, only five of those players are proven fantasy performers year after year, and even that is stretching the truth until it nearly breaks. Truth be told, there is one guy in this group (Hanley Ramirez) that has held up as a reliable fantasy stud. The rest are streaky, as in ‘Will Ferrell in “Old School”‘ streaky. (Tulo, we’re looking at you.) What is a fantasy manager to do once Hanley and Troy Tulowitzki are off the board? For starters, don’t panic, and for God’s sake don’t reach. Continue to take the best guy on the board, and see if one of these guys lands in your lap.

Jose Reyes, Mets
The late, great Sparky Anderson once said, “Just give me 25 guys on the last year of their contracts; I’ll win a pennant every year.” You think he wouldn’t love to have Reyes this year, since he’s essentially auditioning for all of Major League Baseball? The Mets are so bogged down with money issues that there has even been speculation that they will have a hard time paying their players, which makes the likelihood of a contract extension to Reyes unlikely. Meanwhile, the shortstop of the Red Sox, Marco Scutaro, has a player option on his contract for next year, which the club could buy out for $1.5 million. Don’t think for a minute that Reyes doesn’t know this, and will bust his ass to get him some Carl Crawford money. Having said that, don’t bid the moon and the stars to get him. If he comes to you, great. If not, then take a look at…

Marco Scutaro, Red Sox
Reyes’ 2010 stat line was .282-83-11-54-30. Scutaro’s line was .275-92-11-56-5. Nearly identical in every category except steals, and he can be had 11 rounds after Reyes is off the board. If you play in a points league and Reyes is gone, take a deep breath, and remember that the next best thing is a mere 110 picks away. Scutaro is the textbook definition of a value pick, even if he spends the entire year in the 9-hole.

Read the rest of this entry »

And that’s why you pony up for a veteran starter like Roy Oswalt when he’s available via trade.

Oswalt was brilliant in Game 2 of the NLCS on Sunday night, striking out nine batters over 8 innings while allowing just one run on three hits in the Phillies’ 6-1 win over the Giants. His only blemish came in the 5th inning when Cody Ross took him deep to tie the game at, 1-1. But Oswalt has nothing to be ashamed of there, because Ross has proved this postseason that he’s the greatest baseball player ever to have walked the face of the earth. (The home run off Oswalt was his fourth in the playoffs and his third in back-to-back nights in Philadelphia.)

It was also a great night for shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who has struggled mightily at the plate of late. In the seventh inning, he drove in three runs on a double to deep right off Giants’ reliever Sergio Castillo, who was trying to mop up the mess left by starter Jonathan Sanchez (who allowed Oswalt to reach on a base hit) and Ramon Ramirez (who gave up a single to Placido Polanco, which scored Oswalt to give Philly a 3-1 lead). Rollins’ double scored Chase Utley (who had been intentionally walked), Polanco and Jayson Werth (also intentionally walked) to essentially put the game out of reach at, 6-1.

For everyone but Ross, it was a night to forget for the Giants, who seemed rather content with taking Game 1 of the series and heading back to San Francisco after earning a split. Granted, that’s what road teams are supposed to do in a seven-game series and the loss certainly doesn’t diminish what the Giants did on Saturday. But they had a huge opportunity to put the Phillies in a hole and instead they came out rather flat. Even Ross’ home run was short lived as Sanchez gave up a run in the bottom half of the inning.

It’ll be interesting to see if Bruce Bochy makes any changes to his lineup for Game 3. Pablo Sandoval drew a walk in the top of the 8th after coming in to replace Mike Fontenot in a double switch in the bottom of the 7th. Maybe it’s time to give Sandoval a start to see if he can’t shake out of his season-long funk and provide the Giants’ offense with a spark. Andres Torres is a huge reason why San Fran is still playing right now, but he looks completely overmatched at the plate and the Giants don’t lose anything with Aaron Rowand in the outfield. Rowand has been brutal at the plate this year, but he has postseason experience (he won a World Series with the White Sox earlier this decade) and would be motivated to beat his former team. (The only problem is that if you bench Torres, the Giants don’t have a true leadoff hitter.)

Now isn’t the time to panic, but the Giants need more offense. Matt Cain will oppose Cole Hamels in Game 3 on Tuesday afternoon.