Young Players to Watch for in 09.

My favorite thing about fantasy baseball, is that as every season starts we get to see published thoughts on every player in baseball in the fantasy guides. Whether you play fantasy or not, if you are a baseball fan, you'll find value in these guides. I've been looking at the guides on mlb.com, and have a few young guys I think we should look out for this year...

David Price, Rays. We saw him dominate in last year's postseason as a reliever, and he'll dominate as a starter this year. Remember how Joba was a phenomenal reliever, and then we realized he is an even more phenomenal starter, we'll see that to a similar extent with Price. Both guys have always been trained as starters, but debuted as relievers because of their teams' needs. Price is dirty, and could end up being more valuable to the Rays than Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Matt Garza.

Matt Wieters, Orioles: The Uberprospect is supposed to end up being phenomenal. He might not come up until May, but that's what happened with Evan Longoria last year, and we saw how impactful he still was. Wieters hits for average, and power, and was described as "a switch hitting version of Joe Mauer, only with more power." That's someone anyone would want to be compared to.

Elvis Andrus, Rangers: Texas moved all star Michael Young to third base so that Andrus can play short. He's got a great glove, and speed, and is only 20 years old. If they are moving a perrenial all star away from his native position for this guy, he has to be pretty good.

Dexter Fowler, Rockies: The five tool player will likely see time at the big league level this year. With Ryan Spilborghs and Brad Hawpe likely manning left and right Fowler could end up in center. On a young team, but one that has such professional players as Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton, Fowler is set up for success.

Tommy Hanson, Braves: Hanson's name came up a lot in the Jake Peavy trade talks, and he is expected to be a star. With phenomenal minor league stats the 22 year old right hander could make an impact at the big league level this year behind Javy Vasquez, Derek Lowe, and Jair Jurrjens. If Hanson is as good as they say he is, this could be a dominant rotation.

Jeff Samardzija, Cubs: Samardzija showed his skill in his time in the bigs last year. He was a two sport athlete at Notre Dame, his other sport being football where he was a wide reciever, and his vast athleticism should pay off and he will likely team up with Kevin Gregg to set up Carlos Marmol.

Mark Melancon, Yankees: Melancon is expected to be the next Yankee closer when Mo's era ends. He has dirty stuff and will almost definitely be an important member of the big league 'pen this year.

Chris Davis, Rangers: In just 300 major league at bats in 08, Davis hit 17 home runs with a line of .285/.331/.549. He is expected to be a big bat for Texas this year, with MLB predicting him to hit 37 homers this year.

There are obviously a lot of young players with immense talent, and not all of them are named above, we will see lots of other young guys make a big league impact this year, but these guys above are some of the cream of the crop.