http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/mlb/news?slug=ab-primer-2011-of
Position Primer: Outfield
Position Primer: Outfield
More primers : Starting pitcher
More OF analysis : Yahoo! OF ranks | Spin Doctors: Ryan Braun vs. Carlos Gonzalez
There are lots of delightful stories connected to the first rotisserie baseball league auction  or at least enough to fill a mildly disappointing episode of 30-for-30  but my personal favorite is this: In fantasys inaugural season, one of the founding fathers assembled The $100 Outfield.
Then as now, if youre spending 100 dollars on your outfielders, you probably havent budgeted so well. And if its 1980 and youre dropping 100 units on Bobby Bonds, Dave Kingman and Ron LeFlore, then youre doomed. (To be fair, LeFlore earned his imaginary payday, stealing 97 bases and scoring 95 runs. But the other two were busts).
Youll be tempted to spend aggressively on your outfielders in 2011, no doubt, because this roster spot offers a significant number of five-category assets  just check the position stats below. In 2010, the average top-40 fantasy outfielder slugged 22 homers, swiped 20 bags, scored 88 runs, delivered 82 RBIs and hit .285. If that were a real person, Jim Hendry would give him $18 million a year for the rest of his life, plus a no-trade clause, plus a statue.
The elite outfielders are absolutely going to finish among the most valuable commodities in the fake game, as measured by to the year-end Yahoo! ranks. Last season, 27 of the 50 highest-ranked position players were outfielders. Fantasy baseball is ultimately a numbers game, and this is where a huge percentage of the numbers are. Braun, CarGo and Crawford deserve their first-round status; Hamilton, Holliday and Kemp arent far behind.
But with a talent-rich roster position like this, youre wasting resources if you fill every outfield spot early in a draft or auction. Even in the deepest mixed leagues, plenty of useful outfielders will go undrafted; many others will be selected in the end-game, from the $1 bin.
In fact, at the 15-team Tout Wars mixed league auction last March, my original five-man outfield cost just $10 . The big investment was Nick Swisher (notes) , at five bucks. That team held a comfortable lead in the standings for most of the season, suffered an injury-related slump in September, but still managed to hold off Steve Gardner and Charlie Wiegert in the final weeks to win the title. (Barely, not without panic). And again: My outfield was purchased for only $10, later enhanced at minimal cost with Mike Stanton (notes) (via FAAB) and Nick Markakis (notes) (via trade). The plan going into the 2010 auction was to attack the talent-scarce positions early, then sketch in an outfield with leftovers. Thats a perfectly reasonable approach for 2011, too.
As you browse the middle and lower tiers below, youll notice that the outfield is essentially a stat buffet. If youre looking for low-cost power upside, its there: Stanton, Jay Bruce (notes) , Adam Lind (notes) , Travis Snider (notes) , Matt LaPorta (notes) , [Chris Carter]e|/mlb/players/8640 . If instead youre trying to find steals on the cheap, those are available, too: Jose Tabata (notes) , Brett Gardner (notes) , Michael Bourn (notes) , Juan Pierre (notes) , Rajai Davis (notes) , Peter Bourjos (notes) , Carlos Gomez (notes) . And if youre willing to take a chance on a high-mileage/slightly used veteran, then consider Vladimir Guerrero (notes) , Manny Ramirez (notes) , Carlos Lee (notes) , Carlos Beltran (notes) or Hideki Matsui (notes) . And dynasty league managers should be all over Mike Trout (notes) , Bryce Harper (notes) , Domonic Brown (notes) and Desmond Jennings (notes) .
The point is, theres something here for everyone. The position is overstocked and priced to sell 
Position averages, top 60 outfielders in year-end Yahoo! rank
2010, OF1  94.6 R, 26.4 HR, 93.5 RBI, 19.2 SB, .291 AVG
2010, OF2  81.0 R, 17.8 HR, 69.1 RBI, 21.3 SB, .278 AVG
2010, OF3  72.1 R, 15.7 HR, 70.1 RBI, 11.7 SB, .267 AVG
2009, OF1  95.4 R, 23.1 HR, 88.8 RBI, 23.2 SB, .296 AVG
2009, OF2  78.3 R, 20.4 HR, 74.7 RBI, 14.3 SB, .285 AVG
2009, OF3  70.7 R, 18.5 HR, 68.3 RBI, 9.4 SB, .265 AVG
(Note: Auction values are from the 2011 Yahoo!/PFW Draft Guide , with minor tweaks).
Outfield  Tiers
Ryan Braun (notes) $41; Carlos Gonzalez (notes) $41; Carl Crawford (notes) $40; Josh Hamilton (notes) $35; Matt Kemp (notes) $34; Matt Holliday (notes) $34
Shin-Soo Choo (notes) $31; Nelson Cruz (notes) $31; Justin Upton (notes) $30; Andrew McCutchen (notes) $28; Jose Bautista (notes) $28; Andre Ethier (notes) $27; Jason Heyward (notes) $26; Ichiro Suzuki (notes) $24; Alex Rios (notes) $24; Jayson Werth (notes) $24; Hunter Pence (notes) $22
Jay Bruce $18; Chris Young $16; B.J. Upton (notes) $16; Delmon Young (notes) $16; Colby Rasmus (notes) $16; Nick Markakis $15; Jacoby Ellsbury (notes) $14; Corey Hart (notes) $13; Drew Stubbs (notes) $13; Shane Victorino (notes) $13; Michael Stanton $13; Curtis Granderson (notes) $12; Torii Hunter (notes) $10; Carlos Quentin (notes) $10
Vladimir Guerrero $9 Ben Zobrist (notes) $9; Vernon Wells (notes) $9; Michael Bourn $8; Carlos Beltran $8; Brett Gardner $8; Aubrey Huff (notes) $8; Bobby Abreu (notes) $8; Nick Swisher $8; Jason Bay (notes) $7; Carlos Lee $7; Angel Pagan (notes) $7; [Adam Jones]e|/mlb/players/7812 (notes) $6; Grady Sizemore (notes) $6; Jose Tabata $5; Adam Lind $5; Juan Pierre $5
Rajai Davis $4; Denard Span (notes) $4; Alfonso Soriano (notes) $3; Manny Ramirez $3; Andres Torres (notes) $3; Magglio Ordonez (notes) $3; Travis Snider $3; Domonic Brown $3; Michael Cuddyer (notes) $3; Jason Kubel (notes) $3; Desmond Jennings $3; Ryan Raburn (notes) $2; Austin Jackson (notes) $2; Dexter Fowler (notes) $2; Coco Crisp (notes) $2; Nyjer Morgan (notes) $2; Luke Scott (notes) $2; Logan Morrison (notes) $2; Sean Rodriguez (notes) $2; David Murphy (notes) $1; Peter Bourjos $1; Raul Ibanez (notes) $1; Johnny Damon (notes) $1; Franklin Gutierrez (notes) $1; David DeJesus (notes) $1; Omar Infante (notes) $1; Marlon Byrd (notes) $1; Tyler Colvin (notes) $1; Josh Willingham (notes) $1; Chris Coghlan (notes) $1; Hideki Matsui $1; J.D. Drew (notes) $1; Ryan Doumit (notes) $1; Matt LaPorta $1
Ryan Kalish (notes) $0; Cameron Maybin (notes) $0; Eric Young (notes) Jr. $0; Lorenzo Cain (notes) $0; Alex Gordon (notes) $0; Garrett Jones (notes) $0; Nate McLouth (notes) $0; Brennan Boesch (notes) $0; Julio Borbon (notes) $0; Cody Ross (notes) $0; Jonny Gomes (notes) $0; Seth Smith (notes) $0; Matt Joyce (notes) $0; Pat Burrell (notes) $0; Jack Cust (notes) $0; Michael Brantley (notes) $0; Kosuke Fukudome (notes) $0; Scott Podsednik (notes) $0; Carlos Gomez $0; Ryan Ludwick (notes) $0; Roger Bernadina (notes) $0; Wil Venable $0; Brad Hawpe (notes) $0; Felix Pie (notes) $0; Fred Lewis (notes) $0; Michael Morse (notes) $0; Michael Saunders (notes) $0; Brandon Allen (notes) $0; Jon Jay (notes) $0; Melky Cabrera (notes) $0; Kyle Blanks (notes) $0; Juan Rivera (notes) $0; Conor Jackson (notes) $0; Andruw Jones (notes) $0; Nolan Reimold (notes) $0; Scott Hairston (notes) $0; [Chris Carter]e|/mlb/players/8640 $0; Emilio Bonifacio (notes) $0
Top 5 outfielders
Brandon Funston
Andy Behrens
Scott Pianowski
1. Carlos Gonzalez  Ride that Rocky Mountain high
1. Ryan Braun  MVP potential, 30-15-.300 floor
1. Ryan Braun  Upside/floor earns the nod
2. Ryan Braun  Hebrew Hammer no consolation prize
2. Carl Crawford  Five-category asset, in prime
2. Carlos Gonzalez  More numbers on road, please
3. Carl Crawford  Not No. 3, more like 1c
3. Carlos Gonzalez  Lets see it again, CarGo
3. Carl Crawford  How much will he run?
4. Matt Kemp  28/19 in 10 is floor
4. Matt Kemp  Former Mr. Rihanna is 30/30 threat
4. Josh Hamilton  Pay for 130 games, max
5. Josh Hamilton  Upside-to-downside covers huge range
5. Josh Hamilton  Order CarFax report before purchase
5. Matt Kemp  Life without Torre and Rihanna
Top 5 outfielders youll reach for
Brandon Funston
Andy Behrens
Scott Pianowski
1. Justin Upton  .300/26/20 at age 21!
1. Jay Bruce  Just 24, room to improve
1. Colby Rasmus  Sophomore jump was largely ignored
2. Jason Heyward  .849 OPS at age 20!
2. Uptons!  Even better than the Gileses!
2. Jason Bay  Clear head equals easy profit
3. Drew Stubbs  Cheapest 20/40 candidate in fantasy
3. Brett Gardner  Hes Ellsbury at better ADP
3. Dexter Fowler  Breakout likely in age-25 year
4. Nick Markakis  Vlad protection helps rebound effort
4. Jose Tabata  Another forgotten Pirate with upside
4. Rajai Davis  Cheapest 45 steals on board
5. Bobby Abreu  Theres another 20/20/100 in him
5. Dexter Fowler  Nice park, terrific skills
5. David Murphy  Makes most of Arlington undertow
Top 5 outfielders youll shy away from
Brandon Funston
Andy Behrens
Scott Pianowski
1. Jayson Werth  A rather hefty environment downgrade
1. Grady Sizemore  If he wont run, unhelpful
1. Nelson Cruz  Too fragile for early rounds
2. B.J. Upton  I always avoid Mr. Shoulda/Woulda/Coulda
2. Jacoby Ellsbury  Hes Gardner at worse ADP
2. Torii Hunter  Speed gone, other numbers ordinary
3. Vernon Wells  Rarely puts together complete package
3. Cameron Maybin  Too much history between us
3. Jay Bruce  Breakout priced into ADP; expensive
4. Nick Swisher  .280 BA repeat a pipe dream
4. Josh Hamilton  Im more a Borbon guy
4. Carlos Beltran  Elite wheels might not return
5. Michael Bourn  Many cheaper Bourn types available
5. Luke Scott  In birther-only leagues, maybe
5. Vladimir Guerrero  Pricy purchase after explosive year
Top 5 last-round outfield lottery tickets
Brandon Funston
Andy Behrens
Scott Pianowski
1. Manny Ramirez  Chip on shoulder? Im in
1. Manny Ramirez  Deep discount, after .870 OPS
1. Lorenzo Cain  Small markets offer good value
2. Magglio Ordonez  Setting table for Miggy, V-Mart
2. Alex Gordon  Post-post-post-hype sleeper?
2. Logan Morrison  Nick Johnson (notes) without the injuries
3. Raul Ibanez  .869 OPS in 10 post-break
3. Carlos Gomez  Sadly, no on-base skills here
3. Franklin Gutierrez  Return to 2009 is possible
4. Cameron Maybin  13/19 in 548 ABs before 24
4. Eric Young Jr.  Crazy speed in minors
4. Ben Francisco (notes)  One break from 20-20 season
5. Seth Smith  Old habits hard to break
5. Matt LaPorta  Yup, needed a fifth dude
5. Magglio Ordonez  Rope machine in catbird seat
Top 5 rookie outfielders for 11
Brandon Funston
Andy Behrens
Scott Pianowski
1. Domonic Brown  Hes 15/15 easy, 20/20 maybe
1. Domonic Brown  Five-category potential, great lineup
1. Domonic Brown  Starting job his to lose
2. Desmond Jennings  Alright, enough Triple-A already
2. Desmond Jennings  Temporarily blocked, still interesting
2. Desmond Jennings  How soon is now?
3. Brett Jackson (notes)  Makeup to move up quickly
3. [Chris Carter]e|/mlb/players/8640  Serious minor league power
3. Mike Trout  2011 promotion unlikely, but not impossible
4. [Chris Carter]e|/mlb/players/8640  Huge power, huge BA liability
4. Michael Taylor (notes)  Not many obstacles in Oakland
4. [Chris Carter]e|/mlb/players/8640  High ceiling despite messy debut
5. Scott Cousins (notes)  .280/15/15 skills; ready for opportunity
5. Ben Revere (notes)  Nice speed/OBP combo
5. Brett Jackson  Not much blocking in Wrigley
