Fantasy Baseball: Will Alex Rodriguez’s Suspension Affect Yankees’ Players?

A-Rod

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

The news came down on Saturday that the MLB has decided to suspend New York Yankees third basemen Alex Rodriguez for the entire 2014 season. Many people believed that this could very well happen and on Saturday, that thought became reality.

Now many people are going to analyze this to see how this is going to affect Major League Baseball as a whole, the Major League Baseball’s Players’ Association, New York Yankees and rest of the AL East.

Here, I am not concerned about those things. What I am concerned about is how this suspension will affect the Yankees’ players this year during fantasy baseball.

Many people would believe that this suspension would hurt many of the players in the Yankees’ lineup such as Mark Teixeira, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran. However, I want you to examine the 2014 New York Yankees.

This team was preparing for this suspension to happen. The acquisition of Beltran was the move the Yankees made so that this lineup would still have a player with pop in it to replace A-Rod. Let’s also face it, A-Rod had very little impact on this lineup when he was in it in 2013. The guy just did not play to the level we are all used to seeing him play from season to season.

Was the decline in A-Rod’s play due to him not using the steroids anymore? Was it because he was focusing on outside issues? Whatever the problem was does not matter. A-Rod will not be playing baseball for the Yankees in 2014. If you own any player on this roster or plan on drafting any one of these players for your fantasy team this season, draft with confidence.

Will Belton put up the numbers that A-Rod did in his prime? No, but he will put up great power numbers, something that lead guys at the top of the Yankees’ order will love to see, and so will their fantasy owners.

The Yankees’ lineup will not get the 50 home runs they would get from a top-notch A-Rod, however, the Yankees’ players you have on your fantasy team will not have the distraction they had last season dealing with A-Rod.

Dom DeCarlo is a Fantasy blogger for www.RantSports.com. Follow him @DomDecarlo1, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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