Fantasy baseball 2014 draft strategy: Brandon Belt next Todd Helton, future batting champ?

Brandon Belt has an average draft position of No. 177 overall in CBSSports.com head-to-head fantasy leagues. Many fantasy owners are going to regret passing on Belt when the season gets underway.

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The Baby Giraffe has the pedigree to be a star. He was named the No. 26 best prospect by MLB.com entering the 2011 season, but many people seem to forget how high his ceiling is supposed to be.

The former top prospect is still only 25 years old and things started to click at the end of 2013. From August 1 through the end of the season, Belt was arguably the best player in baseball. During that time he hit .346 with a .408 OBP and .984 OPS.

Batting .346 over 191 at-bats in the Major Leagues is impressive, but Belt has shown his ability to hit for average throughout his minor-league career as well. In 2010, Belt hit .352 over 492 at-bats across three levels of the minors. In 2011, the Baby Giraffe hit .320 over 53 games before being promoted to San Francisco.

He reminds me of a young Todd Helton, minus the Coors Field-inflated power. Belt is a future batting champion if he continues to improve. I expect him to finish the 2014 season with more fantasy points than players that are being drafted ahead of him such as Anthony Rizzo, Eric Hosmer, Brandon Moss, Mike Napoli and even possibly Jose Abreu.

Questions? Hit me on Twitter @briansflood

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