A wise man once told me that “you learn something new every day, and the only day that you don’t learn something new is the day you die.” Obviously, this is a deep quotation that can translate to almost any facet of one’s life, but today I’m going to interpret it towards my fantasy baseball season.

For even the most knowledgable fantasy player, there are still facets of fantasy baseball that he can brush up on to become a more dominant player in a league. So, for all those in fantasy leagues looking for something to take from the 2010 fantasy baseball season that is slowly winding down, here are the five things that I learned from this season that I will carry on to other upcoming years.
 
5) End the giddiness for Grady -- Grady Sizemore started his MLB career as one of the most exciting and valuable players in the game, both for the Indians and those owners that drafted him in fantasy baseball leagues. His power, speed, average and on-base percentage made him a can’t miss fantasy prospect during his first few seasons in the big show. Well, those days are over. After the last two seasons Sizemore has had, fantasy owners shouldn’t touch him with a 10-foot pole, unless he is available in the late rounds.

The last two seasons for him have been disasterous at best. In 2009, he batted a paltry .248 to go with only 18 home runs, 64 RBIs and 13 stolen bases. Considering he was high on many draft boards, that was a major bust of a season. Many fantasy owners (myself included) took a chance on him in 2010, hoping that he would bounce back from his 2009 season. Boy, were we wrong. Before ending his season due to an injury in May, he hit .211, along with 4 steals, 13 RBIs and no home runs. Ouch.

Although he is loaded with talent, fantasy owners should stay clear of Sizemore until he proves that he can be healthy and productive again.
 
4) Don’t overvalue speed — With the arrival of the steroid era, stolen bases slowly worked their way out of baseball. That is, until the last several years. While some players are still adept at the lost art of stealing a base, the elite base burglars are few and far between.

For this reason, players should not be drafted solely based on their stolen base ability. If fantasy owners draft or trade for a player just based on their speed, they’re likely to get burned. Take, for example, the league’s top base stealers: Juan Pierre, Michael Bourn, Rajai Davis and BJ Upton. While all of these players are talented, their statistics outside of their stolen base totals are mediocre at best, and many of them play on sub-par teams.

Steals are an important category to have on a fantasy squad, but unless it is the late rounds, players should not be drafted only on their ability to swipe a bag. Just look at the fantasy owners who got saddled with Jacoby Ellsbury this year.

3) Don’t knock a player just because he is on a bad team — While it’s easy to undervalue a player because of the team he is on, doing so can seriously harm a fantasy team’s chances in the playoffs. While many elite players are surrounded by quality teammates on contending teams, players stuck on teams like the Royals, Nationals and Diamondbacks still can provide plenty of value, despite not having the best supporting cast.

Billy Butler, Justin Upton, Scott Podsednik, and Marlon Byrd are all examples of this. They may have slid on fantasy draft boards because of the teams that they were on, but the owners who didn’t sleep on them are currently reaping the rewards of their terrific seasons, even though they play for lousy teams.

2) Carlos Gonzalez is going to be valuable CarGo for a long time — Although he has been bounced around as a valuable piece in the Dan Haren and Matt Holliday trades, Carlos Gonzalez has proven this year that he should be a top three or four fantasy player for years to come.

His numbers are too nice to ignore: a .320 batting averge, a .355 OBP, 26 home runs, 84 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. With just a little bit high OBP and slightly more power, we are talking about Albert Pujols-type numbers, which is the ultimate compliment for any baseball player. And at age 24, those numbers should keep getting better, making him a fantasy player for years to come.

1) Don’t target pitching too early — Since early in the season with Ubaldo Jimenez’s ridiculous start, ESPN and other media have labeled 2010 as the “Year of the Pitcher.” While many pitchers have turned in outstanding campaigns this season, it serves as a valid point for fantasy owners: don’t target pitching too early.
 
In many leagues, owners salivate when Roy Halladay or Adam Wainwright is available in the second round. And while these guys are top-notch pitchers, the list of elite pitchers keeps getting longer and longer, making it unnecessary to over-draft a pitcher early in the draft. With guys like Jimenez, Johnson, Lester, Buchholz, Latos, Garcia, Carpenter, Price and Santana, in addition to others, having such fabulous years, there’s no need to draft a pitcher way early in the draft when so many quality ones will be available later on.