Here's my completely subjective listing of the ten best fantasy players of the past decade. This isn't based on where you'd get them in the draft, but what they produced on the field. Basically, who would you have drafted in 1999 in a keeper league with no cost to holding the player for 10 years?
10. Pedro Martinez
His career may be a better fit for the 1990s, and he certainly declined at the end of the 2000s, but his peak value gets him on this list. In 2000 he had a WHIP of 0.737, an all-time low - and in a hitter's era. It promoted John Hunt of Baseball Weekly (back then most high-profile fantasy columnist) to open the bidding in the AL LABR league on Pedro at $50, which found crickets and it paid off. It promoted the $50 ace pitcher theory - later tried (without as much success) with Johan Santana during his prime.
Best Season - 2000: 18 W, 1.86 ERA (291+ ERA), 284 K, 0.737 WHIP
9. Martin Brodeur
The NHL didn't have a full decade, missing a year, and seemed to have more of a transitional decade with most of the biggest fantasy stars (Crosby, Ovechkin) not arriving until after the 2004 strike. Depending on your league's format, goalies are often the most important player. Brodeur is about to set every NHL record for a goaltender with most of his playing time coming in the 2000s.
Best Season - 2006-07: 48 W, 2.18 GAA, 12 Shutouts.
8. Randy Moss
You can make a case for Terrell Owens or Marvin Harrison, but Moss' big seasons (and sometimes lower ADP) makes him the best fantasy receiver of the decade. Sure, he had some poor seasons with Oakland, but he was the top WR in fantasy value three times and was in the top five six times (including 15/16 of 2009). And he set the WR record with 23 receiving touchdowns in 2007.
Best Season - 2007: 98 rec, 1,493 yards, 23 touchdowns
7. LeBron James
He only played seven years in the decade (well 6.5 if you don't count the end of the 2009-10 season), but he's been the dominant payer in fantasy basketball the final three years with seemingly a triple-double every night. He's probably the best bet of the list here to repeat on the top ten fantasy players of the 2010s.
Best Season - 2007-08: 30.0 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 7.2 apg
6. Kevin Garnett
The 2000s come down to Lebron and KG for best fantasy players in the NBA. Kobe, Shaq and Tim Duncan all make a strong case, but both LeBron and KG filled the stat sheet in multiple categories - which is key for most leagues that rely on multiple categories. Before KG's offense fell off with Boston, he had six consecutive seasons from 1999 to 2005 with 20+ points, 10+ rebounds and 5+ assists.
Best Season - 2003-04: 24.2 ppg, 13.9 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.5 steals per game, 2.2 blocks per game.
5. Albert Pujols
Pujols hit at least 32 home runs, 103 RBI, .955 OPS and .314 in every year since his 2001 debut. Throw in 2005 and 2009 where he stole 16 bases and three years (2001 - 2003) where he qualified at 3B, and that's about as much as you can expect from any hitter. He finished in the top three in MVP voting in seven of nine seasons in the decade. And he was in the top 10 in MVP voting in all nine seasons.
Best Season - 2009: 47 HR, 135 RBI, .327 RBI, 16 SB, 1.101 OPS
4. Alex Rodriguez
A-Rod gets the nod over Pujols because of position scarcity and because he stole more bases. He had four seasons at SS and six at 3B, both premium fantasy baseball positions. Not that he was shabby with the bat either. A-Rod hit 50+ home runs three times and never less than 30 homers or 100 RBI. And he was in the top three in MVP voting five times in the decade (winning three times).
Best Season - 2007: 54 HR, 156 RBI, .314 ERA, 24 SB, 1.067 OPS
Oh, and you're not penalized for steroids in fantasy sports ... so not on this list either.
He finished in the top 3 in QB fantasy points seven times, first twice ... and never lower than sixth. And he set the NFL record for TDs (later broken by Tom Brady) with 49 in 2004. And he holds maybe the most underrated stat in all of fantasy sports: he's the one player on this list who didn't miss a game the entire decade.
Best Season - 2004: 49 TDs, 4,557 yards, 9.2 YPA
LT finished in the top three in fantasy value five times in the 2000s, and finished in the top five in another. He also had the greatest fantasy football season in 2006 when he rushed for a record 28 touchdowns, caught three touchdowns and threw two touchdown passes. He was also the top pick on average each season from 2003 to 2008, with the exception of 2004. He was second in ADP that season to Priest Holmes.
Best Season - 2006: 31 total TDs, 3 passing TDs, 1,815 yards rushing, 56 receptions, 508 yards receiving
1. Tiger Woods
If you don't regard fantasy golf as a true fantasy sport, then LT is your fantasy athlete of the decade. If you include fantasy golf, it's no contest.
Tiger Woods was so far above his competition that fantasy teams had to develop new rules to work around Tiger's dominance. League's didn't allow teams to draft him, divided him up into months or put extra costs on drafting him. It was a fantasy problem that hasn't been seen since Wayne Gretzky if you were playing fantasy hockey by hand back in the 1980s.
In the 2000s he won 64 tournaments, including 12 major championships. The next closest golfer had three majors. Woods was runner-up in six other majors. He won 14 times out of 27 appearances in the World Golf Championships. He was No. 1 in the world ranking for all but 32 weeks in the decade. Woods won more than one-third of all the tournaments he played in the decade. And he finished the decade with $81,547,410 in earnings from his PGA Tour events, an average of $482,529 per tournament. And he had the best fantasy season of all in 2000 when he won three majors
Best Season - 2000: 3 majors (all but the Masters), won six consecutive tournaments, nine wins and 17 top-10 finishes in 20 events.
Honorable mention: Priest Holmes, (top 3 overall in fantasy football 2001-2003) , Shaun Alexander (top 5 overall four times), Marshall Faulk (No. 1 overall fantasy player in 2000 and 2001, but only four seasons in the 2000s) Johan Santana (two Cy Young awards, three seasons leading AL in Ks and three ERA titles), Randy Johnson (three Cy Young awards, four seasons of 290+ Ks), Jimmie Johnson (four consecutive NASCAR titles).