We’re going position-by-position from now through the All Star Break looking at the surprises and busts and foreshadowing the rest of the season.

Brett Gardner: A surprising fixture near the top of OF standings this season

Today let’s tackle OUTFIELDERS

Best value for investment: Josh Hamilton, Alex Rios, Vladimir Guerrero, Carlos Gonzalez, Brett Gardner, Chris B. Young, Corey Hart, Angel Pagan, Colby Rasmus, Magglio Ordonez, Brennan Boesch

Living up to value: Carl Crawford, Torii Hunter, Matt Holliday, Adam Dunn, Ichiro Suzuki, Andrew McCutchen, Shane Victorino, Shin-Soo Choo, Nick Swisher, Vernon Wells, Delmon Young, David DeJesus, JD Drew, Jason Heyward, Josh Willingham

Falling just short: Ryan Braun, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Bobby Abreu, Rajai Davis, Juan Pierre, Hunter Pence, Denard Span, Michael Bourn, Carlos Quentin, Alfonso Soriano, Johnny Damon

Falling well short: Jayson Werth, Juston Upton, B.J. Upton, Adam Jones, Nelson Cruz, Jason Bay, Nick Markakis, Jay Bruce, Michael Cuddyer, Manny Ramirez, Jason Kubel, Carlos Lee, Raul Ibanez,  Curtis Granderson, Brad Hawpe, Adam Lind, Grady Sizemore, Nate McLouth, Jacoby Ellsbury

Outfielders are hard to analyze because there are so many of them and different leagues have different allowances towards outfielders. 3 or 5? LF/CF/RF or generic? And so on…

What’s the year been like for outfielders? Let’s take a look at some generic marks. The tenth best OF this year (Kemp) is ranked 19th among all batters at any position. Last year, the tenth best OF was ranked 23rd. The twenty-fifth best OF (Swisher) this year is ranked 44th among all batters at any position. Last year, the ranking was 56th. The fiftieth best OF this year (Adam Jones) is ranked 88th among all batters at any position. Last year, the ranking was 110th.

Long story short, outfielders as a whole are clearly having a better season compared to their infield peers than last year.

Of course, that’s no consolation for anybody who drafted Juston Upton, Jason Bay, Adam Lind, Grady Sizemore, or Jacoby Ellsbury, among others. These guys are disappointing through injury, lackluster player, or both.

The most fruitful players in outfield this year so far are those on the comeback trail. Alex Rios, Vlad Guererro, Josh Hamilton, Chris B. Young, and Magglio Ordonez all had terrible seasons in 2009. This year obviously has been quite different.

A number of the speed guys, like Bourn, Pierre, Davis, and Span are doing good things in the SB category but coming up short elsewhere. The one speed guy who is giving more well-rounded run-and-average production is Brett Gardner, currently ranked sixth among outfielders and 14th among players at all positions.

Last year, Jason Bay, Jayson Werth, and Raul Ibanez were leaders in power among the OF pack. This year, we have Corey Hart and Vernon Wells among the unlikely power champs.

Perhaps more than any position, we’d give some credence to some of the 1st half trends continuing. Not uniformly, of course. Hart and Rasmus could regress in the second half. Meanwhile, Carlos Quentin is just getting hot and there could be some hot streaks in the bats of some of the fallen players. On the prospect front, some big names ahead including Dominic Brown of Philadelphia and Desmond Jennings of Tampa, both of whom will be super-hot pickups upon arrival to the big-league level.