Last year’s age 26 breakout power season from Brad Miller was one of the more surprising aspects of last season. Power was up across the board in 2016, but to go from a career high of 11 home runs to 30 while only adding 100 plate appearances against the year prior was far out of line with the norm. Entering this year, Miller was one of the more interesting players to follow for a few reasons.
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Both Eduardo Nunez and Marcus Semien put together useful fantasy seasons a year ago. From my perspective, as a long term Semien owner in a dynasty format, I was waiting on this type of year from Semien for some time. Nunez was a bit more of a surprise, specifically on the raw numbers side of things rather than on his rate stats. In this day and age, 40 stolen bases is elite, which is why Nunez is being drafted as a top 12 shortstop as of the writing of this article.
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Jose Peraza’s prospect hype seemed to have stalled after a rough 2015 campaign. He had a rough offensive season at triple-A for the Braves that year and then was included in a package for Hector Oliviera at the deadline when, presumably, the Braves started to look at Peraza more as a utility player than a regular middle infielder. Peraza was on the move again a few months later and, based on his usage at triple-A and in the Majors, it seemed like the Reds were ready to roll Peraza out in that super utility role. That thought seemed to be furthered by the Reds acquisition of Dilson Herrera at last year’s trade deadline.
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Usually after out-of-nowhere 30 home run seasons, the thought is to sell high. Fantasy baseball, and dynasty specifically given the nature of the competitors in the league likely being more adept than the average league, is not played in a vacuum. The other players have as much access to advanced statistics and trends as you do, so the price of a player is often up for debate.
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ZiPS hates him and Steamer thinks he will be exactly average, albeit in limited plate appearances, but signs are pointing in the right direction for Travis Shaw. Shaw is currently competing for regular plate appearances with Pablo Sandoval at third base. He was expected to get some work in left field but that has apparently either been halted or nixed as he continues his battles with Sandoval at the hot corner. While that can be seen as a negative in his overall utility, I see it as a positive in the likelihood of him taking plate appearances away from Sandoval.
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1. Tyler Duffey is the Twins best starter
I was a bit late to the party on Duffey as I had not heard much about him until reading a Keith Law chat last year in which a Twins fan asked why he has improved so much in the minors. The details Keith gave caused me to look deeper into Duffey and I came away with confidence that he can perform in the upper levels and in the majors. Last year he was great in double-A, triple-A, and in the majors and has a quality most Twin starters lack – strikeout potential. To say I am bullish on Duffey would be an understatement.
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He may have been far from the main piece in the Cole Hamels trade, but the Phillies may have found a diamond in the rough when they acquired Jerad Eickhoff from the Rangers last summer.
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Before you take a gander at this post regarding Lorenzo Cain from a fantasy, and particularly dynasty or keeper league format, take a look at Neil Weinberg’s post on Cain over at the main site. It is a fascinating piece about what has caused Cain to breakout offensively during his age 29 season.
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Two prospects have recently been called up to fill holes in their respective rotations. While Jungmann was once a highly regarded prospect (ranked 70 overall by Baseball America in 2012) and has since fallen off, Wisler is across the board a top 100 prospect. Despite their different paths to the majors, both are up and are performing, so let’s take a look and see if either or both are worth adding.
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The catcher position has been an interesting position all season long. The depth at the position was hurt earlier this year when Jonathan Lucroy and Travis d’Arnaud went on the disabled list, and Matt Wieters still recovering from his elbow injury, but there have been some big surprises at the top of the catcher ranks this year in Steven Vogt and Russell Martin. Most people know Martin is a solid player, but not many expected him to have 44 runs, 10 homers, and a .365 OBP before the end of June. There has been good deal of power at the position with seven players hitting double digit home runs.
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