Heading into the 2014 season, Kole Calhoun enjoyed some sleeper love as the prospect of hitting atop a a solid Angels lineup made him an intriguing outfield option. And despite missing over a month with an ankle injury, he still managed to finish just outside the top 30 outfielders at 33, versus our consensus rank of 42.
Wow. We sure as heck didn’t see this one coming. If your computer crashed/you lost power/aliens abducted you for a day, and this is the first article you’re reading since, you missed one head scratching signing by the Oakland Athletics. That, of course, was Billy Butler. He figures to be the team’s every day designated hitter, and perhaps play a couple of games here and there at first base. For future Butler owners, hopefully those games at first come as starts in National League parks. Let’s take a gander at how departing Kauffman Stadium for the awesomely named O.co Coliseum may affect his performance.
It’s hard to believe it, but Yoenis Cespedes just completed his age 28 season. Because he was a Cuban defector and came to the States later than others who have come here, he’s much older than one might expect given that he has just three full seasons under his belt. So the question is certainly valid as to whether Cespedes has peaked. His trends don’t paint a very pretty picture.
So, he didn’t exactly launch the 30 homers I boldly predicted he would or lead the American League in the category, but Oswaldo Arcia’s power did spike as I expected. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to result in a particularly useful fantasy season, as Arcia barely earned positive value and finished just 64th among outfielders.
I told you Corey Dickerson was going to go 25/10 this season and while he missed those milestones by one homer and two steals, you should have listened to my prognostication! Of course, I failed to do so myself, as I drafted Dickerson in a total of zero leagues. That proved to be a mistake, as Dickerson completed a breakout year that resulted in fantasy earnings ranking him 15th among outfielders and 37th overall. That’s pretty crazy for someone ranked as our 77th best outfielder in our preseason consensus.
Because I’m apparently a fan of writing about high upside young outfielders whose seasons were marred by injuries, I have to discuss another one in Wil Myers. We all knew about Myers shooting up the prospect lists based on his minor league performances through 2012. But he became much more of a household name after being traded from the Royals to the Rays after the 2012 season in a blockbuster for James Shields. He continued to mash at Triple-A the following year with his new organization, which earned him a promotion to the Majors, debuting in mid-June.
Bryce Harper was supposed to be the next superstar. And while 9.5 WAR over his first three seasons is nothing to sneeze at, it’s a bit of a disappointment. For the most part though, he has performed pretty well at the plate, posting a .355 wOBA during his career. Unfortunately, injuries have gotten the best of him in recent years. In 2013, he missed a month with a left knee injury that ultimately required offseason surgery. In 2014, he hurt his left thumb when he dove head-first into third base on a triple and missed about two months of action. So then it’s no surprise that a graph of his plate appearance totals over his first three seasons look like this:
The Marlins second best prospect heading into the 2013 season, Christian Yelich was understandably hyped upon his debut with the team last year. He didn’t disappoint, accumulating 1.4 WAR over slightly less than half a season. From a fantasy perspective, he offered contributions in four categories, despite being on the worst offense in baseball. It didn’t lead to a whole lot of preseason love in our consensus fantasy rankings though, as he ranked just 59th. We were all wrong, as he finished 23rd in value, offering somewhat similar production to fellow all-around contributor Starling Marte.
We have almost reached the finish line of our position by position player recaps! Today we move on to the outfield, which means it’s time to check in on how I did with my preseason Pod’s Picks. Because there are so many of them, the list was a much better representation of the players I was particularly bullish and bearish on based on my projections.
Jean Segura caused many a fantasy owner to shed a tear or two or three this season. One of those many owners was me. After a breakout (at least in a fantasy sense) 2013 season, Segura shot up the preseason rankings, actually moving up to third by our crew. Instead, he finished just 16th in value, barely playable as a middle infielder in 12-team mixed leagues.
