Yesterday’s bold prediction review was slightly embarrassing, but hey, if I got too many right, I may have been accused of not being bold enough! Those are hard enough, but my bold league leaders are even more difficult. Striking the right balance between realistic, but unexpected for a singular league leader is a challenge. Let’s see how I did on the hitter side.
Another wild, wacky, and crazy season has concluded, so it’s time for pre-season prediction reviews! I’ll start with everybody’s favorite, the bold predictions. Let’s see how I did.
The 2021 season is officially in the books! Since stats won’t be updated until tomorrow as I type this, let’s look toward the postseason rather than start our 2021 review. Yes, the title of this post is a mouthful. Essentially, I wanted to discuss a number of hitters who could dramatically raise their 2022 fantasy cost with a big postseason. Obviously, any hitter could do so. But these names are a mix that specifically could raise their profiles for a variety of reasons. I’m going to ignore how far I might guess the player’s team goes in the playoffs.
Given the big adjustment to Major League hitters compared to minor leaguers, small sample volatility, and the randomness of the three luck metrics (BABIP, HR/FB, LOB%), rookie starting pitchers often disappoint. However, that disappointment is sometimes superficial and only on the surface. If you look deeper, you might discover that the pitcher did everything well he could control, but other factors conspired against him to inflate his ERA. With that in mind, let’s discuss five rookie starters with hefty ERA marks, but SIERA marks around 4.00 or below. These guys may even be sitting in your free agent pool and ready to be plucked as potential keepers next year.
If your league allows you to keep players picked up over the final days of the season, then it’s still hunting time to find potential 2022 keeper candidates. Let’s discuss six of them and decide if they’re worth a roster spot.
The Rockies open this week with a three game homestand before finishing out the season on the road. Since playing the matchups is more important than ever as we progress through this final week, it might make sense to stack your team with Rockies and Nationals hitters. While I assume it’s too late to act on this advice for today’s (Sep 28) games, these pickups would still work for the last game of the series on Wednesday. Let’s discuss some of the guys that are lesser owned and likely to start against the scheduled right-handed starters on each side.
Sometimes leagues are won or lost by just one run scored, RBI, or hit. So it pays to pay attention to how many games your fantasy players are scheduled to play during the final week of the regular season. There are six teams that play seven games this week. Let’s discuss a player from each who might be available in your league.
Let’s get back to discussing recent minor league callups who aren’t playing every day, and are therefore likely still available in your deeper league. If you’re playing for next year, it’s worth filling your entire roster with cheap youngsters who could turn out to be excellent keepers if they end up opening the 2022 season with a starting job.
We got some more everyday starters to discuss as we count down the days until the regular season ends.
During these last two weeks of the season, all that matters right now is playing time. And playing time changes a lot at the end of the season as out-of-contention teams look toward the future and veterans on teams that have wrapped things up might get an extra day of rest here and there. So let’s bring back the look at new everyday starters and discuss four of them.
