Most drafts are in the books and the NFBC even ran their first waiver period last night. It’s time to start focusing on the future a bit. Not too far out, April is our focus. Here are a couple guys to put on your watchlist and monitor in the early part of the season. Most platforms have a feature where you can click something by the player’s name to put them on a virtual watchlist.

It is smart to use this feature before the season starts because once it starts you will likely be sorting by certain stats and you could miss out on someone you really want about to get a new role because you sorted by PA and he just didn’t show very high.

SHALLOW LEAGUES (mixed leagues – 10 or fewer teams)

Trevor Rogers | P, MIA

I got to write the profile blurb for Rogers in this year’s Baseball HQ Forecaster and I pointed out how he allowed 13 of his 19 ER across two hideous outings while showing off above average swing-and-miss stuff in the other successful five starts (2.57 ERA, 32% K rate). The 23-year-old lefty has good velocity and three reliable pitches.

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This weekend is the last big push of drafts so it’s time for one final update of my SP ranks. Lots of movement as it’s time to lock in and put together our rotations.

The blue bar represents the START of a new tier. Yes, deGrom is his own tier.

You can also get up to the minute rankings of every position on our Patreon.

UPDATE(S):

• I didn’t adjust Carrasco for his groin issue, so I put him at 102.5 right now because I’m not able to update the table right now and he’s going to slot in after Thor, but I wanted to note Carrasco’s drop. Thanks to Mike from Twitter for catching that.

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3/25/21

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS

• Kirby Yates update: getting TJS (5:25)
• Eloy Jiménez may “miss significant time” w/shoulder issue (10:40; 39:52)
  • Adam Engel/Leury Garcia (41:30)
• Andrew Vaughn trending toward breaking camp (15:10)
  • Joey Votto ranking (17:10)

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Transcript is now live!

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3/23/21

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon and getting our most updated positional rankings!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS

• Zac Gallen scratched w/forearm soreness (2:50)
• Kirby Yates out multiple wks w/a flexor strain (7:31)
  • Montoyo mum on replacement: Jordan Romano/Rafael Dolis
• José Leclerc out “an extended period of time” (11:26)
• Tout Wars (14:17)
• Justin Main Event (23:03)

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One of the biggest discussions around any draft gameplan is where to get your speed. Sure, you could try to ignore them, but I never want to go into a draft punting a category and leagues with an overall component like the NFBC’s Main Event and Online Championship make it so you can’t punt a category if you want a realistic shot at the overall grand prize.

To secure high end stolen bases, you really need to map out your draft and figure out exactly where they go. This piece aims to help with that by using The BAT X’s projection system along with the NFBC ADP. Teams needs around 120 SBs to be in the upper crust (I used the top 20% of Main Event leagues from 2019) and while the number is dropping yearly, it is a safe target to set for your drafts. It’s about 9 SBs per roster spots in the standard 14-player setup (2 C, 1B/3B/CI, 2B/SS/MI, 5 OF, UT) and there are only 87 players in The BAT X projected to reach that mark.

Of course when you draft someone with 20 SBs, they bring the average needed down, but it’s still alarming that not even 100 guys hit the average we need for every spot to reach our general target. Let’s see how everything breaks down:

THE KING

Wondering why Adalberto Mondesi is going so high? Here is your reason. His 52 projected SBs are 1.5x that of the next best guy (Turner, 35) which is why so many are willing to take on his AVG downside with a top 25 pick. He crept into the first round during at least one Main Event this past week, going 14th overall.

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Pardon the delay on these as they should’ve been up over a week ago, but I’ve updated the commentary and rankings since then so here’s the latest backstop ranks fresh off the press!

Other positions:

• 1B
• 2B
• SS
• 3B
• OF

Here’s my list.

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3/18/21

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS

• Framber Valdez update
  • Mike Soroka
• Ketel Marte ankle soreness
• Jarred Kelenic returns on Wednesday
• Ramón Laureano tracking well, expected back next week

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Check out the transcript below!

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3/16/21

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

Follow us on Twitter

• @sporer – Host
• @justinmasonfwfb – Co-Host/Producer

NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS/INJURIES/RUMORS

• Maikel Franco to BAL (3:58)
• Bobby Witt Jr. soaring – 355 ADP in OC (7:35)
• Eugenio Suárez to SS/Mike Moustakas to 3B on Tuesday (15:53)
  • Jonathan India to 2B

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