2021 is over and we turn the page to 2022. Here are my current ranks for the shortstop position for 2021. I will post updates as things change with signings, injuries, or news in Major League Baseball.
77-85 (4th in Division; 20th in MLB)
SP Wins: 35 (24th)
RP Wins: 42 (9th)
Saves: 42 (12th)
1+ Save: 8 (Gregory Soto 18, Michael Fulmer 14, José Cisnero 4, Bryan Garcia 2, Kyle Funkhouser, Joe Jimenez, Daniel Norris, & Alex Lange 1)
100+ Ks: 2 (Tarik Skubal 164, Casey Mize 118)
.260+ AVG (min. 350 PA): 2 (Jonathan Schoop .278, Jeimer Candelario .271)
65+ Runs: 3 (Robbie Grossman 88, Schoop 85, Candelario 75)
65+ RBI: 4 (Schoop 84, Miguel Cabrera 75, Grossman & Candelario 67)
10+ HRs: 6 (Grossman 23, Schoop & Eric Haase 22, Candelario 16, Cabrera 15, Akil Baddoo 13)
5+ SBs: 7 (Grossman 20, Baddoo 18, Niko Goodrum 14, Willi Castro 9, Daz Cameron & Derek Hill 6, Victor Reyes 5)
BEST BUY: Jonathan Schoop
Schoop had a career year in 2017 when he hit 32 HR with 105 RBI and a .293 AVG and while he will likely never reach that high watermark again, he is a firm bet for 22-25 HR with 75-80 RBI and a .255-.270 AVG. He is also dual eligible for 2022, adding 1B to his normal 2B. If you play H2H or DFS, there is always a Schoopening or two every year when he is white-hot and pitchers just can’t get him out.
We all look at underlying metrics when it comes to any player, but whether we like to admit it or not we still sometimes look at the basic numbers. For pitchers, while ERA and WHIP of course mean something, we all know they aren’t predictive at all. Yet sometimes they are hard to ignore and we think, “well he did have a great ERA.” As a fun little exercise, we are going to compare two pitchers at a time based on underlying statistics to see if we can push away some biases. Let’s have some fun!
After diving into early draft hitter projections, the late draft season hitter projections get their time in the sun. First up is the counting stats that are heavily influenced on accurately guesstimating playing time. As with the early projections, the Bat and the Wisdom of the Crowds stand out with the addition of the Pod projections joining the others near the top.
For the projections, I pulled the following ones from the morning of March 30.
I didn’t run the values on CBS even though I pulled them. They were missing quite a few players and I messed up not pulling the Utility-onlys. Additionally, I pulled the ZEILE projections which are an average of several projections. Read the rest of this entry »
74-87 (4th in Division; 21st in MLB)
SP Wins: 42 (15th)
RP Wins: 32 (21st)
Saves: 33 (26th)
1+ Save: 4 (Daniel Bard 20, Carlos Estévez 11, Robert Stephenson, Lucas Gilbreath 1)
100+ Ks: 5 (Germán Márquez 176, Jon Gray 157, Austin Gomber 113, Antonio Senzatela, Kyle Freeland 105)
.260+ AVG (min. 350 PA): 5 (Brendan Rodgers .284, C.J. Cron .281, Raimel Tapia .273, Charlie Blackmon .270)
65+ Runs: 6 (Trevor Story 88, Ryan McMahon 80, Blackmon 76, Cron 70, Tapia, Garrett Hampson 69)
65+ RBI: 4 (Cron 92, McMahon 86, Blackmon 78, Story 75)
10+ HRs: 9 (Cron 28, Story 24, McMahon 23, Elias Díaz 18, Rodgers 15, Sam Hilliard 14, Blackmon 13, Hampson 11, Dom Nuñez 10)
5+ SBs: 5 (Story, Tapia 20, Hampson 17, McMahon 6, Hilliard 5)
BEST BUY: C.J. Cron
For the first time since 2017, Cron won’t be changing teams. After five teams in five years (LAA, TBR, MIN, DET, COL), he finally found a team to appreciate his plus bat (career 113 wRC+; 119 since leaving LAA). Of course Colorado would sign the 32-year-old to a multi-year deal given their love of older players, but in this case I really don’t mind it as it’s an affordable $14.5 mil for the two years. He is a solid bet for .270/25/90 with some real upside thanks to his home park.
2021 is over and we turn the page to 2022. Here are my current ranks for the second position for 2021. I will post updates as things change with signings, injuries, or news in Major League Baseball.
2021 is over and we turn the page to 2022. Here are my current ranks for the catcher position for 2021. I will post updates as things change with signings, injuries, or news in Major League Baseball.
2021 is over and we turn the page to 2022. Here are my current ranks for the first base position for 2021. I will post updates as things change with signings, injuries, or news in Major League Baseball.
See my other ranks here: C 1B 2B SS 3B OF SP RP
Read the rest of this entry »
74-88 (4th in Division; 22nd in MLB)
SP Wins: 41 (18th)
RP Wins: 33 (16th)
Saves: 37 (20th)
1+ Save: 8 (Scott Barlow 16, Greg Holland 8, Josh Staumont 5, Jake Brentz, Kyle Zimmer, Wade Davis 2, Richard Lovelady, Jesse Hahn 1)
100+ Ks: 4 (Mike Minor 149, Brady Singer 131, Brad Keller 120, Kris Bubic 114)
.260+ AVG (min. 350 PA): 4 (Nicky Lopez .300, Whit Merrifield .277, Andrew Benintendi .276, Salvador Perez .273)
65+ Runs: 4 (Merrifield 97, Perez 88, Lopez 78, Carlos Santana 66)
65+ RBI: 4 (Perez 121 [led MLB], Merrifield 74, Benintendi 73, Santana 69)
10+ HRs: 7 (Perez 48 [led MLB], Santana 19, Benintendi 17, Hunter Dozier 16, Jorge Soler 13, Michael A. Taylor 12, Merrifield 10)
5+ SBs: 7 (Merrifield 40 [led AL], Lopez 22, Adalberto Mondesi 15, Taylor 14, Benintendi, Jarrod Dyson 8, Dozier 5)
BEST BUY: Whit Merrifield
Merrifield’s already fragile power fell off the cliff with a .117 ISO (lowest since 2016) and just 10 HR despite playing all 162 games, but he swiped an AL-best 40 bases and scored 97 runs to maintain fantasy value. He maintained dual eligibility at 2B and OF, finishing 5th and 11th at those positions on the Auction Calculator, respectively. There may be a little hot potato effect that drops his draft price a bit as some may be afraid to hang on one year too long with Merrifield. But he still had an 87th percentile Sprint Speed and Whiff% while remaining a premium fielder (92nd percentile Outs Above Average at 2B).
The End of Season Recap Episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.
The focus of this podcast is on fantasy baseball strategy.
Today, we look back at the topics and highlights of our season-long coverage, and give thanks to all those that made our show extraodinary this year.
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