With an average draft position of 231 in Yahoo! leagues, Nick Swisher is absolutely undervalued in fantasy. Yes he plays at the best producing position and yes he does not provide value with his legs to support his bat, but he is without a doubt in my mind being undervalued on draft day.
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While Matt Harvey’s Tommy John surgery has Mets fans looking ahead to 2015 for the next signs of competitive postseason baseball, fantasy owners needn’t wait so long, at least so far as New York’s infield is concerned. With a near-elite option holding down the hot corner and a couple of intriguing upside artists elsewhere, the Mets offer help at some typically hard-to-fill fantasy positions – at prices that may be bargains come draft day.
The draw in Anthony Rizzo is his very impressive power, but a career .174 ISO in over 1200 plate appearances is at least somewhat worrisome when you are looking to draft Rizzo and hoping the power shows at the MLB level.
At the end of last season, J.P. Breen covered Rizzo and what to make of him. Breen did a great job of detailing the struggles Rizzo had against lefties and the fact that he had previously been fine against southpaws. With a 115 wRC+ against righties and a 72 wRC+ against lefties, any improvement at all against lefties would be a huge help to his fantasy value.
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Think about the Giants’ infield, and inevitably you wonder if the large mound at third can rebound from a disastrous year at the plate. Of course, there’s a breakout candidate at first base, and two deep leaguers up the middle, but you can’t help thinking about Pablo Sandoval first.
Last week, I wrote about George Springer and his complete demolition of minor-league pitching. This week, I’d like to take a look at one of Springer’s Triple-A teammates, Jon Singleton. Coming off a .284/.396/.497 season in Double-A in 2012, Singleton was featured in the top third of most Top 100 prospect lists last year, including here at FanGraphs.
At the time, Singleton was absolutely worth the hype. There aren’t a whole lot of players with as much raw power potential as Singleton has shown; he’s a batting-practice monster with jaw-dropping pull power, and it was starting to translate in-game as well. His isolated power, which was .143 in 525 High-A plate appearances in 2011, jumped to .213 in 555 plate appearances as a 20-year-old in Double-A, and he hit 21 homers, 27 doubles and four triples. I’ve always loved his swing; it’s got some natural lift to it that pairs well with his upper-body strength and produces some very loud contact.
I’m not really sure what is driving the obsession here, but count me in here for a third time discussing Cardinals 1B/OF Allen Craig. The first time I wrote about The Wrench, back in late January, I questioned the almost unbearable hype he was getting that pushed his ADP to a level that almost ensured he wasn’t going to live up to everyone’s expectations. As I said back then, I wasn’t dogging him as a player as much as I was criticizing the hype machine and those who mindlessly followed it, ultimately driving his ADP to somewhere between the late third and early fifth rounds. I just didn’t see him as a player worthy of such a high draft choice, and certainly not at a position as deep as first base or the outfield. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the past couple years, Edwin Encarnacion has transformed himself into a legitimate offensive superstar in Major League Baseball. He was the Reds’ top prospect when he made his major-league debut in 2005, but he ultimately wore out his welcome in Cincinnati with poor defense and inconsistent performance. The 30-year-old even scuffled for a couple years in Toronto before busting out in 2012 by launching 42 homers.
In some ways, Prince Fielder’s 2013 looked an awful lot like his 2012. In fact, depending on league type, he could have been nearly as valuable this year as he was last.
Consider:
| Year | 2012 | 2013 |
|---|---|---|
| Games Played | 162 | 162 |
| Home Runs | 30 | 25 |
| Runs Scored | 83 | 82 |
| Runs Batted In | 108 | 106 |
To those in 5×5 leagues, that’d probably look like a bit of a decline, and perhaps not even enough of one to draw statistical significance from.
But if Fielder’s October performance wasn’t indicative enough — 9 for 40 with just one extra-base hit — 2013 was certainly a down year. Especially by Fielder’s lofty standards (career .388 wOBA, .358 in ‘13). Read the rest of this entry »
As a fantasy manager, you look at Michael Cuddyer’s 2013 season statistics and there should be giant flashing red lights around this number: .382. That’s Cuddyer’s BABIP. Granted, he earned a good deal of that given his hit trajectory which was a fairly tidy 20/50/30 LD/GB/FB, producing a .355 expected BABIP. But for a soon to be 35-year old with a career BABIP rate of .312, we should all probably temper our expectations for 2014.
According to our end of season valuations, Chris Davis was not only the most valuable first baseman but also the most valuable player in the game. And that’s just based on production. When you consider his draft day price and ADP, he’s probably one of the greatest values in the history of fantasy baseball. It’s obvious he won’t be able to repeat the draft day value, but if he is going to live up to his draft day value next year, he’ll have to produce similarly. Can he? Read the rest of this entry »
