It’s time for our Depth Chart Discussions to begin. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will begin breaking them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find them gathered here.

Projection systems are usually pretty great when it comes to veterans. The players have typically accumulated a fair amount of stats during their career, making it easier to peg their expected value for the upcoming season. The Indians will open the season with three veterans in the outfield. The Indians outfield is incredibly difficult to project.

There are reasons for that, of course. One of their players is coming off what looks to be an exceptional career year, another spent the entire second half injured and the third is hoping to reverse course after two disappointing years. There could be a lot to like in Cleveland’s outfield, but there are also plenty of questions.

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This post continues our Depth Chart Discussions. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, rotation, and bullpen) and will continue to break them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find the Depth Chart Discussion posts gathered here.

Just as you might expect from a Colorado Rockies team, this is an outfield in which the prospect of high production is balanced against sharp home/away splits and, in the case of one outfielder, heavy injury risk. That said, there’s plenty here to entice owners in all formats, including a former first-round fantasy stud and two players coming off breakout campaigns.
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The Pod Projections are back! My projections are based on the methodology shared in my eBook Projecting X, and the process continues to evolve and improve.

Today’s Pod Projectionee is Cuban rookie Yasmany Tomas, who I drafted in last week’s LABR mixed league. It’s hard enough projecting Major League veterans and even more difficult forecasting rookies with only minor league data to rely on. But trying to predict exactly what a player with no professional experience in a stateside league might do is a true shot in the dark. So this was a challenge and one I would like to share with you.

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In our last séance together, we confided to you our passion for Ender Inciarte. That passion was sparked by our attempt to identify hitters who, over the course of the 2014 season, figured out something new about hitting, and were recognized as such by opposing pitchers. In doing that, we also came across hitters who appear to have been tamed during the season, in that they were both seeing better pitches and chasing more bad ones, with declining results. We provided lists of the top- and bottom-20 hitters, according to this metric. One of the top guys was Ender Inciarte. Now we’ll interrogate (as they used to say in Deconstructionland) those lists, see how they answer, and try to separate signal from noise.

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Trying to figure out who is going to play in the Orioles outfield besides Adam Jones is simply a mess. The talent is tightly bunched with no one standing out. To add to the mess, the Orioles designated hitter will likely also be an outfielder. Stepping through the available information sort of makes the situation clearer, but no one will know for sure until the season starts.

Center field

This position is set with Adam Jones. The 29-year-old righty has been about as steady as can be over the past three seasons with about 160 games, 30 home runs and a .285 AVG. His only trait on the decline over those three years is his stolen bases going from 16 to seven. His defensive numbers have him as an average to below average center fielder which means he is a safe bet to stay there for the entire 2015 season.

Right Field, Left Field and Designated Hitter Read the rest of this entry »

In November, the Braves were looking at an outfield composed of Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, Evan Gattis, and B.J. Upton. The latter Upton appeared to be tabbed for a part time role after two miserable seasons. It looked like one of the most productive outfield units in the game.

Instead, Atlanta audibled from JUpton and Heyward before they could leave via free agency, and they sold high on Gattis. They’re left with the weaker Upton and an entirely new outfield for 2015.

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There is a long list of things for which you will not find us useful. On that list are, among other pastimes, auto repair, ballroom dancing, cat sitting, and identifying with microscopic precision how good players whom the world already knows to be good are going to be this season. We mention this because we are starting to see articles identifying “sleepers” for the coming season, and most of the guys identified strike us as being wide awake.

For example: we like Kolten Wong a lot. Indeed, as we will come to discuss in the fullness of time, we drafted him in our slow draft. But he’s a good example of the players who are turning up on sleeper lists, when in fact he’s well known to anyone who played Fantasy Baseball or followed Reality Baseball last season.

Here’s a young, highly touted prospect with a good minor league record who’s given the starting second base job in St. Louis, craps out, is banished to Louisville, comes back refreshed, and performs well. Why wouldn’t you have him in your sights?

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Currently, Yahoo! rates Jason Heyward as the 28th best fantasy outfielder. To me, that looks light, and as a huge Heyward fan I am doing my best in putting that out there without bias.
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This post continues our Depth Chart Discussions. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, bullpen, and rotation) and will continue to break them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find the Depth Chart Discussion posts gathered here.

The Phillies project to be the worst team in baseball next season. While the bullpen can’t be blamed for the terrible projection, the outfield looks ugly. The team has seven players in the mix, all of whom combine for a whopping 0.8 WAR. Let’s run through the options.

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The New York Yankees saw two of their starting three outfielders miss the end of the season due to injuries last year. Both Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran lost some time, with Beltran being limited to 109 games last year. Ellsbury did managed to play the vast majority of the season however, as both he and Brett Gardner posted over 630 plate appearances each, though Gardner himself is coming off of surgery for a sports hernia this off-season. When healthy, all three starting OFers offer fantasy owners various stats, but the outfield reserve for the Yankees could prove valuable as well.

Center Field
Jacoby Ellsbury
Chris Young

Left Field
Brett Gardner
Chris Young

Right Field
Carlos Beltran
Chris Young
Garrett Jones

In the minors
Jose Pirela
Tyler Austin
Mason Williams
Rob Refsnyder
Taylor Dugas
Ramon Flores
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