The Marlins second best prospect heading into the 2013 season, Christian Yelich was understandably hyped upon his debut with the team last year. He didn’t disappoint, accumulating 1.4 WAR over slightly less than half a season. From a fantasy perspective, he offered contributions in four categories, despite being on the worst offense in baseball. It didn’t lead to a whole lot of preseason love in our consensus fantasy rankings though, as he ranked just 59th. We were all wrong, as he finished 23rd in value, offering somewhat similar production to fellow all-around contributor Starling Marte.

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Michael Cuddyer and the Mets have kicked off the offseason, agreeing to a two-year contract.

Cuddyer spent the last three seasons in Colorado, and it did wonderful things for the right-hander; Cuddyer only managed to play in 49 games in 2014, but he was so productive while on the field that he was nearly a replacement-level outfielder in standard leagues. A healthy Cuddyer in Coors was excellent, but Citi Field isn’t as kind. Coors is consistently the best park in baseball for hitters, but Citi Field is about 10 percentage points worse in right-handed HR park factors, and far worse in terms of singles and doubles. The good news is that playing in New York should be easier than Cuddyer’s time in Minnesota, where he hit 66 homers over his final three seasons with the Twins. Cuddyer was still around his prime then, but at least we have a sample of his skills outside of paradise.

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Coming into 2014, the question wasn’t if Billy Hamilton was going to steal a bunch of bases, the question was how many. I had my doubts he could hit well enough to stay in the lineup. He hit better than I expected and racked up 38 first half stolen bases. Then his production dropped off hard. The number of stolen bases fell to 18 in the second half. While 56 stolen base is nothing to sneer at, people see the possibility of 75+ stolen bases. Will the second half decline continue into 2015?

Hamilton’s 2014 season can be broken down into the two distinct halves.

Half: AVG/OBP/SLG, BB%, K%, SB(SB%),
1H: .285/.319/.423, 5%, 18%, 38 (72%)
2H: .200/.254/.257, 7%, 21%, 18 (69%)

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When a 27-year-old doubles his previous best in homers, seasoned stats lovers everywhere give him the virtual pat on the head. That’s nice, thanks for 2014, but we’re not moving your needle too much in 2015. You won’t be projected to be top ten in the outfield despite coming in second in the end-of year rankings this past season.

But look over Michael Brantley’s particular history — the slowly growing homer totals, and the athleticism he always brought to the table — and it’s tempting to fall in love. What might his regression actually look like, and if it’s a little better than his projections, could he make a sharp pickup in a league full of sharps, all busy patting him on the head?

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Coming into 2014, I was very high on George Springer. After seeing him play in both Double-A and Triple-A in 2013, I was so confident in his abilities that I wrote a column explaining why Springer was still worth drafting and holding in standard mixed leagues, even if he started the season in Triple-A.

The 24-year-old spent exactly 13 games back down in Triple-A to start the season, hitting .353/.459/.647, with eight extra-base hits and four steals. That was enough to convince the Astros to call him up and give him the everyday right-field job. At first, he struggled to adjust, hitting just .182/.262/.218 in his first 14 major-league games. As it turned out, two weeks was about all the adjusting he needed to do.

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We have almost reached the finish line of our position by position player recaps! Today we move on to the outfield, which means it’s time to check in on how I did with my preseason Pod’s Picks. Because there are so many of them, the list was a much better representation of the players I was particularly bullish and bearish on based on my projections.

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The 2014 fantasy baseball season has come to a close, so it is time to look back at the season past and determine which players were the most valuable at each position. Since it’s such a large class, we’ll be focusing on outfielders for a fortnight.

The players were ranked based on their 2014 production, using the evaluation system explained and updated on this site some time ago. The valuations are built for $260 budgets and standard 5×5 roto fantasy leagues, where only one catcher is started. Players are listed only at their primary positions from 2014.

One important thing to note is the premium (or lack thereof) placed on the position a player occupies in your lineup. For example, while a first baseman may be able to accumulate superior overall numbers, the availability of such production lower in the rankings severely dampers the amount the player was worth. These rankings are meant to reflect a player’s value should he have occupied this spot in your lineup for the entire year. A player who missed time due to injury but put up great numbers during his time on the field would be worth less.

This year, I’ve added in RotoGraphs’ preseason consensus rankings so you can see what we thought of each player coming into the year. This ranking can be found in the “Pre” column. “EOS” of course stands for End Of Season, and the rest should be self explanatory.

With all this in mind, here are your rankings. Read the rest of this entry »

Admittedly we’ll be looking at arbitrary endpoints, specifically first half vs second half splits. I’m generally not one to split up a season like this, however with Josh Reddick, looking at his pre and post-All Star break numbers are worth it.

In total, Reddick has posted a decent albeit not great year. He’s sporting a .254/.310/.430 line, equating to a 111 wRC+. Two separate stints on the disabled list — both due to knee issues — have limited him to 375 plate appearances. Only 11 home runs and sub 50 RBIs and runs isn’t something you’d like to see from a corner outfielder, but there is good reason to hope for him. Read the rest of this entry »

Pirates infielder Josh Harrison has come a long way this season. At 26 years old, Harrison has emerged as one of the club’s key contributors. He’ll be relied as such when the team enters the postseason next week. Harrison’s rise to prominence has been one of the year’s biggest surprises. While he had always hit for high averages in the minors, that didn’t seem to carry over during his brief stints in the majors. On top of that, Harrison rarely offered anything in the power department. Considering he was never a top prospect, there are plenty of reasons to doubt Harrison’s recent breakout.

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In his first extended stint of big league action, Kevin Kiermaier has shown a talent for hitting right-handed pitchers. To say a left-handed hitter can do damage against opposite-handed pitching is no new development, but Kiermaier has seemingly flown beneath the radar.

The 24-year-old has made it into 99 games thus far and has accrued 336 plate appearances. His overall .262/.314/.452 isn’t too inspiring, although his numbers versus righties is a strong .282/.340/.498, good for a 139 wRC+ in 267 PAs. Of his 10 home runs, nine have happened while facing a righty. The table below displays some relevant splits.

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