Last season bought about one of the most talented rookie classes baseball has seen in some time. While the class was strong, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout were the two players who stood out as the future of the game. In 2013, another name joined their ranks. Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado churned out a fantastic sophomore season, which could earn him some low-end MVP votes. It’s fairly rare for players as young as Machado to be in the majors, let alone perform at a near-MVP level. Harper and Trout may have received all the headlines last season, but Machado has forced his way into that conversation after a strong 2013.

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The most polarizing prospects are often those who juxtapose areas of tremendous skill with pervasive, troubling weaknesses. Supporters of such prospects will claim that the strengths will render the weaknesses irrelevant as the player progresses and faces tougher competition, while doubters will claim the opposite. Few players inspire this sort of phenomenon more strongly than Rangers third base prospect Joey Gallo, who launched 38 homers in just 106 games as a 19-year-old with Low-A Hickory…but also struck out a whopping 165 times in that span, good for an astronomical 37% strikeout rate.

It seems absurd to dismiss a teenager who swatted 38 homers in full-season ball while missing 33 games–that sort of accomplishment basically never happens. Had he stayed healthy for the whole season, Gallo almost certainly would have eclipsed the South Atlantic League record of 40 homers in a season, and probably would’ve broken the Low-A record of 42. He already holds the Arizona League homer record, with 18, set in 2012…despite being promoted early and missing 13 games. He has remarkable power. On the other hand, there’s only one player who has ever struck out more than Gallo did in Low-A and done anything in the majors: Russell Branyan, who struck out 38.7% of the time in 1995, then repeated the level in 1996 and set the aforementioned SAL record with 40 bombs.

So, Gallo combines monumental power with a very troubling inability to make contact. Today, I’m going to take a detailed look at what is going on to provide such extreme statistics and see how his skillset needs to evolve for him to attain major league success.

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Wow. You look at that calendar and it just hits you like a ton of bricks. With only about a dozen games to go for each team, this is it. We’ve basically got one more scoring period to go in roto leagues and this is likely it for most head to head championships. It’s crazy how quickly this season seems to have slipped by. But if you’re still looking for that quick fix, that body to fill that roster hole with a splash of productivity, well, we’ll just keep throwing stuff against the wall and see what sticks for you. For my final waiver wire piece of the 2013 regular season I give you a pair of dynamic superstars who could very well be available in your not-so-deep-leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

Any conversation about keepers is always contextual. That is, keeping a player is highly dependent upon their price relative to performance. Duh, right?

I’ll admit that I’m a Ryan Zimmerman owner and about July 1, I’d made up my mind that I was no longer planning on keeping him on my squad and started thinking about other options in the future at third base. And then, of course, Ryan Zimmerman did what he’s doing and that’s hitting the snot out of everything. And now I’m left with a bit of a dilemma.

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We still haven’t even completed the 2013 season yet, but there’s no doubt that some owners are already looking toward 2014 (or, this other sport called “football”). Whether your team has been torpedoed by injuries to Matt Kemp, Albert Pujols and Derek Jeter or you have considered jumping out your window as the owner of BJ Upton and Starlin Castro, it is never too early to start preparing for next year. Every season, there are breakouts and disappointments, some more surprising than others. Unfortunately, human nature is prone to recency bias, the tendency to weight recent events more than earlier events. This causes players coming off breakout/career years to typically become overvalued in drafts the following season. With that in mind, here are three hitters who will potentially be overvalued in your draft next year.

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It would probably be unfair to say that Pablo Sandoval was responsible for the miserable season the San Francisco Giants are having, but it’s certainly true that he hasn’t really helped too much. Early season projections posited a productive year for the Panda — with Steamer suggesting a .298/.358/.502 slash line with 20 home runs and 80 RBI. His body of work to date has his numbers looking so bad that one wonders if he will crack the top 15 options at third base this off season.

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This is now two seasons of Kyle Seager we have under our belts and the two seasons look very similar with modest improvements in some key areas, which has pushed Seager from being a slightly above average major league hitter to a very solid fantasy player.
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It’s time to dive into the free agent pool to make that last push into a money spot in your deep league. September is fast approaching and that’s when a ton of new options will pop up and make a case for significant playing time.

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Alex Rodriguez was The Prodigy, a killer shortstop in his teens that did everything. Then he was The Contract, the super star handcuffing a Texas team from being any better just by virtue of his salary. Then he was The Newcomer, the new third baseman in the Bronx that wasn’t quite a True Yankee, even when he helped bring a title to town.

Now he’s The Heel, possibly ratting on players, inspiring hate from opposing pitchers, hitting home runs and glaring back at the world as he grinds his cleats into home plate. It might be his best act ever.

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While the non-waiver trade deadline failed to live up to the hype, there were many who suspected that August could be quite busy with a number of players expected to be placed on waivers. With that, fantasy owners were going to have to brace themselves for the impending fallout. A month left to wheel and deal was plenty of time to re-shape the landscape of many a fantasy roster and upset the balance of a few league standings. Alex Rios moved from the South Side of Chicago to Texas and it looked as if we were just getting the ball rolling. But the team that has been most active thus far has been those surprising and surging Royals and with a pair of moves to bolster their suddenly struggling infield, fantasy owners are….bored. After a deal with the Twins and a trade with the Blue Jays, there are nothing but yawns in reality and even less for fantasy owners to get excited about. Read the rest of this entry »