Austin Wells’s middle finger: How does your approach in a draft-and-hold change when going from a 15-team to 12-team format?
1:08
Paul Sporer: Fitting username there as I think you can push a catcher a little more and not get crushed. There’s still a bottom of the barrel and just because it’s higher in 12s doesn’t mean you’re OK taking the last 2 Cs off the board, but I’m less inclined to push my stud C up whereas in 15s, I’ve never been shy about a premium C. You’re going to have richer benches so you can open up the risk profile a bit, but I still wouldn’t limit the prospects and injury specs bc you still can’t add guys.
1:08
Matt: Lindor down right after the Ottoneu drop date. Feeling confident in him being back by the 2nd or 3rd week? Probably don’t need to go crazy with a backup at auction?
1:18
Paul Sporer: Yeah I wouldn’t bend over backwards. Get a boring starter maybe so you’re at least clocking volume if he does miss longer than expected?
1:18
Billy Marlin: So will Sandy return to form this year?
Prospects have become increasingly important to winning re-draft fantasy leagues. Of course, they have always been major in-season acquisitions, but now they’re making their presence felt at the draft table, too. With more fantasy managers aware of the prospects who are likely to have an impact in a given season, the battle for their services has become much more fevered, leading some managers to stash desirable prospects for a month or two rather than try to pluck them off the wire once they are called up and risk missing out.
These guys aren’t draftable in every format, but I cast a wide net so that the list has utility across many formats and can be revisited when those players who don’t break camp on a big league roster are called up. All of them should be in the majors for a substantial portion of the 2026 season. It is worth familiarizing yourself with them now so that you’re ready to bid on the ones who aren’t draftable in your particular league.
As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment below with fantasy questions.
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T-Bone is the villain: Do we think the Green Monster will completely screw Durbin’s power, or will the increase in doubles and babip, etc make up for the probably HR dip?
1:16
Paul Sporer: Ya I think it will definitely eat up some of his HRs, but the trade off could easily be a substantial AVG boost (10+ pts) as he just peppers the Monster with 1Bs/2Bs
1:16
Troy Melton’s Broken Pathway: What are your thoughts on the Tigers rotation upgrades this week? …and Reese Olson 🙁
Every year we see throngs of late round arms put up huge fantasy seasons. Injury returners, rising rookies, and out of nowhere gems are just some of the paths we see pitchers take from a post-300 ADP into the top 50 SPs. Last year saw Ranger Suárez, Matthew Boyd, Zach Littell, Ryne Nelson, and Shane Smith deliver a ton of fantasy value from outside the Top 300, among many more who had periods of viability that could’ve been curated into some better numbers than their final season line.
Let’s build a 15-team roto rotation comprised entirely of post-300 picks with seven starters and two relievers. We’re going to look for an ace, some strong frontliners, a few team streamers, a swingman lottery ticket, and then our closers. I’m not just going to take all the 300-310 ADP guys, either. For one, it’s cheap and doesn’t really explore the pool if I stay entirely at the top end, and two, these guys could easily move into the top 300 by peak draft season in March. I’m using NFBC ADP Draft Champions data from January 19th-February 9th, a 20-draft slice.
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Ace (#1)
Finding a bankable ace this late in the draft is remarkably difficult, so we’re looking for ace material. In this case, I’m looking for a guy who can put up 130+ IP of good ratios (let’s say sub-4.00 ERA/sub-1.20 WHIP), strikeout upside (~22-24%), and some Win potential (definitely not a prerequisite). Only 29 pitchers reached the ratio thresholds in 130 IP last year, though most of the guys in our ADP threshold were on the lower end of the K% band. Shane Smith’s 24% mark was the best of the post-300 group meeting these ratios.
