November ADP Market Report: Shortstops

With drafts beginning to ramp up, it is important to monitor where players are being draft on a regular basis. Throughout draft season, I will be doing that work for you with regular updates on the Average Draft Position on NFBC up until Opening Day.

Top 100 Players Rising

None

 

Top 100 Players Falling

None

 

Top 200 Players Rising

Dansby Swanson (+13.18)- Swanson is closing in on being a top 100 after a season in which he was the sixth shortstop in fantasy. He posted a career high in average, OBP, and slug while hitting 10 homers and stealing five bases. Swanson paid off for a lot of fantasy players in 2020 considering he was going out of the top 250 for most of the draft season, the question becomes whether he can stay on the field for a whole season as he had yet to do that in the Majors before the abbreviated season in 2020. 

Jorge Polanco (+10.37)- It is a bit weird to see Polanco rising up the ADP considering how poorly he performed in 2020. In spite of playing in 55 games, he only hit four home runs and stole four bases. His on base percentage was just .304 which dropped over 50 points from 2019. His BABIP could explain some of the drop in average, but he also had a spike in ground balls and loses in his exit velocity and barrel percentage. Considering the options at shortstop, it is hard to want to draft him if he continues rising. 

 

Top 200 Players Falling

Jonathan Villar (-11.27)- See the article in this series on second basemen. 

Tommy Edman (-11.29)- See the article in this series on second basemen. 

 

Top 300 Players Rising

Ha-Seong Kim (+59.95)- Kim had the largest jump of any hitter over the month of November and that is not surprising. Kim has been a star in the KBO and was expected to be posted in November. He was officially posted on December 7th and must sign by January 1st. He has shown power and speed in the KBO, hitting 30 home runs and stealing 23 bases, with a .306/.397/523 triple slash in 138 games in 2020. It is hard to know how the power will translate, but reports are that his defense and speed should translate fairly easily and he it won’t be surprising if his ADP is top 150 or even top 120 in the next installment of this series. 

Paul DeJong (+16.55)- DeJong had a disaster season in which he hit only three home runs and stole just one base in 45 games. DeJong was a victim of the circumstances of the Cardinals season in which they were forced to play 11 doubleheaders to make up for games missed due to COVID. He hit 30 homers and stole nine bases in 2019, so he has the upside to pay off big considering his 216 ADP. 

 

Top 300 Players Falling

Wander Franco (-30.86)- It is a bit surprising to see Franco dropping considering he is widely considered the #1 prospect in both baseball and fantasy and he was reportedly close to making his Major League debut at the end of the season or the playoffs. Typically, this is the type of player that would have a top 150 price tag coming into draft season. The drop may have to do with the fact he is a Rays prospect and they will likely not bring him up early to preserve his service time. There have also been reports that his StatCast data from the alternate site was disconcerting with a subpar exit velocity and a Yandy Diaz-esque launch angle of 1.2 degrees. I would expect his price to increase as draft season rolls on, but if it doesn’t the gamble isn’t an expensive one and there is a ton of promise in the profile. 

Chris Taylor (+18)- See the article in this series on second basemen.