Archive for Outfielders

After being traded, changing leagues and posting his worst major league season of his career, a reasonable person may ask why on earth I’d be buying Allen Craig. His current .237/.291/.348 equates to a brutal 81 wRC+ and he’s still on the disabled list to boot. We can address the DL issue first, as the Boston Red Sox may activate him as soon as Friday. With that out of the way, on to the (potentially over the top) optimism!

The 30-year-old first baseman/outfielder’s rate stats are clearly way off, however many of his peripherals appear to be in line with his career averages.

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For those of you in the race at this point of the season it is a lovely yet frustrating time. In an attempt to help ease your burden of decision making I present two American League outfielders who are somewhat largely available and can help your team in various ways. The percentages next to the websites represent the ownership rate, not their availability.

Dexter Fowler — 15% ESPN/32% Yahoo! 44%/CBS

The Houston Astros activated Fowler from the 15-day disabled list today after missing time with an intercostal strain. He is expected to return to the lineup later today and should reclaim his spot at the top of the order. For fellow on-base percentage league players, Fowler is manna from BB% heaven.  His career 12.5% walk rate helps drive his career .366 OBP. Fowler isn’t known for his power however his OBP and to a lesser extent his batting average should make him a playable fourth/fifth outfielder in all but the shallowest of leagues. One note is Fowler isn’t running as often as he has in previous seasons. Whether the muscle strain prevented him from sliding into bases is a mystery, though it would make sense as I wouldn’t want to dive or slide with an injury. Anecdotal thoughts aside, the lack of the steals doesn’t seem to be a team philosophy as the Astros’ 85 steals is fifth most in baseball. Context is key of course and the team’s 24 CS mean they’ve attempted 109 steals on the year, seventh most in the league. Even without the steals Fowler is an immensely useful player, one who I was far too low on in the early goings. Pick him up to give yourself a boost in the rate stats.

Jarrod Dyson — 4% ESPN/3% Yahoo!/10% CBS

Though he isn’t a full time starter, Dyson brings value to your fantasy team with his legs. His 26 steals are third most in the AL and he has appeared in just 86 games this season. On top of his running game, Dyson has contributed at the plate, hitting a respectable .286/.335/.342 in 218 plate appearances. A .344 BABIP has certainly helped inflate his AVG, however his 63.1% ground ball rate is the second highest in the AL (minimum 200 PAs). Grounders go for hits at a higher rate than fly balls — but less often for extra base hits — and Dyson has been burning worms at an impressive clip. Dyson should find himself in the lineup most days where the Kansas City Royals are up against a right-handed pitcher, but it isn’t a full blown platoon situation just yet. Lorenzo Cain is hitting at a solid rate against lefties and righties, though he has been getting more starts in right field recently. Dyson has started 50 games in center against Cain’s 63 starts there. Dyson has an additional 25 appearances in CF, meaning the Royals are using him as a late inning pinch runner/defensive sub type player. He can still accrue value in a part time role, he’ll just require you to pay that much more attention to your daily lineups.

Rather than get dragged into a pizza-themed battle again, this month’s tiered rankings will be named after my favorite “Futurama” background characters. In order to qualify as a background character, they must appear in at least three episodes and cannot be a main character like Fry, Leela, etc.

Zapp Brannigan

Mike Trout

Still in a tier by himself — despite the recent back pain — even if he does end up on the disabled list. Rather than being his usual incredible self, this year Trout has merely been really, really good. Hopefully his back issues can be resolved without a trip to the DL.
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Welcome back to another year of ranking the American league outfielders! Prepare yourselves for awkwardly shoehorned pop culture references from years past and hopefully a bit of baseball analysis. To kick off the year in style, rather than “tier one, tier two” and boring things like that, I’ll present the tiers in order of my favorite fictional TV/film Presidents of the United States. If it weren’t for that fictional part, Daniel Day Lewis would run away with it for his performance in “Lincoln.”

President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet – “The West Wing“

Mike Trout

You were expecting maybe, uhh, the Addams family? I don’t think I can add much on top of what has already been said, re-hashed, repeated and summarized already. Just know Trout is pretty okay at that baseball thing.
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Either I do way too many mock drafts and have personally skewed the ADP numbers everywhere or the word is out. Mark Trumbo is a hot commodity this season. Though his positioning found here in our “consensus rankings” at both first base and in the outfield  doesn’t exactly scream, “You want Mark Trumbo,” I firmly believe that you do. Read the rest of this entry »

Love ’em or hate ’em, they are the New York Yankees and they are still the face of American baseball. They are about winning, they are about hardware (or bling if that’s the word you prefer) and they are all about the big market spending. But we’re not here to judge right now. Whether you think this year’s plundering of the free agent market was more Brittney Spears “Oops, I did it again,” or more Urkel “Did I do that?”, it doesn’t matter, because this is the fantasy baseball section of FanGraphs and that’s what we’re talking here. Our assignment is to tell you who is in this team’s outfield and what that means to fantasy owners, so let’s bypass the small-market, crybaby tantrums and let’s talk game. Read the rest of this entry »

In every draft you do, there are players who you target and players who you settle for. As we move through these depth chart discussions, it’s good to look at outfields such as that of the Indians, because, while you have your draft strategy mapped out and have your list of targets, something always goes awry and you need to settle for Plan B. Not to worry, though. Plan B isn’t so bad as you have some potential upside. The ceiling has the potential to be high, the floor isn’t too bad and more often than not, they end up somewhere in the middle. These Indians are your Plan B. Read the rest of this entry »

You know a team failed to make a big offseason splash when their biggest highlight is when some Grammy-winning artist from New Zealand says her big hit was inspired by George Brett signing a bunch of baseballs. But so it goes for the Kansas City Royals as they made just a few minor tweaks to get themselves ready for a run at the playoffs in 2014. One of the tweaks, though, was the acquisition of a new right fielder, somewhat of a problem spot for them last season. So let’s take a look at that move and what fantasy owners can expect from the Kansas City outfield this season. Read the rest of this entry »

Heading into the offseason, the Cardinals didn’t seem to have too much work to do with their outfield. Sure, they were set to lose Carlos Beltran, but they had depth within the organization and there hardly seemed to be a need to go fishing on the free agent market. A quick trade to maybe give themselves some improvement in center field happened early in the winter, but everything else was left alone. Now here we are with less than two weeks before pitchers and catcher report and less than a month before position players make their way and there’s still no room for potential rookie sensation, Oscar Taveras. Read the rest of this entry »

When looking for offensive prowess, drafting Texas Rangers hitters tends to be a high priority. It’s a rule of thumb in the fantasy baseball world, practically the yin to the “never draft Rockies pitchers” yang. The dimensions of the Ballpark at Arlington are downright juicy with a 332 ft. left field line, a 325 ft. right field line and the deepest part of the park sitting just 407 ft. away from home plate. It’s a hitter’s paradise. That may tend to inflate the value on draft day of some of their players, but in looking at the Rangers’ outfield, the high picks should be worth it. Read the rest of this entry »