The resources available to the regular fantasy baseball player are endless. Projection systems have become even more sophisticated, and the level of advanced analysis is, quite honestly, breathtaking.
However, just like you don’t need a sledgehammer to crack a nut, you don’t always need sabermetric evaluation to make routine decisions.
Just to be clear, we are not proposing that you use this strategy for more than a couple of players. But sometimes, you need to go with your gut instinct rather than an endless array of wOBAcon spreadsheets.
PLAYERS THAT NEED MORE FANTASY LOVE
Last year, this section included NOAH SYNDERGAARD who had declined an $18.4M qualifying offer and signed with the Angels for $21M (and a second-round draft pick). 24 starts with 3.94 ERA was better than projected. Unfortunately, our faith in HYUN-JIN RYU to bounce back from a disappointing 2021 was unfounded. His season lasted just 27 innings.
This year, we like DREW WATERS of the Kansas City Royals. Centre fielder, Michael Taylor was traded away to Minnesota, suggesting that the Royals are happy with their in-house options. It is unclear how the playing time will be divvied up between Waters, KYLE ISBEL, EDWARD OLIVARES, and NATE EATON, but initially, it looks like Waters will get 80% of the time in centre. The part-time role didn’t work for Waters in 2022, although he still posted a decent .802 OPS. We are optimistic that his 22 home run/28 stolen base campaign of 2021 can be replicated at the major-league level.
More suggestions to follow
PLAYERS THAT NEED LESS FANTASY LOVE
We are going to take a win and a loss with our 2022 selections. We put too much weight on the White Sox’ decision not to extend a qualifying offer to CARLOS RODON. Bad move by them and poor choice by us. However, we urged you not to invest an early pick expecting 30-plus bags from STARLING MARTE. Despite coming off a tied-career-best 47 stolen bases, Marte was now under instruction from new boss Buck Showalter, and one thing Buck doesn’t like is base stealers. The projections had Marte pencilled in for 35 bags; despite a great season, he managed just 18.
Our 2023 suggestions will follow here shortly.
Featured image photo by Ron Vesely/Getty Images
Deep League Roto 