I don’t do 1st baseman sleepers because there are none. Okay, I love A.J. Reed like he’s Neve Campbell and Denise Richards and I’m Matt Dillion, but Reed’s a flyer at this point. If you’re drafting a 1st baseman sleeper, you’re losing your league. Who are you putting at 1st? Yonder Alonso? That’s cool. Don’t pay your league fees until the end of the year and then duck out of the country. You feel me? Okay, stop feeling me, that shizz wasn’t meant literally. 3rd basemen are more or less in the same boat, and that boat is the Titanic and if you draft a sleeper 3rd baseman that doesn’t pan out, you’re gonna sink while holding until to a lady named Rose who gets real old looking, but some of youse have corner men in your league, so we may as well look at a few 3rd basemen for s’s and g’s. Good? Good. These are all 3rd basemen that being drafted after 200 overall. Keep in mind, nephew (and five niece readers), your Uncle Grey likes to have a corner man drafted by the time these guys appear, so you’re looking at potential utility men more than anything. Now, this is a (legal-in-all-countries-except-Indonesia) supplement to the top 20 3rd basemen for 2016 fantasy baseball. Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2016 projections. Anyway, here’s some 3rd basemen to target for 2016 fantasy baseball:
Nick Castellanos (Yahoo 292, ESPN 208) Last year in this post I listed: Bogaerts, Bryant, Lawrie, Headley, Moustakas, Yasmany and Castellanos. So, I guess what I’m saying is last year was the year to take a flyer on 3rd basemen. I doubt we have as much luck this year with this post, but out of all of the guys in this post, I’m once again most jazzed about Castellanos. I know what you’re thinking, “How many years can you tout this schmohawk?” It’s true, I’ve touted Castellanos mas anos, but he’s still only 23. If he broke out at the age of 25, he’d still be young, but as I said in my Nick Castellanos sleeper, there’s many reasons to be jazzed like someone named Satchmo.
Pablo Sandoval (Yahoo 206, ESPN 401) Y’all Corleoning me by ranking Sandoval that late, you realize that, right? I mean, I don’t love Cousin Sweatpants and his flexible waistband, but 401 overall? They’ve ranked him after Aaron Altherr (out for four to six months), Max Kepler (an elf) and Martin Prado (who is Martin Prado). In fact (Grey’s got more!), ESPN ranked Cousin Sweatpants almost 100 spots after Martin Prado. Yeah, I’d take that value. And, no, this has nothing to do with Pablo’s annual update that he lost weight this offseason. Though, he does say the weight loss allows him to throw less shade.
Danny Valencia (Yahoo 327, ESPN 230) Like a pyromaniac homeless man’s crib, the A’s have a bunch of garbage, Burns, Reddick and Semien. Should Valencia be the starting 3rd baseman? Prolly not on most clubs, but in Oakland, I don’t see anyone stealing legitimate time from him. Why do we care? Because he hit 18 homers last year in only 345 at-bats. Why don’t we care more? Because he’s 31 years old and last year was a high-water mark.
Jake Lamb (Yahoo unranked, ESPN 402) He’s pegged to platoon, but I don’t see a clear-cut platoon partner for him, so it may not be so baaaaaahd for Lamb. What could be less than ideal is his lack of power. Last year he looked like a poor man’s Freese, I will call him, Putting Ice Cubes In My Underwear In The Summer. Lamb appears to be a guy that could be a huge value grab for NL-Only leagues, but just not particularly ownable in mixed leagues.
Adonis Garcia (Yahoo unranked, ESPN 718) He hit 10 homers in only 58 games last year. Adonis strong! He is also 30 years old, so my guess to what was happening is he’d come up to bat with the bases empty and no scouting report on him and pitchers were like, “Whatever, here’s a meatball, go ahead and say, ‘Hasta la pasta.'” That could continue this year, but more than likely pitchers figure out he’s not very good and stop throwing the aforementioned balls of meat.
