Fernando Tatis Jr. was born in 1999. Recently, it was announced Acuña was so young he didn’t know who Mickey Mantle was, well, Tatis Jr. is so young he doesn’t know who Mike Trout is. Dude was born like a minute ago, and not a minute as it’s defined in Urban Dictionary, which is a long time, but an actual minute. Tatis’s dad is so young he didn’t even use charcoal as his medium; he used MS Paint. Tatis Jr. looks like an All-Star ready to happen, until the 75th round draft pick, Albert Pujols Jr., comes along and replaces him. Jokes aside, Tatis looks damn near perfect. A lanky Machado maybe, a young Hanley possibly. Like something Ryan Brasier would cover, Tatis looks real and spectacular. I’d say the difference him and his pops is the difference between Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr., but Ken Sr. wasn’t that bad. How about this, the difference between Tatises (Tatii?) is the difference between J.D. Martinez and J.D. Martinez Sr. Was there a J.D. Martinez Sr.? No idea, but that’s the point. FTJ is going to be special. Now Fun the Jewels fast! Now Fun the Jewels fast! Now Fun the Jewels fast! Anyway, what can we expect from Fernando Tatis Jr. for 2019 fantasy baseball?
What we can expect: can you say, “Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s 2018 season?” If you can’t, you might need to see a speech therapist. That’s my biggest concern for FTJ, that we don’t see him at all this year as the Padres bide their time and his service time and artificially suppress him. The best we can hope for is a June call-up, but for that to happen, don’t we have to assume the Padres are contending? If you didn’t laugh at the idea of the Padres contending, your Apple Watch isn’t broken, you have no pulse because you’re dead on the inside. In Double-A last year, FTJ had a 16/16/.286 season with a .370 BABIP. That feels a wee bit high, and his K% was 27.7%. Honestly, those numbers tell me he could use a little more time in the minors, and he and the Padres have nothing but time. To throw it back to the lede, he’s 19 years old! He was eight years old when I started Razzball. I will now laugh myself into a crying fit. The Padres will promote Tatis to Triple-A at some point this year, maybe out of the gate in April. If the Padres start him in Double-A, we have no chance of seeing him in 2019. If he starts in Triple-A, then just maybe he sees major league action this year. Absolutely love him in keepers, and maybe in a 15-team NFBC-type league where you have no waivers all year, but, in most redraft leagues, Tatis is going to be a non-entity this year. For 2019, I’ll give him the projections of 14/3/11/.252/3 in 75 ABs as the Padres give us a taste and prepare us for the 2020 reckoning when Tatis emerges along with Bobby Shmurda.
