Here’s people looking for only fantasy baseball prospects with 70 or higher grades when they see Brandon Lowe: *eyes bug out, let out a long-winded pfft and turn the page to something else* Well, joke’s on you, there’s no page to turn to, you’re reading this on a computer screen, doofus! To the rest of you who are still here and not concerned with a guy being labeled ‘big-time prospect,’ make yourself at home, because we’re talking about guys who can actually help you for 2019 fantasy baseball and not in seven years when you’re even more bald. One quick side note (as if the rest of this was on topic), don’t tell Prospector Mike but Rudy and I were talking recently and the gist of the conversation was, “Is it me or does it seem like for every prospect that breaks out seventeen of them you need to wait on?” “Lucas Giolito.” “Yup.” “Member when people were excited about Scooter Gennett four years before he was good?” “You made that point already.” “How about Luis Castillo?” “Same point again.” “Tyler White was an overlooked 33rd round prospect!” “Please stop with the same point.” “Don’t worry, Rudy, this is simply a conversation that won’t ever see the light of day on the site, so I can make the same points repeatedly.” As you can see, we’re jaded, ya’ll! I love the rookie nookie hype, but Brandon Lowe or Bo Bichette for just 2019? If you were to just look at their prospect grades, you would think it was clear cut for Bichette. Anyway, what we can expect from Brandon Lowe for 2019 fantasy baseball?
Last year, Brandon Lowe came into his own in Triple-A banging out 14 homers in only 205 PAs. We haven’t seen 205 PAs since James Cameron’s last film. Lowe continued to stream big torrent of a power in the majors, hitting six homers in 129 ABs. Yo, Lowe, you 30-homer hitter? Nah, he looks like a 379-foot home run hitter. His HR/FB% was high last year (25% in AAA and 18.8% in majors) for him. Methinks at least, as I speak like a leprechaun. He looks more like a 18-24 homer hitter. He’s also a lefty, and a team like the Rays cannot help themselves from benching him vs. lefties. Might be for the best since his splits suggest it in the majors, though he hit .270 vs. lefties in Triple-A last year and .301 vs. lefties the previous year. Hard to say, but I can’t imagine the Rays just play him 100% of the time. He might need Kevin Kiermaier to get injured, so Tommy Pham can move to center and Lowe can play left before Lowe even sees the light of day (not the film starring Micheal J. Fox in his dynamic, dramatic star turn). Thankfully, Kiermaier injured himself once telling a trainer, “No, I’m not injured.” Also, Lowe has flexibility to play in the infield and outfield. For 2019, I’ll give Brandon Lowe the projections of 42/18/57/.254/5 in 412 ABs with a chance for more. Brandon Lowe feels like a guy who will be very helpful in AL-Only leagues and very deep mixed leagues while bouncing on and off waivers all year in shallower mixed leagues, whether that’s warranted or not. Listen (you), Mallex Smith bounced on and off waivers for the better part of the year in shallower leagues, so it’s no knock on Lowe. “Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “I saw no reason to knock on Lowe, so I knocked on the door.” “Okay, I don’t who that is so I’m not opening the door.”
