There are no 3rd basemen to target for 2024 fantasy baseball. Thank you, have a good day. *finger to earbud* Okay, I’m being told I need to give you some 3rd basemen to target. Who the hell is this in my earbud anyway? Is this…FUTURE ME?! Or. Dot dot dot. Past me?! Oh my God! Well, whomever is in my ear pulling my strings like a modern-day Geppetto, they’re telling me I have to give you some 3rd basemen to target late. Too bad, because they all suck! Excuse the exposition and this clunky intro into the aforementioned exposition, but here’s the catchers to target, 1st basemen to target, 2nd basemen to target, and shortstops to target. These 3rd basemen to target are being drafted after 200 overall. Hopefully, you drafted Rafael Devers or Jose Ramirez or Austin Riley already, because, otherwise, you’re screwed. There are upcoming RCL drafts, if you wanna get rowdy and/or bawdy. Now, this is a (legal-in-all-countries-except-Indonesia) supplement to the top 20 3rd basemen for 2024 fantasy baseball. Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2024 projections. Anyway, here’s some 3rd basemen to target for 2024 fantasy baseball:
PSYCHE! The first week’s Buy/Sell is already available for Patreon members. It will be released all year early for Patreons, so if people are getting a jump on you, it’s because they paid the $10. Anyway, the 3rd basemen to target:
Junior Caminero (NFBC 228, ESPN 205, Yahoo 236) Gave you a Junior Caminero fantasy, and everything there is accurate still, including the globs of drool I bestowed on our beautiful boy, but ADP is higher than even I have him ranked. One word about ADP, it could change, and people are drafting deeper draft and hold leagues at NFBC, so they’re drafting Junior thinking they stash him on their bench until June. That’s fine in a deep league, but you can’t do that in, say, a 10-team redraft league. Oh, I like Caminero a lot — vroom, vroom! — so if you can stash him, by all means.
Maikel Garcia (NFBC 231, ESPN 236, Yahoo 202) Projections from other people say around 7/23/.270. He’s at an awfully shallow position and should really be the Royals’ leadoff hitter. I know, the Royals like the .210-hitting Melendez there, but Maikel is so obviously better suited for it. So, let’s just galaxy brain 85/7/60/.270/23 onto him. That’s around a top 10 3rd baseman. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger that the 3rd basemen are bad. Instead, start coaching up your son to play the hot corner!
Willi Castro (NFBC 302, ESPN unranked, Yahoo 370) I know what you’re thinking, “Grey, that’s some handsome stuff sitting on your shoulders, but how on earth does Willi Castro get playing time?” Yeah, no doubt. There’s no way, Buxton, Royce Lewis, Wallner, Kepler, Kirilloff or Correa get hurt. Seems impossible–Crap, I’m hearing they just hurt themselves reading about how healthy they feel.
Colt Keith (NFBC 350, ESPN 247, Yahoo 280) So, in October, Itch gives me 25 or so rookies who will be worthwhile for me to write up in the preseason, and I choose about 15 of the 25. Well, one thing led to another and I wrote up an extra one that I didn’t post. It was for, you guessed it. Here is my rookie write up in all its glory:
Colt Keith, better known as Dr. Octagon, Dr. Doooom, Black Elvis, Dr. Ultra, Poppa Large, Dicky Long Docking, Underwear Pisser, lead Ultramagnetic MCs, uh, emcee, famous for guest appearances on Prodigy’s Smack My–Hold up. I’m thinking of Kool Keith. My bad. Colt Keith is a Tigers prospect. Yeah, that’s totally on me. Mea culpa. Here’s what Itch’s said previously (from prior to 2023 season), “A fifth-round pick out of high school in the 2020 draft, Keith signed for $500,000 rather than head to college as most teams had expected. With the exception of a 18-game stretch at High-A to close out the 2021 season, Keith has done nothing but rake for the Tigers. I don’t want to drop a Robert Redford comp on anybody, but Keith looks natural in all his baseball actions. Plate skills aren’t usually so well refined for 20-year-olds, but Keith embodies selective aggression. His 10.2 percent walk rate and 19.4 percent strikeout rate aren’t elite, but they’re extremely good at his age for somebody with his power. In 48 games, he hit nine home runs and slashed .301/.370/.544 with four stolen bases. Might be a buying window in your leagues. I’d love to throw Grey out a window.” What even, man? Then, checking on what Itch said at the end of this season, “Tigers 3B Colt Keith, who I like quite a bit as a player. It’s just that his skill set isn’t a perfect match for 5×5 roto leagues, and the peak (or near peak) of his trade value might be this off-season, given that he checks in at 25th on Pipeline’s list and even higher on fantasy lists after hitting 27 home runs in 121 games across Double and Triple-A at 21 years old. I wonder if he ever swings a bat and hits something and thinks of Grey’s head.” C’mon! So, what can we expect from Colt Keith for 2024 fantasy baseball?
Okay, let’s see some pretty pictures:
Two @tigers top 10 prospects go back-to-back for the @MudHens!
Justyn-Henry Malloy (No. 9) and Colt Keith (No. 2) go yard to take the lead: pic.twitter.com/VDRrcYszld
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) September 1, 2023
Colt Keith is the lefty and 2nd one up there. Here’s another:
Colt Keith hit a no-doubt home run in his first Triple-A at-bat for Toledo. pic.twitter.com/hykdrx8FiD
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) June 28, 2023
This is all you’re going to find with Colt Keith. As Itch said, he’s not a perfect match for 5×5 leagues. He’s got the speed of Albert Pujols running in mud. At 22 years old, I cannot figure out how he’s still in the minors though, because what he does give you (power and solid contact) he’s ready to provide that. He can play 2nd or 3rd. At this point, looking the Tigers, he could their 2nd and 3rd baseman. At the same time. The Tigers have one actual infielder, and, no, I’m not counting Javier Baez. Okay, count him and they’re still missing two infielders. Colt Keith’s last year (as mentioned above) went: 27 HRs, 3 SBs in Double and Triple-A, that was a total of 507 ABs. He hit .325 in Double-A with a 22.8% strikeout rate, and .287 in Triple-A with a 19.3% K%. He also had a 11.6% walk rate in AAA. He hits the ball hard, has no real splits, and plays well enough 3rd base. He feels wildly overdue to be in the majors, almost obnoxiously so.
It’s very hard to predict a guy to start the year with the MLB team if he hasn’t played in the majors yet, but I’m going to say Keith starts the year with the Tigers. Keep in mind that’s a bit of a reach for a guy who hasn’t tasted the majors yet at 22 years of age. If I’m wrong, it’ll likely shave 175 ABs, at least, off his line. For 2024 fantasy, I’ll give Colt Keith projections of 57/21/63/.264/1 in 479 ABs with a chance for slightly more and much less, due to at-bats.” And that’s me quoting me!
Michael Busch (NFBC 408, ESPN unranked, Yahoo 282) Has a former Dodgers’ top prospect done well on another team in the last decade without first doing well on the Dodgers? So that excludes Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger. Just a guy who was a quote-unquote prospect who was traded by the Dodgers while still a minor leaguer. Anyone? I guess Keibert’s been fine for what he is, but that is stretching my definition of “doing well.” With that said, we got Busch, said like I’m doing a staged adaption of Revenge of the Nerds. He should, in theory, have power and decent contact. Think 25/.270, for best case scenario.
Brett Baty (NFBC 417, ESPN unranked, Yahoo 301) “He could be a huge value grab. Think 25 homers, .260. Before you scoff, you freakin’ scoffer, that’s better than Alex Bregman! Out of Jung and Walker, I’m still the lukewarmiest on Baty’s playing time. Lukewarmiest is not related to the Funkdoobiest.” That’s what I said last year for Baty. I don’t quote that to mock myself, though it’s easy with harebrained takes like that. I tell you because it wasn’t that long ago when we were all a little batty for Baty.
