Brent Honeywell, 2019 Fantasy Outlook

Can’t stop, won’t stop, making these bad boys all about fantasy baseball rookie hitters, but every once in a while you need to remove the blinders and look at a pitcher.  This doesn’t mean get totally enamored by pitchers.  Like Teddy KGB would say in a terrible Russian accent, “Nyet, nyet, nyet!  You sons of beeeeech, you tricked me, nyet!”  We must focus on hitters, but sometimes a great pitcher comes along, and we have to take a peeksie-poo.  Brent Honeywell is one such pitcher.  Three quick GIFs, from me to you.

I have a big takeaway from these GIFs.  Honeywell looks pretty low energy like Jeb!  Whether it’s the fastball in the first two GIFs or the bye-bye junk in the third GIF.  You gotta feel bad for the hitter when he gets to the third drop-off-the-table-snap-don’t-need-no-police-just-stay-off-my-back-or-I-will-attack-with-an-offspeed-pitch-that-you-won’t-smack pitch.  That’s only two pitches of his possible six pitches.  The last one, which I can’t stop watching, is just unhittable.  Looks like a circle change to me, but he’s got so many pitches in his repertoire — change, curve, fastball, screwball, cutter, knuckle-curve — who knows what he’s throwing, the hitters definitely don’t…Confession Alert!  What you just read was my 2018 Brent Honeywell outlook post.  This is the problem with rookies and pitchers, specifically.  No one knows anything (RIP William Goldman) about when they will be promoted or play productively for that matter.  Of course, even less people can predict Tommy John surgery.  Though, a big hint is, “Is the guy currently in Dr. James Andrews’ office?”  Honeywell should be back some time around May/June, so…Again, with some oomph:  So, what can we expect from Brent Honeywell for 2019 fantasy baseball?

Pitchers are so unpredictable it’s hilarious that I went out of my way to show you how low effort Honeywell is and he gets tagged for Tommy John surgery.  Either way, he had successful surgery on February 27th of last year, so figure 14 months and he’s back *counting on fingers*  That gets him on the major league mound end of April, if you trust counting a thumb, which is so much more than just a finger, and if Honeywell were to go straight from Tommy John to the majors, which I can’t imagine in any scenario.  That means you put him in the minors for how long before he’s called up?  Four weeks?  Six weeks?  Eight weeks?  This is illustrative of the problem with projecting rookies. The only reason why we’re even here talking about Honeywell is because I think he can be a top 20 starter when he’s healthy.  His stuff is just that intense.  Here’s what I said last year (sorry, but it all really is applicable since he didn’t throw one pitch last year), “He’s thrown around 120 innings for three straight minor league years across different levels.  At each one, his K/9 has been above 10+.  Last year in Triple-A at 22 years of age, he had a 3.64 ERA, 2.77 xFIP with a 11.1 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 123 2/3 IP.  On an organization that promotes a bit more aggressively, he’d likely be on his 2nd year of the major leagues.  The Rays have dragged their feet on him so badly that his dynasty owners likely have a class action lawsuit pending if Honeywell isn’t promoted this year.  “Your honor, on behalf of Honeywell’s dynasty owners, we have lost two years of fantasy prize winnings because the Rays have not promoted Honeywell.”  Then later in the trial.  “Can you explain your relation to the Honeywell dynasty owner?”  “I’m his mother.”  “Okay, isn’t it true the plaintiff has not been able to move out of your basement because of missing out on his fantasy prize winnings, due to Honeywell’s lack of promotion?” Now that I write this out, how has no one sued yet because they lost their fantasy league due to a player’s performance?  Even if you’re like me, and you think an 11 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 becomes a 9.5 K/9 and 3 BB/9 in the majors, um, that’s still wonderful.”  And that’s me quoting me!  Last year, I projected him for 102 IP, but, with the surgery, I’m going to trim back a hair like taking an extra fuzzy peach to Supercuts.  For 2019, I’ll give him the projections of 5-3/3.82/1.32/94 in 88 IP.