Dart Throws: Wander Franco

With so much up in the air, what better way to spend some time than to think about some dart throws for the 2020 fantasy baseball season when (shut up with your if’s) it starts. Dart Throws, I look at like this — you are drafting and you wanna gamble on someone, but you’re not sure who to gamble on — in these uncertain times, anything could happen, so why not make a few huge swings to see if they pay off? It’s a batter up 3-0 and they guess fastball. If you miss, so what? Count’s still in your favor. These players won’t exactly line up to their projections in my 2020 fantasy baseball rankings. Some of them aren’t even in my rankings. With these darts, I’m aiming for the ceiling. (Good for fantasy baseball, not great for actual darts.) I will also go around the horn with some guys at different positions, though not in order, because I didn’t want to begin with catchers. Enough with your goddamn catchers! If you want this in plain English, I like these players more than my rankings might show as last round sleepers in any league. First up, for this once-was-an-extremely-deep sleeper who is now a gamble-worth-taking sleeper (do you see why I’m just calling them dart throws? Bit easier to wrap your lizard tongue around, you alien freak!) is Wander Franco, the number one prospect on the top 200 prospects for 2020 fantasy baseball. So, about Wander Franco for 2020 fantasy baseball and what makes him a great dart throw:

Before the season was delayed, I didn’t even rank Wander Franco in my top 500 for 2020 fantasy baseball. Wasn’t because I didn’t love what he could do. Don’t suddenly love him now that his first name sounds like a glorious day outside. Won’t now start calling him Shelter-in-Place Franco. How’sever, the minor league season is not happening. I still firmly believe the major league season will happen. That’s because of TV money. Revenue. The cha, and the ching. If they play minor league baseball, no one makes money. Not even the players. There’s no reward for the risk. Was talking to Marlins beat writer, Craigory Mish, the other day about this and he agreed. He hypothesized that the major league clubs would have an extended roster in case they need guys, due to injury. Minor leaguers who aren’t on the roster but are getting workouts at the major league facility and if someone on the major league roster is broken, i.e., in case of emergency, a minor leaguer steps in. They might even rejigger what service time means this year. So, a larger than normal roster at the major league level, say 35-man rosters (with ten guys sitting in the stands to work as replacements and cheerleaders), then another five to ten minor league prospects, who the major league club doesn’t want to lose an entire year of development, will be allowed to workout at the major league park and will be promoted if needed. For minor leaguers, it will come down to this:  Does the major league club want them not playing baseball at all this year? My guess for Wander Franco is absolutely 100% no.

Here’s what our prospect writer, Hobbs, previously said, “Franco comes equipped with an 80-hit tool, 55-legs and 60-power on the 20-80 scale. Although he hasn’t truly tapped into the power yet, there’s no reason to doubt that it won’t continue to develop even through the early stages of his Major League career. As a lifetime .336/.405/.523 hitter in two minor league seasons, Franco batted .327/.398/.487 last year at Single-A And A-Advanced with nine home runs (43 XBH) in 495 plate appearances. With that, he produced a minuscule 7.1 K% against an 11.3 BB%, walking 21 times more than he struck out. Franco has a mature approach and as the top prospect in the game, should be contributing as a Big Leaguer in 2021 and be a potential star by 2023. He’s a sleeper to be the best shortstop in the game come 2023. Speaking of sleepers, I’d like to put Grey to sleep with a forearm smash.” What the hell, my dude! Wander is super borderline for me for 2020, and I think we might not even see him until September of 2021, now that the season is delayed, but, well….I don a N95 mask, sneak up behind someone and scream, “DART THROW!” I’d be shocked to see Wander get major league action this year, but I’d be equally shocked if he’s not on the Rays’ extended roster for 2020, because the Rays won’t want (almost stutterer!) him losing any development time. So, whereas before The Rona, I thought Wander was nowhere near the Rays’ plans for 2020, now I think he’s one injury away from contributing. For a late round flyer, you can do worse.