And so it begins, the 2016 season. With three games on the slate today and another 12 on Monday, baseball is upon us. With the beginning of the season also comes clarity as to who’s making the cut for the 25 man roster. Coming out of every spring it’s important to take a moment and assess what players have seen an uptick in value heading into your dynasty league season. These are all players that are on my short list of targets in trades, those that could bring immediate returns in leagues this year. For the most part we’re discussing players that won’t cost you premium dollars to acquire. Some I’ve beaten to death over the last few weeks and others are popping up here for the first time. All in all the goal is to get you thinking about some potential breakout candidates to swoop on. Feel free to share some of your own.
Breaking Camp And Taking Names
Socrates Brito, OF ARI: Have you heard the one about the Philosopher and the Pollock with the elbow injury? Yeah you’ve heard it…I went to pick up Brito first thing Saturday morning in the expert RCL, and Grey already had. So-crates looks like a possible speed-power threat that could see a significant number of at bats in the D-backs outfield. In fact, he’s more than likely starting the season as the everyday centerfielder. I’m not going to sit here and say he’ll duplicate Pollock’s 2015, but he could give you a poor man’s version of that. Something about .280/10/20, this is more than enough from a 3-5th outfielder in deep leagues and dynasties. He’s been covered here, here, and here.
Mychal Givens, RP BAL: I’m going to defer to a very helpful suggestion brought up by super commenter Oaktown Steve on Grey’s expert league post the other day. I actually heeded his advice and went and picked up this lad. The K rates in 2015 were bananas as he posted an 11.4 K/9 in 30 innings with the O’s last year. If you play in 18-30 team leagues with holds, like I do, Givens is a future stud in the making.
Jose Peraza, 2B CIN: Mi Novio, Mi Amor, the speedy devil that stole my heart. I’ve been beating the Peraza drum all camp and it looks like he’s in line to make the team and see at bats in the outfield and infield. It may start slow at first but by the end of May my prediction is he’s playing every day. The speed and bat to ball skills are real. Let’s put this in perspective, prior to the Todd Frazier trade Baseball America rated the speedy Venezuelan the 4th best prospect behind only Corey Seager, Julio Urias, and Jose De Leon in the Dodgers system. That’s the very system they rated 1st overall, and the trio ahead of him are future superstars BTW. I own lots of Peraza shares and in all types of leagues too. Points leagues, Roto, H2H, RCL’s dynasty, deep redrafts, etc.
**Update** All of my hopes and dreams are crushed as Peraza was optioned to AAA Louisville on Sunday**
Tyler Naquin, OF CLE: We’ve discussed this guy ad nausea, no need to delve in any further. Read all the stuff already written about him, and know he’s going to start the year as Cleveland’s everyday CF. Oh, and BTW Rudy picked him as his AL ROY in our preseason prediction post.
Joey Rickard, OF BAL: I talked about him in my sleeper rookie hitter post a few weeks back. He’s not only played his way onto the opening day roster, he’s won the starting left field job outright. This set off a chain reaction of events that involved the Orioles trying “unsuccessfully” to demote Hyun-soo Kim, and him rejecting said demotion. Rickard has no power, but he can run and get on base. Not flashy, but he’ll hit at the bottom of a powerful O’s lineup, maybe he finds himself as a useful source of counting stats.
Ross Stripling, SP LAD: I’m going to go ahead and give a big shout to J-FOH on this one, calling that Stripling would be the Dodgers 5th starter two plus weeks ago. Here’s what Manager Dave Roberts had to say after Friday night’s game “Ross Stripling will open the season as our fifth starter. For us, seeing his four-pitch mix in spring, we feel he can execute a game plan and give us the best chance to win.” This is actually a pretty good summary of who Stripling is, he mixes four pitches well, and is considered a cerebral pitcher that can execute a game plan efficiently. He’s a strike thrower, so walks won’t be an issue, having never averaged a BB/9 exceeding 2.60 in any one minor league season. He’s 26, but lost two years due to TJ, so he’s right where he should be. Worth a flier in deep (20+) dynasty. I like him most in salary cap dynasty leagues where young controllable pitching with a high floor is paramount.
Robert Stephenson, SP CIN: Looks like he’s going to at least make the start in the third regular season game, as for where he goes after that, we’ll see. He had a rough spring; which included a demotion, and recall to the big camp, and a second blown audition for the rotation. Despite all of this it looks like he’s breaking camp with a rotation spot. He’s got big K/9 upside, Grey wrote about him earlier in the offseason in fact. There’s a chance it could be tough to own him, but the love he’s receiving from the Reds is encouraging.
Brandon Drury, 3B ARI: As of writing this I’m unsure whether Drury or the next player discussed Peter O’Brien will break camp with the D-Backs. The announcement is expected this morning, but I’ll be monitoring the situation with obsessive Twitter checking and a Google alert. We can discuss in the comments as the story develops. I’m hoping its Drury, though I own both. It would be grand if he plays a little outfield and a little 2nd while he’s up, and adds three positions of eligibility. I love anybody with pop at Chase, and somebody with multi-position eligibility is even more appealing.
**Update** Drury made the 25 man roster, while O’brien was sent down.**
Peter O’Brien, OF ARI: I guess it all comes down to whether he makes the roster or not. He’s got that country power that makes the balls go boom boom. Seriously, he hits mammoth homers and that sort of power at Chase plays. I’m unsure how many at bats he gets but it wouldn’t shock me if he plays his way into the lineup and sees some time in LF or at DH in AL away matchups. At the age of 25 (he’ll be 26 in July) he’s ready to go, if he doesn’t break in this year with Arizona, I wouldn’t be shocked if he was dealt. He’s a major league player no question. If he still has C eligibility in any of your leagues that boosts his value quite a bit.
Hector Olivera, 3B ATL: I already discussed him in the sleeper rookie hitters post, and he came out of Cuba with a lot of cachet. I’m not sure he’s ever going to be the power hitter we hoped, but he should be a good source of average, in fact he finished second in the Grapefruit League in batting average at .411. If he hits .300 with 14-17 homers that’s not awful.
Jackie Bradley Jr., OF BOS: J-FOH discussed him yesterday and I think he did an excellent job summarizing Bradley. Let’s just say the adjustments he made last year allow him to continue to drive the ball the way he did late-2015 and this spring. Then where does he finish amongst outfielders end of season? I mean if he hits well enough he’ll easily see 500+ plate appearances.
Travis Shaw, 3B BOS: He beat out Pablo Sandoval for the Red Sox starting 3b job. He tore it up late last season then continued it in the spring. Is it possible he figured something out at the plate and is now an above replacement value hitter? It certainly looks that way, and I drafted him in the Razzball dynasty aka The Razznasty in the new player/free agent draft. As a Red Sox fan and a fantasy owner I’m hoping Shaw is a diamond in the rough.
Tony Wolters, C COL: He’s a suggestion sent to me from our former prospector Mike. He’s a converted 2b that was picked up back in February from the Indians, and looks to be the Rockies backup catcher. This means in deep leagues he’s a great bench batty call to shuffle into your lineup when he’s playing at home. I wouldn’t touch him outside a 20 team league with 20+ minors spots though.
Still In The Minors But Definitely On My Tradar…
Nick Williams, OF PHI: Sure he’s technically a top prospect and all but I’m really trying to be aggressive in acquiring Williams in all my dynasty formats. It’s only a matter of time until he’s up with the Phillies.
Sam Travis, 1B BOS: I’m just going to use this as a shameless plug for my post from Thursday. But really why go over it again when I already wrote 800 words.
Nomar Mazara, OF TEX: The closer and closer he gets the more and more excited I get about owning him. I’m trying to acquire him everywhere. He’s probably not going to be up until later this year, but that’s fine he’s crazy young (20), and has put up excellent numbers across all levels.
