Thus ends my fantasy baseball rookies series. Starting on Monday, I will be releasing into the wild my fantasy baseball sleepers (unless there’s some big trade involving a team that rhymes with Mess). I hope my sleepers don’t immediately turn around and start humping a lamp post. I’ve taught you better, sleepers, don’t embarrass me. For my last rookie to highlight, I was between Garrett Hampson and Peter Alonso. Can you guess which one I chose? Briefly about the process, I like to highlight guys who I am eventually going to include in my top 500 overall for 2019. Honestly, I think I’m going to include both Hampson and Alonso, so I will go over Alonso in my rankings when we get around to those in January. In the end, it was between a Rockies hitter and a Mets hitter, so anyone with any sense in their head would’ve done the same as me. So, what can we expect from Garrett Hampson for 2019 fantasy baseball?
I could say SAGNOF and then talk about how Guy Frieri is Satan for a few hundred words, but Hampson is so much more. Before we get into ‘how much more’ he is, I want to quickly touch on why I’m not overly excited about him. Yes, I received consent first, thanks for asking. I have two words for you: Raimel Tapia. Two more: Ryan McMahon. How about the two words: David Dahl? Anyone ever put together the two words: Tom Murphy, with the other two words: playing time? Garrett Hampson saw 40 ABs last year in 24 games. He had six-tenths of an at-bat a game? Wow, the Rockies HAVE committed to him! If I were to run into 2013 Grey Albright in some kind of weird time vortex, while dining out with that new babe Dr. Who, and 2013 Grey were to ask me, “Is Nolan Arenado going to get playing time as a rookie?” I’d say no, even while knowing that he does get playing time, because I have so little faith in the Rockies. Maybe the Rockies will shock me with Hampson; I hope so. (By the way, I have even less faith in Peter Alonso getting at-bats, but that’s for another day.) Why do we even care about Garrett Hampson if he were to get playing time? He could steal 50 bags with 10 homers while hitting .290. I just gulped real hard. As Romans 8:31 says, “If a 10-homer, 50-steal guy is with us, who can be against us?” It goes on to say, “Make sure to get the thin crust.” Wait, that’s Noble Roman’s pizza at $8.31 with tax. In Coors, you can never be so sure about who will get to double digit homers and a solid average. When you throw in a guy who is as fast as Hampson, he’s on my radar, and should be on yours too, even if I’m realistically expecting under 300 ABs. The always-conservative Steamer gives Hampson 60/8/57/.291/25 in 486 ABs. There is literally nothing conservative about any of those stats. Also, for those who haven’t checked out our Prospect-o-Nator that gives stats for every conceivable rookie, and it loves Hampson, putting him above Vladimir Guerrero Jr. As they say in the Land of Onomatopoeia, that takes the R out of boring! I will be drafting Hampson in every league where he’s available, but I strongly suspect he’s going to be filling out box scores in the minors with Tapia, Murphy, McMahon, Rodgers and every other promising Rockies player, while they bat Matt Holliday third. For 2019, I’ll give Garrett Hampson the projections of 48/4/44/.254/14 in 274 ABs with a chance for much, much more. Actually, three much’s more. That’s mucho much’s.
