Imagine I wore glasses. Don’t, but imagine I did. Okay, sometimes I do, but usually I wear contacts. So, I’m wearing glasses and I’m Burgess Meredith and there’s no one else in the world besides me. I finally have time to read about sports, specifically news about the New York Yankees. Why Yankees news? I don’t know, but imagine it! I’m humming New York, New York, and reading about the Yanks, when DJ LeMahieu signs with the Yankees. Just as I’m reading where the Yankees plan on playing him, my glasses fall and shatter. Since no one else is in this world, I’m doomed to never know where LeMahieu will play when Didi returns. Unable to read anything again, I scream, “Giancarl-NOOOOOOOO!!!” That’s what it feels like. I’m in some weird Twilight Zone episode where I’m the only one who heard DJ LeMahieu signed with the Yankees. Y’all hear about this or no? I’d even accept, “Giancarl-no.” Okay, assuming you people — yeah, you people! — heard about this signing, where is Gleyber Torres playing when Gregorius returns in June/July? 2nd base? Okay, is LeMahieu never playing again? Because, at last glance, LeMahieu stays fairly healthy. Are you thinking Miguel Andujar is benched? Hmm, okay, what if he’s not? Luke Voit’s benched? Okay, maybe, maybe not. A giant five-man platoon for four infield spots? I know Tulowitzki has a tattoo that reads, “Fra-jeel-lay,” but what if he’s healthy? A six-man platoon for four spots? Gleyber Torres is really going to get 155+ games played? Not to answer, but to ruminate. So, what can we expect from Gleyber Torres for 2019 fantasy baseball and what makes him overrated?
Let’s break Gleyber Torres down quickly, then we’ll backtrack and finds out what it all means…WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?! This is an info dump: He had a 18.8 degree launch angle, that’s upper-cutty. He had a 42.7% fly ball rate, 34th highest in majors for guys with 450 PAs. His HR/FB rate was 17.9% and 40th highest. His line drive rate was 24.5%, and 33rd in the majors. Exit velocity was 88.7 MPH and 6% rate of barreling up the baseball, both middle of the road for middle of the bat. 396 feet on average per homer, neither here nor there. Well, it was here, then it was there *points over fence* 24 times. He stole six bags, could have ten-steal speed. His 2nd half was bleh, hitting .249 with 9 HRs and 4 SBs. Finally, he strikes out a decent amount (25.2%). If I had to narrow down his last year I’d say, he hit a decent amount of line drives with developing power, but hit a wall in the 2nd half, which was hurt by his swing and miss tendencies. However, he’s a mere 22 years old. So, he could burgeon or…what’s the opposite of burgeon? Let’s say it’s dungeon. So, burgeon or dungeon? Steamer has his projections at 75/23/79/.257/9, his current ADP is 68 overall. His stat line would put him in line with other middle infielders like Jonathan Schoop (181 ADP), Jorge Polanco (220) and Amed Rosario (145). Anything jump out at you? Gleyber is crazy overrated, as far as Steamer is concerned. I agree. I’m not writing Gleyber off for his career, but there’s no room to struggle as I mentioned in the 1st ‘graph with the playing time issues, and his swinging and missing could produce more growing pains than Mike Seaver when he stays home from school and has an existential crisis. There’s not enough here for me to see a 6th round pick in a 12-team league. Maybe he’ll be Gleyberry BFD at some point, but right now he’s a Gleyber work stoppage, stamped: SCHMOHAWK.
