In his brief cup of coffee last year, Harrison Bader hit three homers, stole two bases in only 85 ABs. Mr. Prorater says, “He’s a 20 homer, 15 steal guy in a full season of at-bats. Also, if I saved a dollar a day my whole life, I wouldn’t be in hock up to my eyeballs. Prorating sucks!” Damn, Mr. Prorater, so happy and sad — sappy? Nah, prolly not. A 20-homer, 15-steal guy is nothing like what he is though, right? In Triple-A in 431 ABs, he hit 20 homers and stole 15 bags. Okay, that’s spooky like your grandma’s linen closet. “I don’t seem so dumb now, do I? By the way, my mortgage is $3200 a month, so if you hang out for an hour, I’m gonna have to charge you $4.44, based on a 30-day month.” Okay, Mr. Prorater is now getting annoying. Prospector Ralph placed Harrison Bader 29th overall on his top 50 prospects for 2018 fantasy baseball. There, he said, “More than likely Bader will surpass his rookie limits in the first half of next year. My hope is the Cardinals do Bader a solid and trade him to a place he can start opening day. Because, make no mistake, he is ready. Bader’s fatal flaw is his lack of power vs. right-handers, which could see him on the weak side of the platoon early in his career. Grey’s fatal flaw is his hairlip.” Ouch! Totally unnecessary. So, what can we expect from Harrison Bader for 2018 fantasy baseball?
Where’s Harrison Bader playing? Hmm, an interesting pregunta, I sí. Right now, the Cards have Tommy Pham, Stephen Piscotty and Dexter Fowler in their outfield. Bader will be 24 years old in June, and has done enough to start for a major league team, i.e., an affirmative atcha Prospector Ralph. That’s not an affirmative achoo, but gesundheit anyway. Bader literally literally literally does the same thing at every stop in the minors. He’s got the 20/15 on lock. His strikeouts are a little high, however. Last year in his stint with the Cards, he struck out 26.1% of the time, which comes after a 24.6% clip in Triple-A. Like a stereotypical Italian would say, that’s notta so good, maybe you wait for the meatballs. After every brief stint at a level, he does tend to find his sea legs like Russell Crowe in Master and Commander (hey, it’s on in the background). In Triple-A in 2016, he hit .231. Last year in Triple-A, he hit .283. Last year in the majors, he hit .235. In 2018, he could hit .280. P to the erhaps. Where does he play keeps nagging at me, though. I have more question marks than the Riddlers’ leotards about Pham being as good this year as last. As I said during the season, the Cards always seem to have these randos flashing fantasy value only to revert the next year. Also, Grichuk is lurking. Maybe Grichuk is 2018’s Pham. Maybe 2018 Pham is 2017 Pham. (I just confused myself, but let’s continue…) Plus, Tyler O’Neill is lurking. Maybe O’Neill decides to “play right” for the Cards in 2018. I don’t know, but Bader is either going to get 75 ABs this year and just bounce around from the minors to backup major league outfielder. Or Fowler, Pham and Piscotty will get hurt and Bader will see 500+ ABs. I’d put either scenario at 100% probability, which I realize makes no sense. So, 20/15/.260 in 550 ABs, but, for 2018, I’d conservatively give Harrison Bader the projections of 29/10/35/.251/5 in 275 ABs.
