It is time for the knockout rounds of Hitter Profiles for the 2021 fantasy baseball season. Although Jose Bautista vs. Rougned Odor might be our favorite type of knockout battle, it does not have nearly the value for an article as a comparison of two key players near each other in the season to date results. This week, we grab two central division corner infielders and two AL outfielders to go toe to toe and make the call for who will help our fantasy lineups for the rest of the 2021 season. Now that I have successfully worked in my annual quota of Rougned Odor into the intro of an article, let us get started with Josh Donaldson and Colin Moran.
Josh Donaldson vs. Colin Moran
Colin Moran has gotten a fair deal of early-season love or as much as can be given to a corner infielder in Pittsburgh. Despite his recent injuries, a productive early 32 games have given us a .297 average and 19 RBI but limited power and speed. On the flip side, Josh Donaldson has performed admirably in run production with 18 runs and 20 RBI despite a lackluster .236 average.
In this battle, we have two different sides of the luck spectrum. Moran has been lifted by a strong .392 BABIP masking a rising K rate of nearly 28%. Digging deeper, he has very few notable statistics showing promise for the rest of the year. Alternatively, Josh Donaldson has made a clear adjustment at the plate resulting in a career-best K rate thanks in part to his willingness to attack pitchers early in the count. After a down 2020 season, he appears to be picking up where his 2019 season left off.
On this battleground, the knockout goes to Josh Donaldson as we profile the rest of the season with a strong potential. Colin Moran will maintain value as a plug-and-play bench bat, but now might be the time to buy-low on Minnesota’s third baseman.
Kyle Tucker vs. Randal Grichuk
There is nothing more fun than doing a good old player comparison, so let us indulge in the following two AL outfielders:
- Player A – 22/9/37/.270/0
- Player B – 32/10/28/.233/5
I run my own player rater behind the scenes on all of my rankings and these two gentlemen sit directly next to each other in the mid-50s for the overall season. There are a few obvious differences as Player A is a big-run producer and brings a solid average while Player B is a bit of a drain on the average, but the speed plays. So, for the big reveal! Player A is the pride of (not) Toronto in Randal Grichuk and Player B is AAA 30/30 all-star Kyle Tucker. Coming into the season, Tucker had the hype train and was going remarkably high in drafts while Grichuk was a bit lost in the lineage of Vlad, Bo, and Cavan in Toronto.
As we look towards the rest of the season, I believe Randal Grichuk can maintain his profile and continue to be a valuable contributor as he has been for several seasons. That said, I do substantial profile changes driving him to bud into a full-blown star, but rather remain a meaningful piece of our fantasy lineups. On the other hand, Tucker has been quite unlucky to start the year with a .226 BABIP driving his .233 average despite having a top 4% xBA at .307. Moreover, his entire hitting profile could be considered in the top 10 of the league:
There are no losers in this knockout, but there is a clear winner in Kyle Tucker. If you bought the preseason hype, kudos to you as this is first-round talent any day of the week.
