Happy Opening Day, everyone! And when I say opening day, of course, I mean the third of three days of teams playing their first game of the season. Annoying, in my opinion, but I’m just trying to just roll with it and enjoy finally having games that count. I’m writing this Thursday morning with just one of those games in the books, but we do have some starting lineups to peruse, and that’s what we’ll be taking a look at this week. I know I’m exaggerating and these guys aren’t actually strangers, but most of them are definitely not close friends, at least when it comes to our familiarity with them as fantasy baseball players. What we’ll do today it check in on guys who are in a team’s opening day starting lineup, but were drafted outside the top 550 based on NFBC ADP (for this exercise, I’m using the last week’s worth of 50-round Draft Champions drafts, which is 19 total drafts). This won’t be for the faint of heart; it’s a true deep league list. And as with most of our deep league treasure hunts, it won’t be easy finding a diamond among the endless piles of rocks, but it won’t stop us from trying. This early in the year, even a semi-valuable gem might be enough to help our teams sparkle as we begin our annual exciting but excruciating 162-game trek through the season.
David Hamilton (#558). This one does not amuse me. I have a couple shares of Luis Rengifo in my deeper leagues, not because I thought Rengifo was gonna be spectacular, but because I thought he’d at least get pretty regular at bats and deliver some counting stats. The fact that he seems behind Hamilton on the Brewers third base depth chart was not a fun opening day surprise for me. It’s hard to get too excited about Hamilton, given what we’ve seen from him in the big leagues so far, but an opportunity from the Brewers combined with his speed could get deep-league interesting in a hurry.
Austin Martin (#564). I grabbed Martin late in a couple of draft and holds early in the offseason, but backed off when I wasn’t sure if he’d get any playing time at all with the Twins this year, especially after being slowed by a concussion late in spring training. So, I was pleased to see that he was not only starting in right field on Thursday, he was leading off. So the good news is that he at least seems to be in a platoon to start the year, and he’ll be at the top of the order against lefties. The bad news is it’s the short side of the platoon, and his opportunities will come against some of the best pitchers in the league.
Nathan Church (#577). For the first time that I can recall, the Cardinals offense heads into the year unsettled and unproven, to say the least, from a fantasy perspective as well as a real life one. With Lars Nootbaar down, Church drew the opening day assignment in left field, hitting seventh. In a tiny, 56 at bat sample size last year, Church had 18 strikeouts vs. 3 walks and hit .179, so we’ll see if greener pastures lie ahead in 2026.
Andres Chaparro (#659). We’ve got back-to-back right handed Nats, as Chaparro was Washington’s opening day starter at first base, hitting second no less. I don’t think there’s going to be anything resembling significant deep league value here, but I did draft him as a bench bat in one of my deepest leagues. I think what we’re learning here is that it might be a long year for the Nationals, but that us deep leaguers may need to monitor what’s going on with their lineups when we’re desperately searching for at bats this season.
Andrew McCutchen (#712). You can debate whether his age or his utility-only status makes Cutch a bigger liability, but you can’t debate that he’s no stranger to any of us, and that he was firmly planted in the middle of the Rangers opening day lineup, hitting fifth. I almost drafted him at the very end of my last 50-rounder, and am now thinking I probably should have over whatever random minor leaguer I picked that likely won’t see a major league at bat this year.
Everson Pereira (#847). I don’t think I had a league where Pereira was drafted, but the numbers tell us he was chosen in 4 of those 19 NFBC leagues with a high pick of 653, a low of 730, giving him an overall ranking of 847. That number, though, doesn’t change the fact that Pereira is batting seventh for your Chicago White Sox and started in right field on opening day. You don’t wanna know his average or strikeout rate over his 176 MLB career at bats, so I’ll just mention that he’ll likely get a decent amount of playing time over the new couple weeks after temporarily moving up the depth chart with Brooks Baldwin and Kyle Teel hurt.
Joey Wiemer (#953). I had Wiemer in an NL-only keeper league years ago, and held way too long as he never quite got it going with the Brewers. Since then, he’s been a Red, a Marlin, and now a National. He was Washington’s starting right fielder on Thursday, and batted sixth, which was one spot ahead of C.J. Abrams if you’re keeping track. He’s another guy who may only face lefties for the most part, but in those perhaps limited at bats we’ll see if the fourth NL team is the charm.
Ryan Vilade (UNDRAFTED in those 19 total 50-round NFBC leagues). We’ll close this post with the deepest dive we’ll take this week, and perhaps for a while, to mention Vilade. Not only was he the Rays’ opening day left fielder, he hit second in between Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda. Rays gonna Ray, and as much as anything else, this is a reminder of how difficult it can be to roster many of them even in medium-deep leagues.
That’s it for this week, as we settle in to watch those beautiful yet frustrating first games of the season after so many months of waiting. Happy opening week, and thanks for reading!
Good stuff Laura! Appreciate the bits o’ tid!
Wait until you see who’s hitting third for the Royals today