The last few days have been a wild ride for fantasy baseball fans, there has been dread followed by hopeful optimism and then a gut punch with the cancellation of the first two series of the season. However, in the fantasy baseball community, the show must go on. TGFBI began this week so your Twitter feed will likely be full of player pick threads and others discussing their teams. While we still have no idea if and when we will be getting baseball, draft season is going to ramp up quickly.
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Once again I will be using this space to discuss the steals market and how we as fantasy owners can attack the category. One thing we often hear when discussing players is the power/speed combo. Using the Razzball Player Rater dating back to 2017 (I removed 2020 from this analysis), 219 players have hit 10 homers and swiped 10 bags. Among those 219 players, only 20 players had a negative dollar value and all but 82 of them earned at least $10. While many of these players can be drags in other categories usually AVG, the small amount of power paired with the 10 stolen bases goes a long way. Let’s discuss a few names going outside of pick 300 who Steamer projects to eclipse both benchmarks. Overall, there are 69 players projected for 10/10 with 14 of those guys going outside of the top 300 on NFBC.
- Brandon Nimmo (Pick 319) – Nimmo is a high OBP leadoff hitter but I am a bit skeptical that he can reach either of the benchmarks, I am also a bit worried about his playing time with the Mets additions
- Rafael Ortega (Pick 332) – He flashed legit power and speed last season and should see regular PT, I am buying the late career breakout
- Manuel Margot (Pick 374) – I will always bet on the talent here with Margot and he has the ability to go 15/20
- Lorenzo Cain (Pick 402) – Cain is certainly not the same player he used to be, but there should be enough PT to reach these totals and if he does he could be a valuable player this last in fantasy drafts
- Miguel Rojas (Pick 414) – Rojas is as boring of a player as boring gets but while he does not excel in any category the PT is there as there is enough floor across the board to make him a decent bench piece
- Jarren Duran (Pick 427) – Top prospect who struggled in the first go around. The PT is a big question but these are the type of players who can return massive value in fantasy drafts
- Anthony Alford (Pick 527) – Alford is one of my favorite late round draft picks this season. There are massive Q’s like his inflated K% but at this cost there is almost no risk involved, you likely do not need to draft him but you need to be willing to make early moves on him on the wire
- A few other names that Steamer projects to reach these numbers are Victor Robles, Dylan Moore, Michael A. Taylor, Jurickson Profar, Kyle Isbel, Kevin Kiermaier, and Jake Fraley
While you do not want to build a roster around these players, there’s value and upside in each of them and they are valuable payers to keep on your bench to begin the season or to target early on your waiver wires.
