Yeah, it’s a reach, I’m not sure in what universe “cantara” is anyway in shape or form like a “penny” but to get the quote completely wrong, we’re not doing this live so ef it. Yeah, apples to oranges reference, but at least it’s still a fruit, amirite? So, ahem, what’s up with Sandy Alcantara? I mean, I’m not saying there’s been a headline you missed or some big news about this or that, but I’m just asking, why is Alcantara continuing to fly under the radar? Well, that’s an actually easy question to answer, it’s probably because he’s just a dude who throws two pitches with control issues. Maybe the next question might be for me, as in why am I covering a pitcher and to one go one step further (NOT TWO STEPS YOU GET ONE) why am I covering pitcher that you might not want to care about? And that answer is obvious too! I care! Therefore, by the rule of content creation, I believe you should care too, and if you do care, you should join me after the jump! (No physical jumping necessary.)
So we all know that sand is coarse, rough, irritating and it gets everywhere. Don’t let that fact hold you back from liking Sandy though. Sandy Alcantara, as I have already mentioned, does in fact have some rough edges. But we wouldn’t be seeking value anywhere else! One of those rough edges that everyone should already know about is that he has walk issues. Back in 2018, his BB/9 sat at an impressive (regressive? ridiculous?) 6.09. 2019 saw a still yuck 3.69, but hey, that’s a huge drop (small sample size withstanding). And then just last year in 2020, he managed to get that number down to 3.21. And also think about this non-chicken nugget, while he has walked a lot historically, so far this has not affected the ability to net innings pitched, hitting a very nifty 6.13 IP/GS, good to be in the top-15 last year.
Another caveat is of course my proclamation above that he is being heralded at the moment as a bullpen option, which would seriously diminish the value sweet spot I normally focus on. In your general fantasy leagues, I have no doubt that there will always be at least 10-15 “bubble” starters out there on the wire with their own different set of profiles that you’ll want to keep an eye on, and in that case I think Alcantara should be on that list. Bullpens, when given enough time, get very interchangeable with the back-end of a rotation. Even if you aren’t convinced that Alcantara is not starter material, I guarantee you that he’ll still net starts just out of playing during a full season and the fact that he has shown that pitching almost seven innings is a non-issue in most cases. That may not be enough to offset someone’s worry, but on a very non-analytical level, there would be no reason to swear off a 25-year-old from the rotation. This is still the Marlins, but he’s certainly not hurting his cause, striking out nine with zero walks and no runs given up in his last Spring Training start on Wednesday. (70% of pitches thrown were strikes.)
Now, I know different sources are stating different things from potential bullpen piece to back-end starter, and even one platform saying he’s in the running for opening day starter, perhaps this wild spectrum of possibilities is the reason why rankings and ADPs are not reflecting a sought after player. Another reason may be the “sleeper” status of one Elieser Hernandez. And some of the topics I’ve touched upon with this post.
But take this interesting point as a way to kind of shift the fantasy zeitgeist (oooo, I found a way to use that word, finally!) and that is while Alcantara only throws essentially two pitches (a sinker and slider), he throws them from so many arm angles, he essentially is working hitters with four different pitches when he mixes in a standard fourseam (which spellcheck wants me to spell as “foursome” which is totally cool. Hey baby, how you doin, what’s your definition) fastball.
So we have a dude who isn’t getting drafted, isn’t getting noticed, who only throws two pitches and will be in the bullpen for most of the year. OR we have a dude who you draft that will get noticed, who throws something like four pitches because of his own talent, and might end up an important starting piece in the Marlins rotation. I know this is quite the fork in the road, but if there’s little to no risk, why wouldn’t you go left when everyone else goes right?
That’s the Kansas City shuffle. And I have no idea why I ended the post with this reference, but like I said earlier and I guess backwards, ef it, we’re doing this not live. And maybe I should rewatch Lucky Number Slevin. I remember being pleasantly surprised, maybe that’s the lesson. The surprises we made along the way…
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell. You can follow him @jaywrong.
