[brid autoplay=”true” video=”1236251″ player=”13959″ title=”2023%20Razzball%20Draft%20Kit%20%20Busts” duration=”237″ description=”Top 5 Busts for 2023 Fantasy Baseball00:16 Michael Harris II00:58 Sandy Alcantara1:31 Josh Hader1:59 Zack Wheeler2:26 Adley Rutschman” uploaddate=”2023-02-06″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/snapshot/1236251_th_1675673583.jpg” contentUrl=”//cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/sd/1236251.mp4″ width=”480″ height=”270″]
Usually only bestow on you one pitching schmohawk. Like a genie giving one wish, and you’re like, “Yo, genie, it’s pretty standard to give three,” and the genie’s like, “Sorry, inflation.” As they say at opposite world’s Wetzel’s, don’t get it twisted, I could drop on you numerous schmohawk posts about pitchers, but can I just point you to my 2023 fantasy baseball rankings and, specifically, my top 20 starters for 2023 fantasy baseball and say look there for the pitchers I don’t like. Also, I won’t give you a closer schmohawk post either, because they’re mostly just SAGNOF, and I won’t draft a closer in the top 100ish. Not really schmohawk’ing to say Emmanuel Clase is overrated. I mean, he is, but not because he won’t be good. He can be good and still be overrated. On the most basic level: A five-category guy vs. a closer? Is that even close? No, it’s not. In one league, I drafted Oneil Cruz the pick after Ryan Pressly. Oneil Cruz who’s going to go 40/40 vs. Pressly who will give you 32 saves. Mmkay. That brings me to Sandy Alcantara, who can also be good just not good enough to be the fourth best starter off the board or to be drafted before pick 30 overall. Sandy Alcantara is one of those where I told you to draft him last year, and prolly would again this year, if he were going around where he was last year. Going back to my Pulitzer Prize-winning theory that every player has a career ADP, and thinking about how Sandy Alcantara went from pick 85 last year to 29 this year. What is his career ADP? Splitting the difference between 80 and 40 is likely the answer, but it’s definitely not 29 for reasons I will get to on the other side of the “anyway.” Anyway, what can we expect from Sandy Alcantara for 2023 fantasy baseball and what makes him overrated?
Sandy Alcantara’s K/9 was 8.2 and BB/9 was 2. Smiling cringe emoji as it stares off in the distance while a glacier melts. If you prefer K% and BB%, then 23.4% and 5.6% with a 17.7% K-BB%. I’ve been saying for years just take the Ks minus the walks and that’s your most rudimentary pitcher rankings. Buddy Gottanewpitcharooski who has a newpitcharooski is fun to talk about for some, but it’s pretty useless for what we’re doing here. One in 100 pitchers who are trying out a new pitch makes that new pitch make a difference. One in a 100 is a made-up number, but it’s here to make a point. How much a guy gets pitchers to swing and miss, or chase or anything else is all to support or refute a very basic-on-its-face K-BB. Whether it’s a K/9-BB/9 or a K-BB%. Sandy Alcantara was the 19th best starter last year for K-BB%. Guess where I ranked him last year? Around the 19th best starter. Has he actually changed from last preseason to this preseason? No, not really. See, when I ranked him last year as the 19th overall starter, I was 100% correct, but he got lucky on BABIP, HR/9 and LOB%.
Looking at Sandy Alcantara’s Statcast slider is funny, because nothing is elite, except for his velocity and Chase Rate. The Chase Rate stands out as a place where things could get better on his strikeouts, but a Chase Rate alone does not make a pitcher. The top five starters for Chase Rate are Kevin Gausman, Tyler Anderson, Corey Kluber, Sandy and Marco Gonzales. Gausman’s numbers stand out as way more elite than Sandy Alcantara, too. The SwStr% is just way better. Corey Kluber and Tyler Anderson are both better than him with Called Strike Rate, too. Marco just gets no Ks whatsoever, but Alcantara isn’t that far ahead of him. Ya know who Sandy Alcantara makes me think of? Nathan Eovaldi if Eovaldi had a very lucky year. Call him Nathan Wholeworldi-in-my-hands.
This means nothing, but I found it pretty funny. On Sandy Alcantara’s Statcast page, it says:
That is so batshizz crazy. Oh, yeah, Brent Suter! Absolutely! Damn it! I just got an eye roll headache. Again, that means nothing, because Gerrit Cole’s page says he’s most like Chad Kuhl, which is effin’ hilarious. Anyhoo! Sandy Alcantara is one of the safest starters to return the value of roughly the 20th best pitcher off the board, but is nowhere near as valuable as the top four starters, and should get the ol’ schmohawk stamp.
