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We. Are. Back! Round 2 of my Ambulance Chasers takeover is underway as Grey has not halted access to WordPress (yet). Last week’s piece covered injured players I am actively fading this season which you can find here. My thought process is somewhat simple on buying into “bounce-backs” or players on the upward swing post-injury. […]

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The draft has come and gone and as many suspected, LSU’s Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews went off the board with the first two overall selections. For many, those two prospects instantly became the most sought-after in dynasty leagues and first-year player drafts alike. Alas! How could thee thinketh otherwise? After all, generational prospects, as they’ve been labeled, are likely to cause such a reaction. And perhaps it’s for good reason. Sure, Skenes is a great choice at No. 1 in a first-year player draft. But I get up on my rooftop at this time every summer (it takes me roughly that long to tear down the holiday lights), and remind our readers that draft position should not dictate FYPD board position. There are many, many places to find and steal value along the way. Maybe there’s a bat that went outside the first 18 picks that you should consider in your top five players overall. Or a mid-second-round diamond in the rough that fell 20 spots past where he probably should have. It’s all about being creative and better informed than those around you. In this week’s column, we’ll break down five FYPD sleeper sticks from the 2023 college draft class, followed by another five to keep your eye on.

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It took six picks for a college prospect to come off the board at the 2022 MLB Draft in Los Angeles, but a string of eight-consecutive players from the collegiate realm followed — including seven straight position players to cap off the streak. Just like when you’re waiting the better part of an hour for your luggage to appear at baggage claim, then all of a sudden your suitcase, snowboard, pogo stick, camping gear, ninja swords, guitar, mechanical crossbow, and cat all appear on the conveyer belt in a row, one after the other. This has happened to me twice but is incredibly rare. In total, 21 of the 39 players selected in the first round came from the college ranks (including Round 1C and Round CB-A). As always, there’s a lot to unpack with these picks and the subsequent rounds beyond, as 616 total players had their names called across the 20-round, three-day event. I’ll begin by breaking down some of the biggest storylines from the draft and conclude with ranking a handful of sleepers and overhyped players that you should target more or less heavily than their draft position might otherwise indicate. The MLB Draft doesn’t work the same way as it does in many other professional sports leagues. Taking the top player available is quite often not the focus, as bonus pool allocation strategy is frequently at the forefront. Never, ever, ever copy and paste a list of the draftees in order and use that to directly dictate your first-year player draft rankings. Feel free to use it as a frame of reference, then apply your own opinion and the information provided by myself and The Itch to develop your own big board.

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You can’t judge a prospect by his draft position, the same way you can’t judge a middle-aged man for walking around shirtless in your neighborhood. A player could get drafted 40th overall solely due to signability and financial asking price, but still be a top-15 overall player (more on that later). Along those same lines, that middle-aged man could have recently burnt his nipples on a saucepan while reaching across the stovetop to adjust a knob, and now walking around shirtless is the only comfortable way he can go for an evening stroll. You simply never know the underlying circumstances at play, which is why it’s always best to ask questions and gather reliable intel before rushing to judgment. That exact premise is the motivation for this piece: don’t treat the 2021 draftees as shirtless middle-aged men. Assess the tools and how each player aligns with your fantasy team’s winning timeline, and draft the top players available regardless of where they were selected in the 2021 MLB Draft. Draft position should not directly correlate with first-year player draft (FYPD) order and rankings.

So here’s a few shirtless, middle-aged men to target in your upcoming FYPDs — of the baseball variety, of course!

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You click the button.

Bingo

You’ve made your pick. You feel energized, confident. You look over. Your queue is proud and strong.

I’ve got this.

Nothing can tear you down. You’ve done your research, crossed your Ts, and dotted your I’s.

Until… The next pick. One player taken from your queue is no big deal, right? You’ve still got… Ding. Ding. Ding. And just like that, your best-laid plans have vanished.

My good do these scrubs read Razzball, too?

You panic as you search the top available picks left. All your targeted prospects, all your value veterans, all hope… Gone in a flash. Even Hedbert!

Please, blog, may I have some more?