Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo was my bold pick. As a novice fantasy analyst, making him my bae and him not doing well kinda started getting to me. Confidence began to wane.
On May 28, Rizzo was making me smile. His slash was .304/.376/.505 and he had 11 HR already. Of course, there was an unfortunate collision, and after that date he’s been a meager .172 with one dinger.
Then came the telltale interview. Rizzo said he was losing track of outs. He also said that he would go to bed sober and wake up feeling hungover. Then he mentioned doing crack cocaine and then the next day feeling great. He never said the last sentence.
It all makes sense! I was right, just an injury. Hoping Rizzo gets his mojo and his head back straight. And good for me to see this and trust my analysis! I’m completely the man.
Next Year First Round
I figure it’s time to evaluate some guys and where their value has risen to. In the first round, as a target, would you target Elly De La Cruz? He for sure has elite skills. I’m wondering if I’ve gone about this wrong.
Winning is fun.
Hitting on prospects is fun.
Both together would be super fun.
My natural reaction is to pass on these young guns in the first two rounds. I just think it’s safer to take established guys. For example, Matt Olson. He’s for sure exceeded his third round pick. Bobby Witt, yes, I’ve been low on him but the player rater has him a second round value (I usually play OBP, so he is devalued there).
Next year, my goal is to pick out some young cats on the come up. I’ve been looking too much at what can go wrong and not enough on what’s right. As I’m writing this, my family is on a pontoon boat and I am not. I hate deep water; a boat is torture. Of course, the wife is not happy and I may or may not survive until next week. Maybe some risk is a good thing.
So let’s go through some third base guys and see who we would draft Elly over.
Christopher Morel? Yeah, especially since that one month K rate was an outlier and he’s back around 38% for two months.
Josh Jung? Yeah.
So for sure he’s a top four rounds guy. Let’s get interesting and go 8-1 in descending order on the player rater.
Ha-Seong Kim? Guy has gotten to 8 rated 3B somehow, and is over .400 in the past week. He also is stealing bases with 25. In this particular point in history, you go Elly, though, for the added power upside.
Nolan Arenado? Yeah, for the Elly upside.
Justin Turner? LOL. That’s as obvious a choice as ordering ribs at a barbecue joint. Remarkable season for the 38 year old though. As someone soon to be 46, he makes me feel insecure.
Rafael Devers and Austin Riley: I would still go Devers and Riley both here. It’s probably not the right answer. But in the first two rounds, I’d take these guys. In the third, still these guys. Sorry. I’m not learning my own lesson.
Now, Jose Ramirez, I think I’d actually go with the younger guy. Ramirez is seemingly being caught up to by everyone else and no way do I take a guy his age. Go with the upside on Elly here.
Bobby Witt, I guess he’s now the number one third baseman? I would go with him over EDLC since he’s more experience and being successful at the moment.
For me, no way I take him in the first or early second. The 2-3 turn seems like the sweet spot for the exciting Red.
Hope you enjoyed this, as I’m in the Smokies now walking aimlessly in endless forests.
