The Moment of Zen:
For the final article of 2026-27 season, I return to an idea I discussed way back in March, just before the season started: karma. At that time, I challenged our standard understanding of the word and clarified that karma isn’t necessarily the result of an action – if you do a good thing, you get a good result OR if you do a bad thing, you get a bad result. Instead, in my understanding, karma is more the result of a good process. Here’s how I explained it back in March:
Originating from karman, a Sanskrit word for something akin to “action,” the word “karma” as we use it refers more to the action itself – and the intention that brought it. Consequence is part of the equation but not the crux of it.
Karma is created through virtuous actions, which are actions executed with good intention and wise understanding (among other things). But karma is more the cause than the effect – at least as I understand it anyway. A desire for virtue tends to lead to virtuous acts; those acts tend to lead to positive consequences. Probably not a huge surprise to anyone how the cycle often works.
Karma is also sometimes understood to be somewhat immediate in nature, but that also isn’t necessarily the case. If I do something terrible to someone, I may or may not be met with an immediate consequence. I might get my comeuppance, but I also might get a promotion, or prestige. You get the point. And, frankly, plenty of stuff, good and bad, happens to us that has nothing to do with what we may or may not have done. Just dumb luck, not something we necessarily caused. So an action doesn’t simply lead to a karmic consequence. There’s more to the karmic process than simply “do good, receive good things.”
At that time, I concluded by suggesting our good consequences come not only from our good actions, but from our level of contentedness with the process of doing the right things. We all have had those moments where we have done something, created something, helped someone, etc. with the best of intentions, only to end up with a consequence where the thing we did caused problems, or the thing we created blew up in our faces, or the help we offered actually hindered. Those moments can be difficult to emotionally process if we allow the one consequence to be all. But if we trust our intentions and dedication and are content with the overall good that we are trying to do and the wise understanding we’re using to approach the good, we will be more likely to see the bumps in the road as just momentary setbacks, or maybe lessons along the way. That contentedness can keep us moving forward, doing our best, even when it seems that we’re not getting the results we hope for.
How in the world does this apply to fantasy baseball?
The more I practice with this understanding of karma, the more I believe it holds true – in life, in fantasy, and in actual baseball. So for my final 2026-27 season article, I thought I would celebrate a couple of players who I think are working on the karmic path in the right ways – and slowly (though sometimes extraordinarily quickly, it seems), steadily getting noticeable results that have separated these guys into a separate class of players. We can expect both to be drafted higher next year than this year – and in the hitter’s case, maybe even first overall.
Drew Rasmussen, SP, TAM
I start with Drew Rasmussen, who, quietly, has been awesome this season. Would you believe that he currently ranks 11th overall on the Razzball Player Rater, with a total value of $31.50? Wow. He was drafted outside the top 10 rounds before the season, so I’d say the profit margin is clear.
His season line is impressive: 172 IP in which he has held a 2.67 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP while notching 16 W and 174 K (26% K%) while walking only 32 batters (4.8% BB%).
As I look at Rasmussen’s underlying numbers, it looks like his success this year comes down to a couple of fairly clear causes:
- He’s remained healthy. It’s hard to know how much control he has over health and how much is luck, but it stands to reason that after years of injury, he’s pulled together his fitness routines to take care of his body better. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt there since our best chance to confirm comes only from what the player himself reports.
- He increased strikeouts – by a lot. His K% has jumped 4.3%, up from 21.7% in 2025. The thing is, the K% jump is probably health related as well. Looking at his career numbers, before he hit his most recent stretch of injuries, he was up around a 30% K%, so he’s had Ks in his tool belt. It should be noted, however, that he hasn’t increased his K% with a velo bump; he appears to have changed the way he locates pitches.
- Which brings us to his Location+: It’s up, nearly across the board.
- As a probable result, he has been able to reduce HH% this season, dropping last year’s 43.3% HH% down to 33.8%. His Barrel% is down from 6.3% to 5.9%. And his LOB% is down nearly 7%. LOB%, which is often a luck-driven number, also tends to hang around a pitcher’s established career level: Last year’s LOB% was 83.6%, but this year’s was 76.9%, right in line with his career 77.2%.
I suspect the changes we see for Rasmussen are largely intentional, due to good health, and due to pitching within himself – not trying to use velo he doesn’t have anymore, but using his stuff and location to get outs. That sounds like a good karmic process to me, and I congratulate him on the results he’s getting.
Let’s call him our Zen and the Art of Fantasy Baseball pitcher MVP, an award earned through true dedication to karman.
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF, CHC
And the Zen and the Art of Fantasy Baseball hitter MVP is easy: Pete Crow-Armstrong has been the best player in baseball this year. The Razzball Player Rater reports that he’s earned a cool $54.60 of value – $10 more than the 2nd ranked Jacob Misiorowski. Well done.
But I’m not bringing him up just because he’s been the best in baseball – it’s WHY he’s been the best. In that same March article on karma, I discussed my somewhat unfavorable assessment of PCA:
Don’t hear what I’m not saying: I love PCA as a player. His glove alone makes him worth the price of admission. I love his brashness, the hair colors, and the fire. As a Cubs’ fan, I’m delighted to see him roaming CF every game – if it’s in the air, he can probably track it down. I completely underestimated his upside to the point that last season’s PCA draft price in the early 100s usually left me looking elsewhere. And then, the first half of 2025 showed the kid can be something special – and I felt like an idiot. And post-ASB, I started feeling a lot smarter. He can be just as bad as he can be special.
When I got up to Wrigley for a game last year (it’s quite a trip from Birmingham, AL after all), I saw exactly what I thought I had been seeing when I watched him on TV: PCA swings at everything. From the stands, I could see just how far out of the zone pitchers were attacking him, and he swung at seemingly everything that came his way, no matter how unhittable the pitch appeared to be. There is no pitch that he doesn’t think he can crush. And for 3 or so months of 2025, he seemed to be the next coming of bad-ball great Vladimir Guerrero Sr. That dude could hit any pitch with authority, and PCA looked like he was going to be able to do the same.
But then reality set in. It usually does for guys who have a 41.4% O-Swing%. Wow. And his O-Contact%? Not great. How does 55.5% sound? While his Z-Contact% was ok at 83.8, his overall Contact% shows the consequences of his free-swinging ways: 73.3% is the kind of contact problem that gets players a trip back to the minors.
I 100% think that PCA is likely to hit 25 HR and steal 25-40 bases this season – there’s no question his upside is worth drafting. But his .160 BA in August and .224 BA in Sept/Oct have me completely unwilling to chase him in RD 3. In some drafts, I’d even have to pick him in RD 2. No chance.
I stand by that analysis: the PCA I saw at Wrigley last year (and on my TV throughout the season) was willing to swing at just about anything. And it made him as much of a liability as an all-worldly talent. This year, he went through the karmic process to change that, and it’s worked.
His 2025 BB% was an absurdly low 4.5%. In 2026, he’s increased that rate nearly 7 full points, all the way up to 11.4%. He’s reduced his O-Swing% by an almost-equivalent 6.7%, so he’s now down to a more palatable 34.1%. His SwStr% is down 3.8%. Even his Z-Swing% is down, way down, by 12.1%. He has clearly made intentional decisions to be more selective at the plate, and it’s working.
The more selective approach is allowing him to absolutely crush the ball. His HH% is up over 7%. He’s made gains in EV, maxEV, and Barrel%, along with a slight gain in LA. Crow-Armstrong, who isn’t exactly a big guy, has made himself a legit power hitter who offers an elite ability to get on base: his OBP is a ridiculous .373 after being a somewhat embarrassing .287 in 2025.
In draft season, I wasn’t willing to draft PCA in round 2. Now, I’m willing to draft him at the 1.1. His dedication to karman has made him an absolute superstar.
Thanks for reading along with me this season. I hope, like Rasmussen and Crow-Armstrong, you’ve found ways to change your process this year and that those changes will lead to eventual strong results. The entire karmic arc is not a promise of immediate gratification, but as I continue to find, the small adjustments to my actions can lead to greater contentment and success down the road. I hope that for all of us.
Until next time. –ADHamley
