Happy Spring! Always seems weird that we officially start spring just as spring training is ending, not beginning, but I’m not worried about that right now since I’m just happy that it’s finally baseball season. Last week we talked about players whose value had risen, or was likely rising, or might rise soon, for one reason or another, and we’ll continue that theme this week. We won’t use a specific ADP threshold, but as usual here in this corner of Razzball nation, we’ll focus largely on players that are more likely to be impactful in deeper leagues.
Giancarlo Stanton. Had to begin with Mr. Stanton after he hit 3 homers Wednesday. I’m starting to wonder if I’ve made a mistake not drafting him late even once given that his NFBC ADP over the last few weeks sits comfortably outside the top 250. 8 RBI in a spring game shouldn’t turn our heads from a quad A type, but should it from a former MVP type? So many questions to ponder with a week to go before legit Opening Day. What if he actually is in the best shape of his life? I’m going to try to reign it in before my AL-only auction, but I may grab him in my last 50-round slow draft if I can get him late.
Kyle Harrison. Harrison’s ADP has risen since the very early drafts of the off-season began, but it still seems like he might be getting underdrafted. There’ll be less pressure on him with new Giant Blake Snell heading up the rotation, and he’s a member of the “added a cutter this offseason” club. If he can build on his already-solid 2023 debut numbers, there could be still be some value here around pick 225-250, where he’s been hovering in NFBC drafts the last few weeks.
Harrison Bader. I’ve read varying reports of just how much playing time Bader will get as the Mets new center fielder, but given how big a deal they’re making about him taking over the position and Brandon Nimmo moving over to left field, it’s sounding like it will be plenty. He has a couple homers and a couple steals this spring after a nice game on Thursday, and if he can manage to stay healthy for once, he could provide some deep league value even if he’s hitting at or near the bottom of the lineup.
Michael Soroka. It looks like Soroka will be locked into the White Sox rotation to start the year, and he had a nice spring performance earlier this week. Obviously, nice spring performances don’t always mean much, but if it at least means Soroka is finally healthy, that’s a start. It’s hard to get one’s hopes up after four years of brutal injuries, and even when healthy he wasn’t a strikeout guy… but he’s still only 26, so at least there’s some potential upside here based on his excellent season back in the before-times of 2019.
Michael Kopech. I don’t tend to talk a ton about relievers since JKJ has that realm covered beautifully here at Razzball, but couldn’t resist mentioning Kopech as a bookend to the Soroka note. He’s been moved to the bullpen, and Grey himself mentioned the other day that this could be a rare shrewd move by the White Sox. It could also be a dumpster fire, I suppose, given how atrocious Kopech looked last year, particularly when it comes to one of my biggest pet peeves, control issues. Plus we’ll have to see how John Brebbia’s next week or two go in terms of health and effectiveness, but Kopech would appear to have at least a semi-legit path to saves (should the White Sox win any games this year) for those chasing them.
Brent Rooker. I think several of the A’s are rising in value simply because people are remembering they exist, and, in Rooker’s case, that he managed to hit 30 bombs with a not-awful-for-a-power-guy .246 average last year. He’s slowly but surely been getting drafted earlier and earlier in my draft and hold type leagues; I grabbed him as my 5th OF in a couple early 15-team drafts and am glad I did since power seems to be disappearing from the draft pool faster than I expected it to this year.
Any Reds fielder who hasn’t gotten hurt by the time you read this. What a difference a couple weeks makes when it comes to their depth chart, and the extra at bats should trickle down to the likes of Will Benson and Jake Fraley, and for the true deep leaguers, Stuart Fairchild… and for the true deep deep leaguers, new Reds utility man Santiago Espinal. (And I wrote this before top SS prospect Edwin Arroyo went down for the year… brutal!!)
Carson Kelly. For the 2-catcher AL only crowd and deeper, take note that A.J. Hinch has mentioned that Kelly has not only made the team as a second catcher but also that he may get a decent amount of playing time. He’s another guy who’s been hurt a lot but once looked like a relatively promising hitter, and in some situations, we’ll take any production at all from the bottom of the catching barrel.
Richie Palacios. Given the news that Josh Lowe will open the season on the IL with the dreaded oblique issue (news which broke about an hour after I took him in an NFBC slow draft, grrr), Palacios now appears a rung higher on the Rays outfield depth chart. Playing time is always difficult to predict in Tampa, but he, like Lowe, is a lefty, so if he ends up in something resembling a platoon type while Lowe is out, he’ll be on the strong side of it.
Anthony Rendon. Word out of Angels camp is that Rendon may get a chance to lead off, which he did the other day in a spring training game. I think this is the fourth player that’s now been mentioned as a possible Angels lead-off guy? I think he’s also the worst idea for a lead-off guy… or maybe he isn’t, since I seem to be remembering that his OBP was always excellent back in what feels like about a decade ago when he actually played baseball on a regular basis. Even with a new manager, I’m starting to think the Angels are going to be one of the most frustrating teams to navigate fantasy-wise yet again. I started to write a blurb about Jo Adell, who’s been playing very well of late (a homer and a triple the other day, and he’s stolen 6 bases this spring without being caught), but will just incorporate it into this one since this feels like about the fifth year in a row that we’ve talked about how it might finally be Adell’s time to shine. (Will also mention that Adell is out of options). Or, should Mickey Moniak be creeping up draft boards right now? Aargh, deep-league headache!! Anyhow, I keep looking at Rendon super late in my 50-team draft and hold leagues, but even then I can’t pull the trigger. It’s like going back to a bad boyfriend, who on top of everything else admitted dating you “wasn’t a priority” for him. But now I’m thinking that one ultra late share might not be out of the question. Rendon will likely suck, but all he has to do to earn his current draft price in a very deep league is not suck completely. So we’ll see.
Javier Assad. It was announced Thursday that Asaad has beaten out Drew Smyly for a spot in the Cubs’ rotation (along with Jordan Wicks, who I kinda like as a deep league flier and think I already talked about this preseason). Assad is 26 and was, well, I’d say “serviceable” last year, which is often enough in a deep NL-only type league. If there’s room for some growth, which there could be, even better.
Who knows what the next week will bring in terms of value changes…. let’s just hope the constant barrage of injury news finally slows down. That’s the roundup for now; thanks for reading!
