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| Thursday, March 21, 2024 |
| You wake up in a cold sweat, as a horrifying realization comes to mind: It's Draft Day, and you haven't done any research. |
| It might just be a nightmare, but it might just be your reality, too. You've got a lot going on, and maybe you just didn't have time to prepare for your draft. That's what the Fantasy Baseball Today team is here to help you out with. We've spent the past three months getting our rankings ready for Draft Day, and we've done plenty of research on the way there. And we're here to share it with you. |
Of course, even with the season technically starting this week with the Dodgers and Padres playing in the Seoul Series yesterday and today, there's still plenty we don't know about right now. As of Wednesday night, we have no idea how serious Eury Perez's elbow injury is, for example, and that's a pretty big deal -- he was a top-100 pick in pretty much every draft before his injury, and now he might not even get drafted in some leagues. |
The same might be true of Matt McLain, who suffered a shoulder injury in recent days, the extent of which is still unknown. The Reds are pretty sure McLain won't be ready for Opening Day , and he might need surgery on the shoulder, but as of Wednesday, we just don't know. I wrote about McLain's value and some possible trade targets if you already drafted here , but all I can say at this point is this: Only you know how risk-averse you want to be in your draft. If McLain's injury ends up relatively minor, a mid-round pick on a player with 25-25 potential could end up being the steal of the draft; if he needs surgery to repair the shoulder, there's a chance you've completely wasted a pick on him. I've got him ranked around 150th, but you're the only one who can decide if you actually want to pay that price. |
And then there's the Shohei Ohtani situation, which we have to address here, even if there just isn't much to address. CBS Sports' Matt Snyder has a great explainer on everything that came out yesterday about Ohtani's interpreter being fired after he was accused of "massive theft" as part of a potential gambling scandal. No accusations have been made of any wrongdoing against Ohtani, and I don't have any reason to expect this will impact Ohtani's availability. But I could see how his proximity to the story might be enough to scare some off investing a first-round pick in Ohtani. |
| And all I can say is this: I'm not moving Ohtani down in my rankings at all. I don't know any more than you do, but I don't have any reason to believe Ohtani's availability is likely to be impacted in any way. Whether that's enough for you to make the investment is, of course, entirely up to you. But, for what it's worth, in talking to other folks around the Fantasy industry last night, nobody else seems to be moving him down, either. |
| Like I said, there's still quite a lot that's still up in the air as we head into the final weekend of draft season. I'll have one last in-depth breakdown of everything you need to know about from this week's spring action in tomorrow's newsletter, but before then, I wanted to make sure you have everything you need to prepare for your remaining drafts, and that's what the rest of today's newsletter is all about. No more words from yours truly today: Just links to absolutely everything you need from the Fantasy Baseball Today team to make sure you're ready for your drafts. |
| Here's your Draft Day Cheat Sheet. |
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| Get to know the player pool |
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| Rankings and salary cap values |
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| Sleepers, Breakouts and Busts |
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| Draft Day essentials |
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| Latest from Spring Training |
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| Mock drafts |
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| ADP review |
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| Prospect hunting |
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| The best of the rest |
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