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| Monday, March 27, 2023 |
| Happy Monday, everyone! Or should I say Happy Opening Day Week! We've got baseball coming this week, but if you're like me, you still have a pair of drafts left to do so we will make sure to hit draft-centric content as well today. But today is a big day in the baseball world because we got a slew of news on which young players have made opening day rosters and which haven't. On that front, there's some things we'll be applauding and others we'll be shaking our heads at (looking at you, Baltimore Orioles). We'll dive into those takeaways, plus how you can take advantage of ADP mistakes on major sites and finally one last look at a mock draft below. |
| Also, if you still have drafts coming up, make sure you didn't miss out on The Fantasy Baseball Today Printable Draft Guide. It's absolutely, 100% FREE. |
| The guide includes top-300 rankings sortable for both Roto and H2H formats. Each top 300 includes every player's ADP and our auction/salary cap values for said player. You'll get tiers for a tiers-based drafting system. You'll also get position-by-position rankings, a lineup chart where you can fill out your rosters as you go for snake drafts and a salary cap tracker for cap drafts. And the best part -- it's all printable. |
| If you click the link above, you'll find a widget where you can type in your email address and get the printable guide sent directly to your inbox. Please reach out to me on Twitter (@DanSchneierNFL) if you type in your email and do not receive the guide. I'll work to get it to you ASAP. |
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| Opening day roster takeaways |
| Yankees SS Anthony Volpe has won the job and will make the opening day roster over his competition after a scorching hot spring. We analyzed this and lots of other news on the FBT in 5 podcast . Volpe is a very exciting development in Fantasy leagues and someone in my auction draft (on Saturday, before the news) was very wise to get into that bidding war ($11 out of a $330 budget) because now Volpe is shooting up the rankings. Chris Towers said he has him up to 120 overall but would still shy away from paying the price given Volpe's inconsistencies at the minor league level. According to Yankees manager Aaron Boone, Volpe will likely bat ninth. Something tells me you'll have to reach closer to just outside the top-100 overall in your final drafts if you want to swing on the upside after this news. Volpe profiles as a potential Roto league star with a modest power profile and upside to steal close to 30 bags. He racked up five stolen bases this spring. |
| Orioles top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez -- who is also arguably one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball -- will reportedly miss the opening day starting rotation, according to Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner. The Orioles have not made this official, but the expectation is they will move forward with Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells instead of Rodriguez. During the spring, Rodriguez allowed 15 runs and 17 hits across 15 1/3 innings, which certainly didn't help his case. However, this probably provides a nice buy-low opportunity via trade or if you still haven't drafted -- it can't be long before he arrives in the rotation -- even on a team run by owner John Angelos. |
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| Fantasy winners and losers from the spring |
| Scott White aimed to find the biggest winners and losers from Spring Training without just simply naming the obvious candidates -- AKA he went beyond the Volpe and Jordan Walker's of the world. You can find his complete list of 25 winners and losers here. |
| Here are a few more who stood out to Scott because they didn't receive all that much buzz until now. |
| Reds SP Graham Aschraft: "Already armed with a cutter that regularly tops triple digits, Graham Ashcraft altered his slider grip this spring, and the whiffs that were lacking during his rookie season have come pouring in." |
| Phillies DH Darick Hall: "If there's a silver lining to Rhys Hoskins' injury, it's that his heir apparent was already pushing for a job. Improved selectivity has helped Darick Hall cut down on his strikeouts without undermining his light-tower power." |
| Nationals SP Josiah Gray: "After serving up a league-high 38 home runs last year, Josiah Gray has kept everything in the park this spring, and it may not be just happenstance. He's been relying more and more on a cutter to keep hitters off the fastball that got walloped last season." |
| Rockies 3B Elehuris Montero: "The Rockies brought in a veteran retread to compete at third base, as they're known to do, but even they seem to be acknowledging Elehuris Montero has earned the job over Mike Moustakas with his performance this spring. He also hit .310 with 15 homers in just 65 minor-league games last year." |
| Phillies SS Edmundo Soas: "Edmundo Sosa worked with hitting coach Kevin Long to shorten up his swing, and the power has played up this spring. The Phillies were talking about giving him near-everyday at-bats all over the diamond even before the Rhys Hoskins injury, but it should be all the easier now." |
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| 12-team Roto mock |
| We have one final mock draft for you right here -- you can find the full results from every team, more draft takeaways and everyone who participated here. |
| Scott picked from the No. 8 hole in this one and that's a spot we haven't seen him draft in this mock season. Here's how his team played out: |
| Once again, Scott waited on starting pitcher with four hitters in his first four picks. I loved the value he got with Ruiz at pick No. 233 overall (at that price, there's very little risk to grabbing a 70-80 steal ceiling), Raleigh, Profar (if he leads off in Colorado...), Tellez, Spring and Henderson. |
| One of Scott's biggest takeaways from the draft focused on how heavy of a price you must pay for some of the trendiest picks: |
| Corey Seager doesn't make it out of Round 4 anymore. If I wanted that singularity at shortstop, the most likely of anyone at the position to deliver both a .300 batting average and 30 homers, I knew I had to act at Pick 41. Had Kyle Schwarber lasted to that point, I probably would have gone with him instead, outfield being the weaker position and all. But since he didn't, the only question was if Francisco Lindor, who I actually rank higher than Seager, would also be there. He went at Pick 40, which is probably for the best.Corbin Carroll often doesn't make it out of Round 4 either. And you know what? I've so come to appreciate the rookie who I genuinely considered taking him instead of Seager. My best chance at both was to go with Seager first, which is partly why I did it, but sure enough, Carroll was selected with the fifth pick of Round 5, 53rd overall. Turns out Round 4 was my only shot at him. It would have been well ahead of ADP, but then again, so was 53rd overall. The guy is flying up draft boards faster than ADP can keep up.I have Cristian Javier ranked too low for how much I like him. I must, because I haven't had occasion to draft him yet. So when I noticed he was there in Round 5, which was the point when I first gave a thought to taking a pitcher, I knew I couldn't count on him making it back to me. Alek Manoah, Julio Urias and Max Fried were also there -- and I've had them ranked higher this whole time -- but their skill sets are more similar to each other than to Javier, who's the much better bat-misser. So I eschewed my rankings this time and went with Javier, believing that any one of those other three would be a fine complement for him in Round 6, and sure enough, Fried made it back to me. Might need to update those rankings. |
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