Van Lee42 posts

Baseball is here! I have personally spent nearly every waking moment of my last week or so with my eyes glued to my phone either watching a game or scouring my leagues for some nice finds. This time of the year affords an excellent opportunity to nab that closer taking over via injury or ineffectiveness. And those out there who picked up Hunter Strickland might have just gotten the best pickup off the wire this season. This season, I’ll be doing a lot of “who will be called up” prospect analysis, though it’s a bit early for…

We are just one day away from having legit “it counts” baseball happening, and I couldn’t be more giddy. I’m getting all of my jerseys ready to put into the shirt rotation, and I’m making last minute add/drops/adjustments to my fantasy teams. Since a lot of my drafts happen insanely early, I have a lot of speculative picks that may not have panned out, and now a lot of answers are pouring in so I can make the right decisions. A lot of these risky picks pertained to impact prospects and whether or not they were going to make…

Much like the best barbeque sauce or a stern letter sent to a co-worker, there’s no better type of prediction than a bold one. And I’ve seen plenty of writers throw out bold predictions like “Francisco Lindor finishes 2018 as a top-15 player!” To those writers, I give a hearty scoff. That’s not a bold prediction; that’s a mild prediction. That’s the generic brand sauce that disappoints your friends and neighbors when you pull it out for your grilling session. It’s the Kyle Seager of predictions. It likely produces, but no…

As the calendar has turned to March, we are suddenly seeing some trends in drafts this year. ADPs are starting to course-correct, and there is sufficient enough data to pick out a few players to target and a few players to avoid. Of course, these do change at the whims of the MLB faithful, as a few bad at-bats in spring or finally signing with a team can either increase or decrease a player’s value somewhat drastically. But as it stands right now, there are a handful of players that are draft targets for me in most of the…

Last week I wrote about a handful of top prospects and where they were going in various drafts per their Fantrax ADP. I mostly limited that to the bigger names that are almost universally believed to see some Major League action at some point this season. Today, I’m going to continue that venture, but I’ll also try to look a little deeper to find some names that aren’t a lock to make an impact. If these names get called up and receive a decent amount of playing time, they could give you a huge boost at the end of your draft…

For the Fantrax faithful, draft season begins as soon as the last out of the World Series is recorded (and often times long before that!). We are a special breed of fantasy baseball player, one who constantly monitors minor league options, 40-man rosters, and scours the dregs of the internet for any scrap of information related to even the deepest of prospects. It is because of people like us that prospects are being drafted higher and higher each year. And today, we’re going to take a look at which prospects are being…

Prospect hunting can be a fickle endeavor. Sometimes you strike gold, sometimes you fail miserably, and sometimes nothing happens for years at a time. After previously discussing some pitching prospects who lost value last year, I wanted to take a look at some players on the offensive side of the coin. Offensive prospects are often considered to be much safer than their pitching counterparts, and though I very much agree with that sentiment, there is plenty that can go wrong with the development of an offensive prospect.…

I’ve had a series of articles going over various prospects who, for whatever reason, be it the advancement of a single pitch, increased velocity or control, or just general development and maturity, have increased their values going forward. I talked about A.J. Puk, Mike Soroka, and Triston McKenzie, all three young hurlers who have me excited and have made me a believer in their careers. Sometimes the exact opposite happens, though. Occasionally a top flight prospect might lose command or perhaps they just got knocked…

I’ve talked quite a bit about the home run spike occurring in baseball right now and the effect it has had on the fantasy game. It means there are fewer stolen bases, making them more valuable, and because home runs are more abundant, they are obviously less valuable. The extra power has really made me rethink a lot of prospects (cough, Eloy Jimenez, cough). We are quick to surpass even the dreaded “steroid era” as far as home run output, and there’s nothing opposing pitchers can do about it. Well, except maybe throw more…

Last week we took a look at some young pitchers that took those ever-important steps forward into becoming Major League assets, and this week we are going to look at some hitting prospects that have done the same. On the offensive side, when a prospect takes a step forward, it can be due to any number of reasons. Maybe they finally learned to judge the strike zone and take a walk. Perhaps they gained enough strength and quickness to suddenly be able to handle both the inside fastball and the changeup away at the same time.…