Every fantasy baseball auction player knows the rules of fantasy baseball auctions. Our own fantasy baseball auction overlord, Dan Harris, went over these rules himself – while also helping identify a bunch of players worth targeting around a dollar.
If you haven’t put together a list of $1 players yet, you may want to get to it. If you need some help, take a look at FantasyPros’ cheat sheets for some ideas.
A quick recap of said rules:
- Spend all your money
- Constantly be checking for roster/injury updates during the auction
- Have a list of $1 players written out in advance
- HAVE A LIST OF PLAYERS WORTH THE EXTRA DOLLAR
Okay, so I made that last one up but it should absolutely be a part of your checklist. It’s definitely a part of mine, and here’s why. There are moments during every auction where you are not sure whether you want to bid that extra dollar or three.
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These moments are typically more predominant, and critical to the success of your roster balance when you get down to the lower tier levels of players. The reason I believe that is because we have a natural tendency to assume once you get down to that pool of talent there isn’t much difference between a Tier 4 guy and a Tier 5 guy.
Well, that’s not so true in many cases. It largely depends on how your roster up to that point has been constructed and what areas you are lacking potential production in. The more you know the better prepared you will be to take advantage of key situations and get the right player for your team at the right time and your preferred value.
Why on earth ‘overpay’ for a Drew Pomeranz when you can get a Wei-Yin Chen for one dollar instead of three? If this happened to you, I’m sorry.
Sometimes we’re not willing to risk that extra dollar, or three because the unknown makes us a bit nervous. Plus, looking like a dummy with a perceived overpaid player that turns out to be a real overpay is a bit embarrassing to many of us (here’s to you Yasiel Puig owners). To make things easier for you, I’ve put together my own list of players I believe are worth going a little extra for if push came to shove.
Mike Zunino (C – SEA)
If there ever was a player that was supposed to burst onto the scene at the catcher position and showcase big power and plus defense, it was Mike Zunino. Because he has struggled offensively since he was first rushed to the majors in 2013 he’s tumbled down fantasy draft boards to the point of being barely useful. He was on about 2% of rosters last season.
That could all change this season. The Mariners have already moved the fences in a bit, so the ballpark doesn’t play quite so pitcher friendly, and Zunino improved his hard contact rate dramatically last season – going from 28.5% in 2015 to 35% last season (a career high). He also managed to hit fewer ground balls and more line drives and fly balls.
While Zunino still finished the season with a .207/.312/.470 batting line, he did hit 12 home runs in just 192 plate appearances. Zunino is the starting catcher going into the 2017 season, largely due to his premium defensive skills, and will have every opportunity to prove his approach at the plate will continue to improve to a more serviceable level.
Personally, I believe Zunino could hit 25+ home runs this season if he can play in 120 games this year. That alone at the catcher position is worth an extra buck at auction to me and a few more if you’re in an OBP league.
Cesar Hernandez (2B – PHI)
The Philadelphia Phillies are going to be sneaky good this season and starting second baseman Cesar Hernandez is probably going help – a lot. Last season Hernandez stole 17 bases over 155 games but was caught stealing 13 times. This guy had 30 stolen base opportunities and barely walked away with half of them.
That’s bad, especially when you have the kind of speed he does. If Hernandez is able to correct his issues on the bases and learn when to time his jumps, he’s easily a 40+ stolen base guy.
Even though it’s the speed I’m mostly fascinated by, especially when stolen bases are not as abundant as they used to be, Hernandez can actually get on base too. He walked 10.6% of the time last season, up from 8.8% in 2015, doesn’t strike out a ton, and hits fastballs, sinkers, sliders and changeups really well.
His batting average against those four pitches last season was .305 over 472 at-bats. He batted .393 against sliders alone – not half bad.
I view him as a seriously underrated and undervalued asset. Even though second base is a fairly deep position this season, Hernandez helps you in categories many other second basemen are not – primarily in OBP, SB and R. He was the only second baseman to crack double-digit triples with 11, and he has the upside of 2016 Jean Segura with half the power output.
Robbie Ray (SP – ARI)
Robbie Ray struck out the eighth most batters in 2016 with 218 punch-outs. That puts him in some pretty impressive company, rubbing elbows with the likes of Corey Kluber and Noah Syndergaard.
Now, don’t mistake me and think that I believe Ray is as good as either of those starters – he’s not. Though, if you’d like to read the fantasy profile I wrote about Ray you’re more than welcome to.
Ray, until he proves otherwise, is a two-pitch hurler. Period.
He has a blazing four-seam fastball that can touch 98-mph, though it’s sometimes a little flat over the middle parts of the plate. Batters hit a collective .236 against his four-seamer last season across 364 at-bats and generated a 10% swinging strike rate.
His actual best pitch, however, is the slider. And it’s probably his best pitch because it plays so well of his near unhittable four-seamer.
Across 165 at-bats, hitters managed a wimpy .206 average against his slider and had an embarrassing 21% swinging strike rate against the pitch. If either of Ray’s other pitches, his two-seam fastball, curveball or changeup were even average pitches right now, he’d be a pretty dominant starter and could handle that third turn through the lineup.
Supposedly Ray has been working on improving his changeup and reportedly modeling it after teammate Zack Greinke’s changeup, but his changeup wasn’t working last season at all – which is probably why he rarely used it. I’m happy to go however many extra dollars I need for Ray because there simply aren’t many starting pitchers that can practically guarantee a floor of 200 strikeouts or so with the added upside of putting together a sub-four ERA and league average WHIP.
There are plenty of other players that deserve mention in this space — Jason Heyward, Jason Castro, Orlando Arcia, Cam Bedrosian and even Jorge Soler to name a few. But then we’re talking about a rather large e-book of some kind.
Use this as a starting point, if you haven’t started doing your research on this already, and get to it. Taking just a little extra time to prepare in this way only gives you even more of an advantage over league mates who did not.
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Lance Rinker is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Lance, check out his archive or follow him @LanceMRinker.
