Rajai Davis can be an integral piece of your fantasy team if you draft the right compliment for him

The Mike Trouts and Jose Altuves of the world are worth their weight in gold, but unfortunately, gold isn’t cheap. Understandably so – few players can fill all five categories on any given night. Even three to four category contributors tend to cost a pretty penny which may leave us scrambling to hit our Draft Day goals with only a few picks or bucks left in our pocket.

In these moments of desperation, we often turn to lottery tickets in the form of boom or bust prospects. I don’t oppose this strategy, particularly in keeper leagues where a low-cost breakout could pay dividends for years to come.

Prospects are sexy. We’ve read about them for months, if not years, and all the fantasy hipsters want to snag the next Mookie Betts before he was cool.

Who wouldn’t want to take a flyer on Joey Gallo’s light tower power over a crusty one-dimensional veteran like Rajai Davis? Sure, he’ll swipe 30 bases, but not without dragging down four categories in the process. Why should I consider Tommy Joseph whose 30 home runs are available on the power-rich waiver wire in the form of Chris Carter or Pedro Alvarez?

While Davis’ and Joseph’s profiles are those of low-upside waiver wire fodder, one thing we know about fantasy baseball is the whole is indeed the sum of its parts. It’s a lot of science with a healthy dose of luck. If you’ve swung and missed on your prospect lottery tickets in the past, I present an alternative approach to your Draft Day end game — alchemy.

Both Davis and Joseph are being drafted outside of the top 200 in NFBC drafts respectively, but when paired with the right player, each can play a vital role in a fantasy duo that returns solid production for a fraction of the cost. Let’s hit the lab and see how, with the right formula, we can turn lead into gold … or at least silver.

The following assumptions are based on Steamer projections with FanGraphs Depth Charts adjusted playing time. I pulled average draft position data from NFBC.

Tommy Joseph (218 ADP) and Rajai Davis (219 ADP)

Tommy Joseph popped 21 homers in 347 plate appearances in his rookie campaign and Steamer has him pegged as a 30+ homer threat in 2017. With the homers come the RBI, but his lackluster AVG, R, and SB production coupled with the league-wide power-surge has suppressed his draft stock this winter. Meanwhile, the 36-year-old Davis parlayed a 43-stolen base season into a new deal with the A’s where he appears to be the everyday center fielder.

He’s a little long in the tooth, especially for a guy whose game depends on speed, yet remains a safe bet for 30+ steals. But what good are 30 stolen bases with limited power, runs, RBI and a .250 batting average? Let’s stack up Davis and Joseph’s 2017 Steamer projections to get a better look:

Neither player provides much in the batting average department, but a quick look at the chart highlights how Joseph’s strengths supplement Davis’ weaknesses, and vice versa. To get a clearer picture of how these profiles complement each other, let’s look at the average projection if we combine the two:

Individually, Joseph and Davis project as one-trick ponies and fantasy owners are drafting them as such. Combined, they are two players flirting with a 20/20/70/70 line.

Fantasy gold? Not exactly.

But remember you’re grabbing this production over 200 picks into the draft. To apply some context, check out the projection for this household fantasy name:

The mystery player edges out the duo of Joseph and Davis, but what if I told you he was going 150+ spots higher in NFBC drafts? With an ADP of 59, the mystery player is 2016 breakout, Wil Myers. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll happily roster Myers in any format, but if I can get two Wil Myers-lite with my 17th and 18th round picks, I won’t feel so bad about missing out on the real one in the fifth.

I am not suggesting you scratch Myers off your draft board and target the Joseph/Davis duo in the later rounds as neither are without their warts. The unproven Joseph might not be the 30 homer guy Steamer projects. Father Time may finally catch the speedy Davis.

Myers may rack up 676 plate appearances that push his counting stats into the 25/25/90/90 range once again. But if you’re in need of a couple of multi-category contributors near the end of your draft, you might find them in a washed up base stealer and dime-a-dozen slugger.

Tommy Joseph and Rajai Davis present one of the countless combinations in which you can deploy this strategy. Whether you agree with this assessment of Myers, Joseph or Davis, I encourage you to give it a go on your own. Apply this line of thought to your projections and see where you might be able to turn pieces of scrap metal into fantasy gold.

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Chris Bragg is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Chris, check out his archive or follow him @loosemoose6.