One of the best discourses every single year leading up to the start of the season is debating where players should be drafted.
With that, there’s always the question, “Well, why draft X here when you can get Y here?” Typically, it’s because X is the better player with a longer track record.
But that’s not always the case.
If there’s one thing I say over and over – and will continue to say until my time as a fantasy writer is done – is that fantasy is all about finding value.
And that’s what we are going to do today.
Typically, you’ll take the X player instead of waiting for the Y, but in every draft, you’re going to have some perceived weakness on your team, which is where finding value in the draft can help.
For this exercise, I’m using The Bat projections to find a player at each position that you can wait on to get a similar projected value for a player at the same position who is going earlier in the draft, based on FantasyPros ADP.
Let’s get to it.
- Fitz’s Positional Primers
- Hitters to Avoid | Target
- Pitchers to Avoid | Target
- Latest Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft
Finding ADP Values (2023 Fantasy Baseball)
Second Base
Gleyber Torres (2B – NYY): ADP 114
Jorge Polanco (2B – MIN): ADP 151.8
| ADP | PA | HR | R | RBI | SB | AVG | |
| Torres | 114 | 573 | 21 | 70 | 68 | 12 | .252 |
| Polanco | 151.8 | 589 | 23 | 76 | 71 | 8 | .257 |
Like Miranda, the 2B I’ve been ending up with the most is Torres. We aren’t going to get his 2019 season, but he’s still going to be pretty damn good.
But at a discount, Polanco is just kind of sitting there after natural regression from his overperformance in 2021. Finding a balance between 2021 and 2022 is key for Polanco, and it’s what I’m expecting to see this year.
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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.