As you prepare for your fantasy baseball drafts, figuring out who you want to target in drafts and who you want to avoid is important. Culling your draft list is crucial to make it go seamlessly. Here are a few players to target in your fantasy baseball drafts.
Full Players to Target & Avoid Lists
- Starting Pitchers to Target & Avoid
- Catchers to Target & Avoid
- First Basemen to Target & Avoid
- Second Basemen to Target & Avoid
- Shortstops to Target & Avoid
- Third Basemen to Target & Avoid
- Outfielders to Target & Avoid
More Fantasy Baseball Contet
- Fitz’s Positional Primers
- Justin Mason’s Draft Day Cheat Sheet
- Players the Experts Draft
- Latest Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft
Players to Draft
Zac Gallen (SP – ARI): ADP 71.23
Gallen was fantastic in 2022, throwing 184 innings with a 2.54 ERA with a .91 WHIP, 192 strikeouts, and 12 wins. He has great command and stuff with all four of his pitches. I think the fact he pitches in Arizona has hidden him from getting too much hype, but Arizona is on the cusp of a breakout as a team with a lot of young up-and-coming talent. He is my NL Cy Young prediction.
Lars Nootbaar (OF – STL) | 191.84 ADP
Lars Nootbaar has been a popular sleeper target already this draft season, and I am a bit surprised that his ADP has not risen higher. He has all the physical tools with power and speed for a breakout. There is also a belief that he could lead off, which would be huge on what looks like one of the best lineups in baseball. The question is how many plate appearances we could see. If Nootbaar gets 650 plate appearances, he could be one of the best deals in the draft.
Ryan McMahon (2B, 3B – COL) ADP 207.65
McMahon has settled into being a 20-homer guy that is great in Coors and not so great on the road, but what he has quietly done is add a nice little speed component to his game. He stole six bases in 2021 and seven last year, and that has made him a lot more valuable in a position that offers very little speed. If you play in NFBC or in a daily moves format, you can optimize his home road split really nicely this season as well.
Nico Hoerner (CHC) ADP 138.83
Hoerner is a pretty divisive guy in the fantasy industry. Some see him as a boring accumulator, and others see him as a great hit-tool guy with speed that can be a difference-maker in multiple categories. I am in the latter group. He was top five in the Major Leagues in zone contact and stole 20 bases in just 135 games. He will be a full-time player this year at second base, so he will gain that eligibility at a terrible position. Love him this year.
Ozzie Albies (ATL) – ADP 53.93
Albies is coming off of a disaster season in which he struggled at the plate and then got hurt, causing him to miss the majority of the season. He is entering 2023 healthy and still has the five-category production ceiling to get him back to the first or second round production that he was being drafted for last year.
Jose Abreu (1B, DH – HOU) | 99.56 ADP
Jose Abreu could not have ended up signing in a better spot than Houston. The Crawford Boxes should give him a nice boost in terms of power, as his xHR in Houston would have been 22 bombs. He is hitting in the middle of one of the best lineups in baseball, so it is pretty easy to pencil in 100+ RBIs. He is a four-category monster that is about as safe as they come.
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