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.
Starting pitching is extremely deep this year which is great for fantasy, but there are some that seem too good to be true and others that are inexplicably cheaper than they should be. Here are my picks for starting pitchers to target and avoid at the first base position in 2023.
- 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
- Fitz’s Positional Primers
- Justin Mason’s Draft Day Cheat Sheet
- Players the Experts Draft
- Latest Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft
Starting Pitchers to Target/Avoid at ADP
Avoids
Dylan Cease (SP – CWS): ADP 43.54
Cease was fantastic in 2022, so why am I fading him? The main reason is his lack of control and command. He has less-than-average command and poor control. This becomes a huge issue that is amplified by the fact he is a two-pitch pitcher. When he loses the feel for a pitch in a start, he can get hit around, as we saw in his most recent Spring Training start. He is also a negative in WHIP, which, when you’re drafting a starting pitcher as high as you have to with Cease, you expect to not have him actively hurt you in a category.
Tyler Glasnow (SP – TB): ADP 104.23
I know some might say that this is an easy call, but I was already fading Glasnow prior to the oblique injury. Glasnow is a fantastic pitcher on a per-inning basis. However, he has not been able to stay healthy for an entire season in his career. The most innings he has ever thrown in a season is 111.2, and that was back in 2018. He only threw 6.2 innings last season coming off of Tommy John surgery, so it is hard to expect him to throw a complete workload, to begin with. Now he’s already starting off the season with an injury, so I am completely taking him off of my draft list.
Hunter Greene (SP – CIN): ADP 107.84 and Nick Lodolo (SP – CIN): ADP 132.00
Greene and Lodolo are huge targets for a lot of people in the industry as they are young arms that flashed huge potential late in the season last year. However, they both have the same red flags. They do not have great WHIPs because of their walk rates. They also will struggle with wins with how bad the Reds look like they are going to be. I do also worry about home runs in Great American Ballpark. If I am going to gamble on one of them, it is Greene, whose stuff is just off the charts. There are too many red flags for me to pay their current prices.
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