Who Should I Draft?
Juan Soto or Gerrit Cole (2021)
Experts' Pick | ||
| Juan Soto LF,RF - WSH  | Gerrit Cole SP - NYY  | |
Expert |
96% Recommended by 53 of 55 experts |
4% Recommended by 2 of 55 experts |
| Rankings | ||
| ECR | # 4 | # 8 |
| Best Rank | # 1 | # 4 |
| Worst Rank | # 10 | # 24 |
| ADP | ||
| Composite | # 4 | # 7 |
| Best Rank | # 3 | # 5 |
| Worst Rank | # 6 | # 8 |
| Projections | ||
| Runs | 111 | ‐ |
| Home Runs | 38 | 30 |
| RBI | 112 | ‐ |
| Stolen Bases | 13 | ‐ |
| Batting Avg | .305 | ‐ |
| Strikeouts | 119 | 262 |
| Wins | ‐ | 16 |
| Saves | ‐ | 0 |
| ERA | ‐ | 3.18 |
| WHIP | ‐ | 1.03 |
| Misc | ||
| Injury Alert | - | - |
| Expert Ranks | ||
| Andy Behrens Yahoo! Sports | # 4 | # 9 |
| Scott Pianowski Yahoo! Sports | # 5 | # 6 |
| Steve Gardner USA Today | # 3 | # 8 |
| Site Projections RotoChamp | # 6 | # 12 |
| Grey Albright Razzball | # 3 | # 17 |
| Greg Smith The Fake Baseball | # 4 | # 12 |
| Josh Shepardson FantasyPros | # 1 | # 12 |
| Jeff Boggis Fantasy Football Empire | # 5 | # 6 |
| Muntradamus Beast Dome | # 4 | # 8 |
| Scott White CBS Sports | # 6 | # 12 |
| KJ Fantasy Team Advice | # 2 | # 11 |
| Luke Gloeckner Mr. Cheatsheet | # 2 | # 5 |
| Dave McKay The Fantasy Sports Brain | # 2 | # 11 |
| Andrew Gould FantasyPros | # 3 | # 9 |
| Tim McCullough Baseball Prospectus | # 4 | # 6 |
| Rudy Gamble Razzball | # 3 | # 9 |
| Wayne Bretsky BretskyBall | # 2 | # 14 |
| Jake Ciely The Athletic | # 4 | # 8 |
| Joe Bond Fantasy Six Pack | # 4 | # 7 |
| Chris Meaney FTN | # 4 | # 8 |
| Andy Singleton Expand The Boxscore | # 4 | # 8 |
| Heath Capps Fake Teams | # 3 | # 9 |
| Adam Ronis Fantasy Alarm | # 2 | # 8 |
| Mario Mergola Sporfolio | # 2 | # 6 |
| Nick Pollack Pitcher List | # 5 | # 11 |
| Nick Mariano RotoBaller | # 2 | # 12 |
| Mike Maher FantasyPros | # 3 | # 8 |
| Frank Stampfl CBS Sports | # 2 | # 6 |
| Tyler Thompson Fantasy Six Pack | # 3 | # 7 |
| Michael Waterloo FantasyPros | # 3 | # 9 |
| Donkey Teeth Razzball | # 2 | # 12 |
| Dan Harris FantasyPros | # 4 | # 7 |
| Pierre Camus RotoBaller | # 3 | # 17 |
| Andrew Seifter FantasyPros | # 3 | # 11 |
| Max Freeze Freeze Stats | # 4 | # 8 |
| Dennis Sosic Fantasy Six Pack | # 4 | # 9 |
| Mick Ciallela Fantrax | # 4 | # 8 |
| Michael Petropoulos BRoto Fantasy | # 1 | # 10 |
| Ariel Cohen FanGraphs | # 3 | # 4 |
| Ryan Amore Pitcher List | # 6 | # 12 |
| Todd D Clark The Fantasy Fix | # 4 | # 9 |
| Brendan Tuma FantasyPros | # 3 | # 8 |
| Jacob W. Dunne New Life Fantasy | # 3 | # 13 |
| Lucas Spence Pitcher List | # 3 | # 8 |
| Jordan Eisen Field of Vision Sports | # 6 | # 7 |
| Nate Miller FantasyPros | # 6 | # 24 |
| Brad Camara FantasyPros | # 3 | # 7 |
| Staff Rankings Roto Ranks | # 4 | # 8 |
| Corbin Young FantasyData | # 4 | # 7 |
| SportsLine - Computer Simulation CBS Sports | # 3 | # 12 |
| Chris Clegg Fantrax | # 2 | # 9 |
| Joe Pisapia FantasyPros | # 1 | # 8 |
| Nicklaus Gaut RotoBaller | # 2 | # 8 |
| Dalton Del Don Yahoo! Sports | # 8 | # 4 |
| Carmen Maiorano FantasyPros | # 10 | # 9 |
| Juan Soto LF,RF - WSH | Gerrit Cole SP - NYY | |
| 2020 Stats | ||
| Runs | 39 | ‐ |
| Home Runs | 13 | 14 |
| RBI | 37 | ‐ |
| Stolen Bases | 6 | ‐ |
| Batting Avg | .351 | ‐ |
| Strikeouts | 28 | 94 |
| Wins | ‐ | 7 |
| Saves | ‐ | 0 |
| ERA | ‐ | 2.84 |
| WHIP | ‐ | 0.96 |
| Juan Soto LF,RF - WSH | Gerrit Cole SP - NYY | |
| 2021 Projections | ||
| Runs | 111 | ‐ |
| Home Runs | 38 | 30 |
| RBI | 112 | ‐ |
| Stolen Bases | 13 | ‐ |
| Batting Avg | .305 | ‐ |
| Strikeouts | 119 | 262 |
| Wins | ‐ | 16 |
| Saves | ‐ | 0 |
| ERA | ‐ | 3.18 |
| WHIP | ‐ | 1.03 |
| Juan Soto LF,RF - WSH | Gerrit Cole SP - NYY | |
| News | ||
| In Sunday's 3-0 win, Juan Soto went hitless in three at-bats with one walk. Soto's five-game hit streak also ended on Sunday. Corbin Young Sun, May 16th | Gerrit Cole did not allow a run giving up four hits and struck out 12 batters over eight dominant innings as the Yankees beat the Rays 1-0 on Wednesday. John Aubin Thu, May 13th | |
| Juan Soto went 2-for-4 with two RBI and one walk on Saturday. Soto extended his five-game hit streak. Corbin Young Sun, May 16th | Gerrit Cole allowed two earned runs on five hits and no walks while striking out four across seven innings Thursday against the Astros. He did not factor into the decision.
John Aubin Fri, May 7th | |
| In Friday's 17-2 blowout win against the Diamondbacks, Juan Soto went 1-for-5 with one run scored, one RBI, and one walk. Soto has a hit in four straight games. Corbin Young Sat, May 15th | Gerrit Cole allowed four hits and no walks while striking out 12 in six scoreless innings to earn the win against the Tigers on Friday. John Aubin Sat, May 1st | |
| In Thursday's 5-1 win against the Phillies, Juan Soto scored two runs and went 1-for-4. Soto has a hit in three straight games. Corbin Young Thu, May 13th | Gerrit Cole picked up the win in Saturday's 2-1 victory over Cleveland, allowing one run on three hits over seven innings. He struck out 11 without walking a batter. John Aubin Sun, Apr 25th | |
| Nationals star Juan Soto went 1-for-4 with one walk and one strikeout. He has a hit in back-to-back games since returning from the injured list. Corbin Young Wed, May 12th | Gerrit Cole gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits with 10 strikeouts and no walks over 6 1/3 innings on Sunday in a loss to the Rays. John Aubin Sun, Apr 18th | |
| Notes | ||
| There aren't enough superlatives in the English language to describe what Soto has done in his career given his young age. Had he merely repeated his incredible 2019 numbers last season, fantasy managers would have been ecstatic. Instead, he upped his walk rate from an elite 16.4% to a truly remarkable 20.9%, cut his strikeout rate down to just 14.3%, and batted .351. Soto does not have the speed or baserunning chops to steal 30 bases in a season, which is the only thing keeping him from being considered worthy of drafting first overall. But given what he's accomplished through his age-21 season, it's truly scary to think of how high his ceiling may be. Draft him as a top-five pick and enjoy the ridiculous production. Dan Harris - FantasyPros | Cole was pretty much as advertised in his first season with the Yankees. His ERA rose a tad, as did his home run rate as expected, and his strikeout rate fell a bit, though it remained at an absurdly high level. And, for the most part, all of his expected metrics fell off a tad from his 2019 season. But Cole's numbers from that season were so dominating that he could withstand plenty of regression and still be one of the best pitchers in fantasy. As such, he'll head into 2021 close to the way he came into the 2020 season: a dominant, high-strikeout, low-walk starter who will throw plenty of innings and who is more likely to finish as the top overall fantasy pitcher than he is to finish outside the top-10. It's a matter of personal preference between Cole and Jacob deGrom as the first pitcher off the board, but neither should fall outside the top-10 overall picks on draft day. Dan Harris - FantasyPros | |
| There isn't a single negative thing to say about the second coming of Ted Williams. Soto get even better last year, his age-21 season, and wound up leading baseball in OBP. The fact that he was limited to 47 games wound up costing him NL MVP honors, as Soto was the best hitter in baseball on a per-game basis in 2020. The floor here is so high. Soto isn't a zero in stolen bases either. He swiped 12 in 2019 and six last summer. Brendan Tuma - FantasyPros | ||
