Jose Bautista is 36 years old, but he’s one year removed from a season in which he went 108-40-114-8. He hit just .234 last year, but his average exit velocity on fly balls and line drives was 96.5 mph (top-20 in MLB). To give reference it was 95.7 mph in 2015 (h/t Jeff Sullivan). Rogers Centre has increased home runs for right-handed batters by nine percent over the last three seasons, which is the second most in the American League over that span. Even during a down time (while playing injured), Bautista had the third highest BB% (16.8) in MLB last year, and he’s averaged 36 homers over the last seven seasons (while missing ample time over that span). It’s absurd he’s currently going outside the top-100 ADP in Yahoo drafts, so take advantage of it.
Headlines of the Week: Lawyer’s Pants Catch Fire During Florida Arson Trial…Pizza Hut Just Introduced “Pie Top” Sneakers That Can Order Your Favorite Pizza…Man Charged With Trying To Kill Mannequin In Homeless Murder Sting…Bald Eagles Keep Dying And No One’s Talking About It…Man Accused Of Holding 8 Women Captive In Georgia Mansion.
Another veteran getting buried in the rankings who’s a steal right now is Alex Cobb. The A.L. East is obviously a tough environment, but Tropicana Field is very pitcher friendly. He got shelled at the end of last year, but who cares? He’s now well removed from Tommy John surgery, and from 2013-2014, he recorded an ERA of 2.82 and a WHIP of 1.14, both of which were top-16 in all of baseball. Cobb is 29 years old, has good stuff and is currently being drafted as the No. 97 starting pitcher in Yahoo leagues. I don’t get it. He’s a top-40 SP on my board.
In case you missed it, here’s my recap of my NL LABR Auction. And here’s our latest podcast, talking all things draft strategy.
Quick Hits: Zack Greinke is known for messing around with his speed, but this report on his velocity being so down coming off such a huge disappointing season isn’t exactly encouraging…DJ LeMahieu led all of baseball with a .388 BABIP last year, but while that shouldn’t be expected to repeat, obviously Coors Field helps in hit rate, and his line drive percentage (26.6) ranked sixth. For someone who scored 104 runs (in fewer than 150 games) and won the batting title with a .348 BA, LeMahieu’s current Yahoo ADP outside of the top-100 seems cheap…According to Fangraphs, Mookie Betts was by far the best baserunner last season, while two Tigers (Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera) were the worst….Alexei Ramirez had a -2.4 WAR last year. The next lowest was -0.3. Put differently, Mike Trout was single-handedly worth around a dozen more wins, and his defense was graded around average…Pitchers must not like playing Chicago, as six of the top-13 batters who were hit most by pitches last year resided in that city…Miguel Cabrera “led” MLB last season in grounding into double plays with 26. Chase Utley had 512 at bats and didn’t ground into any.
Police Blotter: Mom And Daughter Who Hid Millions In Diapers Plead Guilty To Medicare Fraud…Man Wearing “I Have Drugs” Shirt Arrested For Drug Possession…Hitler Toast Leads To Jail Time For German Drug Dealer…Thieves Stealing From Recently Deceased After Reading Obituaries…Man Sentenced For Scalping Woman Tells Judge To Skip Lecture.
Quick Hits Part Deux: Howie Kendrick had the highest GB/FB ratio last year (by a wide margin) at 3.10. Brandon Belt had the lowest at 0.57. Weird that the former had a .301 BABIP, while the latter (in the toughest park to hit in for lefties by far) had a .346 BABIP…Todd Frazier had the highest IFFB% (18.5) last year, while as usual, Joey Votto didn’t hit a single pop out in 2016 (so crazy)…Christian Yelich hits a ton of grounders (his 2.82 GB/FB ratio was the second highest in MLB last year), yet his 23.6 HR/FB% ranked as the eighth highest in baseball, ahead of Miguel Cabrera and the aforementioned Votto who never hits infield flies. Go figure…Jason Heyward is a good baserunner, one of the best defenders in all of baseball and at 27, still is plenty young enough to improve at the plate, but he just finished a season in which he had the highest Soft% (27.1) on contact. He had a .325 slugging percentage (to be fair, Wrigley Field has suppressed power for LHB over the past three years).
Song of the Week: alt-J: “3WW”
Longread of the Week: The Oral History Of Michael Jordan’s Minor League Baseball Career (this is really good)
Quick Hits Part Tres: Robbie Ray had the second highest K/9 (11.25) in MLB last year. Ray also had the eighth worst BB/9 mark (3.67) and the highest BABIP (.352)…To put that in perspective, Marco Estrada allowed a .234 batting average on balls in play…Chris Sale hit the most batters in baseball last year with 17. New teammate Drew Pomeranz hit the fewest with one (although he did counter that with 10 wild pitches. Sale had two)…While Kyle Hendricks may be due to regress some thanks to a .250 hit rate that doesn’t appear sustainable, his 25.1 Soft% was the best in MLB last year…Noah Syndergaard’s 98.0 mph fastball led all starters in velocity…Given his current injury status, I wouldn’t consider drafting David Price until the double digit rounds (and even then, I doubt I’d take the plunge right now)…I seem to be in the minority, but I really like the WBC…Jarrod Dyson has averaged 31.2 stolen bases over the past five years while averaging 252.8 at bats. He’s now expected to be a full-time player in Seattle and carries an ADP of 232.8. He’ll be a part of many winning fantasy teams this year…Same with Rougned Odor, who just hit 33 homers with 14 steals as a 22-year-old yet is somehow commonly available in the fifth round.
Follow the Yahoo crew on Twitter: Andy Behrens, Dalton Del Don, Brad Evans, Brandon Funston, Liz Loza and Scott Pianowski
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