If you ask 10 people who play fantasy baseball what their favorite format to play is, you might get 10 different answers.
For me, there’s nothing that holds a candle to dynasty leagues. There are so many different strategies that you can put in place, and something is gratifying about winning the league (remember, folks, that is always the ultimate goal) with a team that you’ve assembled over time.
Managers in fantasy also love to prospect chase and prospect hold. We can’t help it, and it’s ingrained in us in general.
The pieces that we already have hold more value to us than the pieces we are being offered. It’s called the endowment effect, and it holds true in fantasy baseball – especially in dynasty leagues.
But the other funny thing about prospects is if they don’t hit right away, we tend to dismiss them and move on to something new.
And with that, a window is created for you, savvy manager, to acquire the former prospect of the week that wouldn’t even be moved for Mike Trout for pennies on the dollar.
That’s what we are going to look at today. We want to look at different prospects who have seen their value take a hit, aren’t being discussed enough, or in some instances, are worth buying high on despite the helium behind them.
It’s one of the beautiful parts of dynasty leagues where someone’s perceived trash can become your applied treasure.
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At this time last year, there was nothing but buzz around Dominguez, who went as high as first overall in many First-Year Player Drafts. When I wrote up my top picks for the 2020 draft, I had Dominguez slotted second behind Andrew Vaughn and ahead of Bobby Witt, Jr.
The process was Dominguez had the highest helium at the time and could fetch the most in trade offers.
That’s changed, now.
Dominguez still has his hype, and the photos we saw of him looking like Aaron Donald either had people really excited or really nervous about his future. But in dynasty drafts now, he’s going behind Witt, Vaughn, Riley Greene, Alek Manoah, Corbin Carroll, Adley Rutschman, and Josh Jung.
What that’s telling me is it’s time to check around the league and see what the acquisition cost would be.
There are concerns, of course, as he underwhelmed in Low-A last year, posting a .252 average with a .732 OPS with five home runs in 56 games. He’s been jumped by Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza in prospect lists, but the prospects of a 30/30 season are still there for Dominguez.
It’s the perfect time to try to acquire him.
Sixto Sánchez is throwing. Max Meyer is rising the ranks. Eury Perez is taking over the pitching prospect world. And then there’s Cabrera, who is quietly going to begin the season in the Marlins’ rotation, while the other three are not.
And the thing is, Cabrera is just as good as them, if not better.
Sure, the Marlins have a ton of options, and Cabrera didn’t exactly set the world on fire last year, posting a 5.81 ERA (6.63 FIP, 5.14 xFIP) in 26.1 innings.
But if you look at his minor-league track record, the stuff plays. He had an average of 23.3 K% in his stint in the big leagues, but that number was in the high 30s in Triple-A and Double-A last year.
Marlins insider and noted fantasy fan Craig Mish said in 2020 that he liked Cabrera more than Sánchez. Cabrera will have the chance to prove that this year, and he can still be acquired for a low cost after he didn’t come out of the gates firing. It takes pitchers time, and I have all the faith in Cabrera and the Marlins to maximize his output and his four pitches.
Soderstrom came out of the draft as a catcher, but there’s next to no chance that he sticks behind the plate.
And you know what, that’s OK.
His bat is so advanced, that the quickest path for him to get to Oakland is to move him out from behind the dish and move over to first base as the eventual replacement for Matt Olson.
We saw the hitting skills come to life last year for Soderstrom, as he posted a .306/.390/.568 line with 12 home runs and 88 runs/RBIs for a 145 wRC+ in 57 games at a 19-year-old.
He’s a household name among prospect hounds, but by the end of the year, he’ll be fully known throughout the community.
Wells is a perfect example of why you need to be careful which prospect list you’re looking at when trying to figure out who you should acquire. Wells is by far a better fantasy prospect than a real-life one because there are major questions about his defense.
He won’t be a catcher, we know this. Runners are stealing on him with ease, so first base or a corner outfield spot seem like the most likely landing spots for him.
But what we, as fantasy managers, care about is that Wells can flat-out hit for power.
With the power comes a high strikeout rate, but also a nice walk rate to help balance it out. We don’t care about strikeouts as much as we used to, and as long as he can keep it below 30 percent, the power is going to make him a valuable fantasy player in the near future, as he should play the majority of the upcoming season in Double-A.
While the Bryce Harper comparisons are laughable, Kyle Schwarber seems like a nice comparison to shoot for.
Other prospects to acquire
- Trey Sweeney (3B – NYY)
- Gabriel Moreno (C – TOR)
- Jordan Groshans (3B – TOR)
- Jordan Westburg (SS – BAL)
- Coby Mayo (3B – BAL)
- Seth Beer (OF – ARI)
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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.