Fantasy Baseball

If you want to win your fantasy baseball league, these are the pitchers you need

Buy very high one these pitchers that people seem to be selling low on for some reason.

A pitcher is arguably the most important player on the baseball diamond; how he does usually decides whether or not his team will win. A pitcher is just as important in Fantasy Baseball, your pitchers could make or break your week in categories and points leagues.

Fantasy rankings are everywhere, but not all of them are telling the true truth of how things will go.

Top Tier

Jacob deGrom- The Reigning NL Cy Young award winner is being disrespected slightly on Yahoo and ESPN (Ranking of 18th overall on Yahoo and 13th overall on ESPN). deGrom was the best pitcher in baseball all of last season going on to have a 10 win, 1.70 ERA, .196 baa, and 269 strikeout season. It was the best season of deGrom’s career, and one of the best seasons in MLB history. deGrom might regress slightly in terms of ERA, but his strikeouts should stay the same, and his wins should go up. The Mets improved their offense and bullpen this offseason which makes me think Degrom will have a lot more than 10 wins this season. The pitcher pool is deep in fantasy this season, but when you’re able to get a top tier pitcher such as Degrom you should take it. Degrom should be drafted late in the first round, before his ranking suggests, because of how Yahoo and ESPN have certain hitters currently ranked.

Carlos Carrasco- Carrasco had one of the least talked about seasons, and will continue to go overlooked with Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer in the rotation with him. Yahoo and ESPN currently have Carrasco ranked 47th and 50th respectively so even they are overlooking him. Carrasco had a 17 win, 3.38 ERA, .238 baa, and 231 strikeout season, arguably his best overall season. Carrasco’s value comes from the division he plays in because the Tigers, White Sox, and Twins were very bad against right-handed pitchers. The Royals could give him some fits this year with their lineup, but he should still be good for six to seven innings and six to nine strikeouts a game. Carrasco could be taken as high as 38th without being considered a reach.

Middle Tier

Carlos Martinez- Carlos Martinez got hurt last season, but before he got hurt he looked to be his normal dominant self. He is currently ranked 131st on Yahoo and 152nd on ESPN. Last season Martinez had 8 wins, 3.11 ERA, .228 baa, and 117 strikeouts. He only pitched 118 innings so it is nice to see he was averaging almost a strikeout per inning. Martinez is going overlooked because of the emergence of Miles Nikolas and Jack Flaherty, but he will prove to everyone that he is still in the Ace in St. Louis. Martinez threw his least amount of pitches since 2014, and the team even used him as a reliever in September when he returned from injury to limit his innings. Martinez has now had the entire offseason to get back to the pitcher we saw in 2016 win 16 games with a 3.04 ERA and 174 strikeouts. Martinez is one of my favorite middle round pitchers to take due to his ranking and the pitchers around him, and some leagues it may be okay to reach on him a little.

German Marquez- German Marquez is currently ranked 105th on Yahoo, and 144th on ESPN. First of all, on ESPN he is a steal at 144th, on ESPN you could take him as high as his Yahoo ranking before it could be considered a reach. Marquez had his best career season last season having 14 wins, 3.77 ERA, .241 baa, and 230 strikeouts. Marquez will always be undervalued because he pitches half of his games in Colorado, arguably the best hitters park in the league, but after the All-Star Break last season he came out a completely different pitcher. In the second half of the season Marquez had six wins, 2.61 ERA, .215 baa, and 124 strikeouts. This should be the Marquez we see this season, and we will gladly draft him in the late rounds on ESPN with that ranking if he continues to fall.

Low Tier

My low tier pitchers are going to be pitchers who you could probably get in the last few rounds of your drafts, and they have the upside to be one of the best pitchers on your fantasy team.

Brent Honeywell- Brent Honeywell is ranked 994th on Yahoo and 3,349th on ESPN because people really don’t really know what to expect from him, but also because of recency bias. Honeywell has been one of the most talked about pitching prospects in baseball the last few years and was going to have his chance last season to prove he could live up to the hype. This did not happen because he ended up getting having Tommy John Surgery last February. The 23-year-old pitcher in 2017 had a 13 win, 3.49 ERA, .255 baa and 172 strikeouts in the minors. His 172 strikeouts look even more amazing when you consider he did that in 136 innings pitched. Honeywell is slated to be late May, early June call up, but if your league has an IR spot stashing him until his call up is probably the best idea.

Alex Reyes- The hard-throwing right-handed pitcher was up with the Cardinals in 2018 for a little while, but suffered a lat injury and couldn’t find his way back to the majors. In the minors last season on his rehab he pitched 23 innings accumulating three wins, 0.00 ERA, .096 baa, and 44 strikeouts. Reyes is currently ranked 202nd on Yahoo, and isn’t even currently in the system for ESPN standard leagues. While his role with the Cardinals in 2019 is still undecided I will have a hard time passing on his upside. Pitchers and Catchers will be reporting to Spring Training next week, but he has already been at the facility throwing workouts and continuing to make sure he is 100% healthy and ready to put the Big Leagues on notice. Obviously, Spring Training will dictate how high Reyes is drafted, but if his ranking stays at 202 he will be the steal of your drafts.

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