Fantastic baseball is a game of opinions. We are not always going to agree, and that’s good. This is why we play this game for six months a year.
Last week, we approached polarizing launchers. Today we look at polarizing strikers.
Shohei Ohtani (Util), Dodgers and Ronald Acuña Jr. (of), Braves
I have ohtani on my list of funds, but I see for what it’s worth – A very soft melted. In a world that adapts to Ohtani as an automatic choice n ° 1, I prefer it to 2 or 3. Last year flights are a horrible bet to repeat. It is not worth it to maintain Ohtani’s health. He never stole more than 26 bases before 2024, and part of the tip last year was the novelty of the 50-50 prosecution.
Ohtani and dodgers are intelligent. It is not a question of beating the Rockies or the Reds in May, it is a question of being ready to defend the ring in October.
My call: The regression is not fun, but it certainly seems inevitable. So there. And do not forget how often Ohtani was injured in Anaheim. Dodgers are ready for six months of load management. They are already in the playoffs. This is not a scenario for someone I can take first on the whole.
On Acuña, he will also brake the race – And he admits openly it. You know the rule on the quotes of players and the team – be careful with the sun stuff, but believe all the negative things they tell you. This is where the truth serum is located.
My call: Acuña has undergone two major injuries in her career and for preservation, the bags must be exchanged. Oh, he will run. But since it will not be ready for the opening and that it already talks about the maintenance and the necessary game changes, I will not affect the market price of a low ADP.
Kyle Tucker, DE, Cubs
Listen, Tucker has always been great since he became a regular. But last year was going to be his year of signature, his SGT. Pepper season. About any statistics will bring you to the same conclusion, but use the 181 ops + as an illustration in the backpkin. Justice Aaron and Shohei Ohtani beat him, among the league qualifications. No one else has done so.
So Tucker’s “All cultivated now“As they say to the Apollo. But now he’s on the cubs, not the astros. My friend Gene McCaffrey had a great outlet – An open question – on Tucker and this curious business:
I do not classify it higher before I understand why the astros exchanged it. The idea of baseball is to have * players like Kyle Tucker, not to exchange them. Astros surely know it and still translates it. Read between the lines, and I could be wrong, I think they were very crazy that he missed three months after a HBP. I saw the game, he didn’t even seem to leave the match. After his return finally, he tried only one flight.
Tucker has always been a high percentage thief, but maybe he is another typing star who decides to amortize him. Or maybe 2024 was an aberration after the injury, I don’t know. He plays for his next contract, which counts for some. I admit that I worry a little guys after having received the big wages, especially if the context of the team changes (Colton and the Wolfman I arrived early And they made a mint of these fade). But fundamentally, everyone tries. It’s not like Tucker looked halfway there.
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My call: So I’m afraid of writing Tucker and I’m afraid of not writing it. Maybe the cubs are my own personal version of a scary film, I always expect something wrong happening. This is not a tangible reason, I know. I still pinch for what six months of Kyle Tucker 2024 would have added.
Jarren Duran, DE, Red Sox
What is funny is that escape 2024 was always hiding in sight. He just needed a full season of engagement. The oblique bar lines of the last two years are almost identical. The work on the basics, the same tricks. Power seemed to flower (13 other circuits), but its slugging only made 10 points. When years of career occurred in the early 1920s, we say “to the moon!” When they appeared in the 1920s, we were wary.
My call: I suspect that the best approach is to ask “who is Duran this year?” And not hunt Duran 2024. I don’t think it is a solid, just soft, with an ADP in the bass 20. The park is a gift and the programming is delicious. Boston could even be the divisional favorites given the terrible spring that the Yankees have. But I think the market reacted slightly, so Duran is another light melted for me.
Nick Castellanos, de, Phillies
When I examined the exercise championships during the holidays, Castellanos struck me like the most obvious fade in the world. THE The career arc moves downwardsAnd although the growth and development of players are not always linear, the deterioration of skills is almost always so. Now it’s a 33 year old season. Alas, many people from the industry that I respect choose Castellanos as the boring value game, and even if I do not hit the drum for the Ibañez stars as much as before, they played my emotions.
My call: I wrote Castellanos once this year, just in case they are right. I’m going to fail him the rest of spring, just in case I am right. At least, the park and the range offer buoyancy.
Michael Toglia, 1b / of, Rockies
It is not the biggest name on this list, but it could adapt to the vanity of the the best column. Toglia summoned 21 circuits in 116 games, we cannot see this. He also withdrew 147 times and struck .218, we cannot see this either. His house / road divisions were strange because he struck 17 of his circuits far from Coors and had a higher OPS on the road. The Rockies should simply leave Toglia alone for six months and see what they have, but go back to my guy McCaffrey, who once said “Colorado is a club that is eager to remove its best team from the field.”
It is an elegant way of saying “impatient”.
The first basis was a fantastic fun area. It has become more delicate in recent years. You better look at the lower half of the first basic pool and find someone you love. If it is not Toglia, it may be Tyler Soderstrom or Ryan Mountcastle. How can Carlos Santana continue to produce at his age? Soderstrom is my favorite of these guys on the current market, but I targeted Toglia for a draft of the best ball, while waiting for a volatile profile, but ultimately a good food line by the end of the year.
My call: High -flying ball strikers have the biggest peaks and valleys. We will see if the colorado is intelligent enough to let Toglia overcome it. It is not as if it was blocking the next Todd Helton. See what you have here. The same could be said for fantasy managers, with its ADP after 200.
