Sunday, April 5th, is the official Opening Day of Major League Baseball, and that means that fantasy drafts are well underway. There are some great sleepers to look at this season for your team if you haven’t finalized a lineup yet. A lot has happened over the last few days, and players that wouldn’t have been considered before are now prime draft material.
One of these athletes is Josh Hamilton. Most people thought that he would be suspended by his team, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, because of his relapse and past history of substance abuse, but it was officially decided on Friday that this would not happen. Because most people stayed away from him in their drafts, he’s now a top choice for leagues, mostly because everyone else has been to afraid to pick him up. He’s a great player, and if his baggage is left behind like the Angels think it is, then he could be a top contributor for a playoff worthy team. This might not be a popular opinion at the moment, but his past stats indicate that it’s true.
Another player to consider is Marcell Ozuna of the Miami Marlins. He’s an outfielder, which is a hotspot, and not even close to the top of most lists. But he’s a young player at 24 years old, ready to start developing the promise that he’s already started to shown. He is dirt cheap right now in most leagues, too, because his spring hasn’t been as great as it was hyped to be. This is to your benefit. Many stat sites say that he could produce as many as 30 homeruns for the Marlins. This isn’t a guarantee by any means, but he does have the potential, and because he’s so young, it’s tough to tell whether it will happen this year, the next, or never at all. He even has demonstrated that he’s capable of turning in a good batting average, which will at least add hits to your stat pool if his power ends up not shining through.
The biggest sleeper out there right now, in some people’s opinions, is Gerrit Cole of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He missed some of 2014 due to injury, but when he came back in August, was averaging over 1 strikeout per inning. He’s the number 2 guy for the Pirates, and that means he will get 30 or more starts if he stays healthy, iitch around 200 innings, and is capable of finishing in the top 10 in the National League for total strikeouts. All of these are impressive, assuming he stays healthy enough this year to stick around the entire season. He’s currently not even in the top 25 right now in most leagues, which makes it easy to pick him up in late rounds of your drafts at a steal.
Finally, take another look at Masahiro Tanaka, starting pitcher for the New York Yankees. He’s a great pitcher, and performed well in 2014 when he was healthy, but ligament damage has had him much lower in drafts at this moment than he actually deserves to be. His spring performances have been great, and while the injury might not be completely gone, he is well on his way to recovery and deserves to be higher than 31st among starters, where he is currently ranked. If there’s room on your roster and he hasn’t been grabbed up yet, he’s worth taking.
If you’ve missed your fantasy draft, remember there are always single day leagues, or daily fantasy sports, games to take advantage of. These players will likely be underpriced in those leagues too, at least until they indicate that they have some worth.
