Most of the Giants
Rojas is smashing in spring and a Kole Calhoun injury puts him in line for a spot on Opening Day, but Asdrúbal Cabrera is kind of a perfect platoon (while Rojas is filling in for an OF, he is likely to play 2B and send Ketel Marte back into CF). Peralta has always been affordable so his platooning is covered by his 285 ADP. Lux
could be platooned because it’s the Dodgers, but manager Dave Roberts seems to be interested in him as a full-time player.
The Giants could realistically run 4-5 platoons with Tommy La Stella/Evan Longoria, Brandon Belt/Darin Ruf 러프, Alex Dickerson/Austin Slater, and Brandon Crawford/Wilmer Flores all pairing up pretty nicely (with Donovan Solano shifting to SS, not Flores). They will face all nine of these arms so I think the short ends of these platoons definitely have some NL-Only value.
3.4
Once again, Jarrod Dyson finds himself atop the Pod SB bull board. He was in that very same spot heading into the 2020 season as well, and although he whipped both the projections, Pod’s more optimistic forecast was significantly closer. This year, both projections are forecasting a slight decline in stolen base prowess, but the gap between the two actually grew marginally. Obviously, Dyson’s age is tripping up the computer forecast, but he’s shown no signs of slowing down is basestealing yet. A reserve role is actually beneficial as he’ll pinch run more frequently and add steals without adding plate appearances.
C.J. Cron +85 to 188 (56:44)
Myles Straw +82 to 238 (1:02:54)
Tejay Antone +73 to 270 (1:08:40)
Nick Senzel +55 to 224 (1:12:10)
Jake McGee +51 to 270 (1:15:04)
Aaron Hicks +43 to 240 (1:16:55)
Joc Pederson +41 to 256 (1:21:18)
Ty France +41 to 290 (1:25:30)
Gavin Lux +40 to 218 (1:27:44)
Shohei Ohtani +40 to 176
As usual, don’t hesitate to tweet us or comment with fantasy questions.
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March 16, 2021
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about weirdness and whimsy in spring training, the Giants and Cleveland playing an unnecessary bottom of the ninth (without umpires), the 22-pitch plate appearance between Jordan Hicks and Luis Guillorme, Jacob deGrom’s ever-escalating velocity, and two recent research pieces, then preview the 2021 Twins (23:33) with Aaron Gleeman of
The Athletic and the 2021 Tigers (59:27) with Evan Woodbery of the MLive Media Group.
2021 EW Season Preview Series
AL
March 17, 2021
How do projected wins translate into salaries in free agency? That’s a fundamental question that front offices have to answer and, in fact, have had to answer ever since free agency opened up baseball’s labor market after the 1976 season. No, no GM back then was using Wins Above Replacement or fancy-pants computers spitting out ZoRPs or Stonker projections. But decisions are always based on some kind of projection, whether that exercise is explicit or not. When Grizzled Greg the GM went after a player for X hundreds of thousands of dollars after the 1976 season, he was still estimating how the player would play in the future and whether that benefit was worth the cost. Heck, I’ve never made a taco-based projection system. Still, when I see a taco, I’m projecting whether or not the DAR (Deliciousness Above Refrigerator) is worth the dollars that will be debited from my bank account.