TWO NEW YORK OUTFIELD MOVES
Michael Conforto will make the Mets’ Opening Day roster. Still, he’s likely to serve as a bench player until Jay Bruce is dealt or someone is hurt. He’s a purely speculative play in mixed leagues. Don’t be swayed by the hype just yet. He still hasn’t prove he can hit lefties anyway.
Aaron Judge has been named the Yankees starter in right field, a day after the team hinted he could begin the year in the minors, which means Aaron Hicks becomes a mere depth option in AL-only leagues. As for Judge, a massive human being, has hit .345 with just 13 strikeouts in 58 at-bats this spring and the excitement is getting a bit ridiculous. Here’s what his manager said. “That was a very tough call, a very good competition, in the end we thought Judge won and he’s our rightfielder,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Our plan is to play him every day.” Yet to turn 25, Judge is about the size of a small mountain standing 6’7” and weighing in at 265 lbs. In limited work last season Judge bombed with 42 strikeouts in 84 at-bats in the bigs, simply hideous work. A top-40 performer amongst all minor leaguers heading into last season according to Baseball Prospectus and MLB.com, Judge appeared in 93 games at Triple-A with a .270/.366/.489 slash line. He also had 19 homers and drove in 65 runs. Alas, he struck out 98 times to give him 172 punchouts and a mere .252 batting average in 154 games at Triple-A. The guy can mash. He’s also a whiff machine. Some possible outcomes. (1) He could end up on the bench in two months. (2) He could end up in the minors in two months. (3) He could be successful with a Brandon Moss type season. The upside just isn’t anywhere near as high as folks seem to think judging by the questions I’m fielding (see what I did there with “judging”?). He’s a 7th outfield option in mixed leagues.
NOTE: All these moves have been incorporated into the Fantasy Alarm Player Rankings.
TWINS DEMOTE PARK
ByungHo Park tore it up this spring with a 353/.414/.745 slash with six homers this spring. The end result is... a trip to the minors. Park was sent to minor-league camp Thursday despite all that success. "We asked Park at the beginning of the spring to compete and show us that his second time was going to be bettered. It was by leaps and bounds," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "We've talked a lot about his consistency and calmness in the box, and he showed us all of that." The natural assumption is that (A) Park is detested by someone with the Twins (don’t forget they exposed him to waivers this offseason) and (B) Kennys Vargas’s foot must be healthy. However, it may not be A or B, there might actually be a C. "It wasn't so much about Kennys," Molitor said. "He was gone for a while for the [World Baseball Classic] and then the foot injury so he hasn't played much. We decided that carrying eight [relief] pitchers would help the maneuverability on the roster when it comes to maybe adding guys that aren't on the 40-man roster.” It sounds like Robbie Grossman is going to see a good deal of time at DH in the early going as the team still isn’t sold on Vargas and his obvious 30-homer power.
THIS AND THAT
Jesus Aguilar is crushing it this spring with a .466/.523/.897 slash line this spring that has also produced seven homers, 17 RBI and 16 runs scored in 23 games. Should we be talking more about him than Eric Thames whom everyone is pumped about suiting up for the Brewers? Meanwhile, Thames has looked rather average with a .275/.387/.412 line. Could Jesus steal early season work from Eric? Seems possible at least.
Is Melky Cabrera better than you think? The answer is likely – yes. See his Player Profile.
Brandon Drury is ended up on a lot of my teams. I’ve written about him in his Player Profile. He sure looks ready to rock with an impressive spring line of .375/.397/.625.
Ian Happ isn’t going to make the Cubs, but he’s left a nice taste in their mouths win an impressive spring that includes a .411 average, a 1.272 OPS, five homers and 20 RBI in 27 games. The 9th pick in the 2015 Entry Draft, he has a nice game but still needs work on his 2-strike approach.
There has been a homer surge in Major League Baseball. I wrote about it in The Homer Surge.
J.T. Realmuto is certainly a top-10 catcher this season. See why in his Player Profile.
Give the Yangervis Solarte Player Profile a read. It’s likely he will be someone you target off waivers at some point this season when injuries strike (if he wasn’t drafted).
Neil Walker has lots of pop for a second sacker. See his Player Profile.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 7 PM EDT, Wednesday 8 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).