Drafting power guys like Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton is easy. Drafting speed guys like Trea Turner and Dee Gordon is easy. However, those guys are going to cost you first round picks, or 2nd round if you’re lucky. Finding steals and homers late in the draft is vital to a successful fantasy season. Finding the A.J. Pollock late a couple years ago paid off for many fantasy owners, as did the likes of Logan Morrison and even Joey Gallo (minus the batting average) in 2017. This week, I’m here to give you my two favorite sources of cheap speed and cheap power for the 2018 season.
CHEAP SPEED
Delino DeShields, OF TEX – DeShields has an everyday role to start the season in the Texas outfield and as long as he performs, he should lock down the job for the entirety over the season. Unlike some other speed guys in the league (looking at you Billy Hamilton), DeShields isn’t going to destroy your batting average or on-base percentage. From last year’s stats, the Texas outfielder had a batting average 22 points higher and an on-base percentage that was 48 points higher than Hamilton’s! Sure, he stole 30 less bags, but DeShields comes off the board 12 rounds later in a 12-team league.
Since coming into the league in 2015, DeShields is 62-for-81 (76.5%) on the bases, and his numbers extrapolated to a full 162-game season would give him a total of 32 stolen bases with a .254 batting average and .333 on-base percentage.
I mentioned it a few weeks ago and I’ll say it again verbatim. He’s criminally underpriced at this point in the offseason and finding a player with an upside of stolen bases in the mid-30s this late in the draft is few and far between. Lock him in.
Bradley Zimmer, OF CLE – In 101 games last year, Zimmer hit .241 with a .307 on-base percentage. He swatted eight long balls and had a near perfect success rate on the basepaths (18-for-19). He was a valuable fantasy asset until an injury shortened his impressive rookie campaign. Albeit a small sample size of just under 300 at-bats, if you extrapolate his numbers over the course of a full 162-game season, Zimmer would have hit 13 home runs and swiped 29 bags. Even in the minors, he had great success. He stole 33 bases in 93 games at Double-A in 2016, only to follow that up with nine steals in 33 Triple-A games in the beginning of 2017.
You can likely get him in the 14th or 15th round of your draft and the stolen base upside is legit with the 25-year-old outfielder. He’s locked into an everyday role with the Indians and his success on the bases will force the Cleveland brass to let him run.
Worst-case scenario, he’ll give you 20 stolen bases this season. However, if he can cut back on the strikeouts and take a few more walks, there’s no reason he can’t push for 30-35 steals by seasons end. Zimmer might just be a league winner this season.
CHEAP POWER
Justin Bour, 1B MIA – I know there are a lot of good options at first base this season, but I’m finding it hard to believe that Bour is barely inside the top 20, considering what he did last year. He hit 25 home runs, drove in 83 runs and hit just under .289. He hit just five home runs in 31 second half games, but that batting average remained at .290, so despite being shortened by injury, the numbers would have lined up somewhat similar to the monster first half production. He’s going in the 12th round of 15-team leagues, so it may not be exactly super cheap, but he’s extremely undervalued heading into the 2018 campaign.
He’s vulnerable to southpaws, but he’s a career. 280 hitter against righties with a .512 slugging percentage. As we’ve seen with just about every Marlin this season, he could get traded at some point, and would most likely experience a park upgrade, because the confines of Miami’s stadium are rather spacious. Bour has some real power and he can leave any park in the bigs. He’s an excellent, under-the-radar asset in 2018. He has a legitimate chance at a home run total in low-30s this season.
Jorge Alfaro, C PHI – Instead of settling for a Brian McCann or Yasmani Grandal behind the plate, take a chance on the kid behind the dish in the City of Brotherly Love! He hit 15 long balls in 97 games at the Double-A level, and followed that up with seven four-baggers in 84 games at Triple-A. He had his cup of coffee in the bigs last season, and promptly swatted five home runs with a .318 batting average in 107 at-bats. The potential for a high strikeout rate with a minimal walk rate isn’t ideal for long-term success, and projections aren’t fair for him this season, but I don’t see why Alfaro can’t hit around 15 home runs this season. Sure, he hits the ball on the ground slightly more than one would like, but he’ll adjust with extended time at the highest level. The young backstop can spread the ball all around the field and he’ll be presented plenty of opportunities to make an impact as the everyday catcher for a potentially sneaky-good offense in Philadelphia. There will be a learning curve for Alfaro, but he offers the possibility of around 12-15 home runs from your second catcher. That plays, my friends.