CATCHER

Very tough to find a fella who qualifies here… so…

Yadier Molina lost .012 batting average points, .023 points in OBP and .036 points in SLG compared to his 2014 effort leaving him with a .270/.310/.350 series of numbers. Molina lost three homers and six runs as well. He did gain 23 runs batted in. Here’s the fact: Molina plays a lot and therefore he’s a decent second catcher in mixed leagues. It’s unlikely his bat is going to come back to the start levels we saw in 2011-13, however.

FIRST BASE

Adrian Gonzalez hit .275 with 28 homers and 90 RBIs over 156 games. Anyone would take those numbers on their fantasy club. However, Debbie Downer here… per 162 games for his career his Triple Crown numbers are .290-29-104. All those numbers are better than his ’15 effort, but very close. Quibbling? Perhaps. Gonzalez hit one more homer than he did in 2014 but he did lose seven runs scored and 26 RBIs to garner him a spot on this list.

SECOND BASE

Jose Altuve went .341/.377/.453 last season. He fell a bit to .313/.353/.459. He also lost 18 steals. You tell me which number is the outlier: 33, 35, 56 and 38. Yeah, the 56 steals from 2014. The most amazing number to come out of his effort, though, is the homer boost. In three full seasons he had never hit more than seven homers. In fact, he hit 12 homers total in 2013-14.

THIRD BASE

Adrian Beltre was hitting .255 with seven homers and 22 RBIs at the All-Star break. He was up for the title of worst fantasy performer in relation to his draft day cost. He was dreadful. He then went on to have one of the finest second halves in all of baseball. Not only did he blast away to the tune of a .318/.376/.509 slash line but he also drove home 61 runners in 74 games. That second half saved his season. At the same time a .287-18-83-83 line with a .788 OPS effort is well off the usual Beltre pace, most significantly his slash line took a hit: .324/.388/.492 (2014) compared to .287/.334/.453 (2015).

SHORTSTOP

Alexei Ramirez has always been one of my targets up the middle. Why? For the most part he was always overlooked because he didn’t possess an outstanding skill. He was solid across the board, and as importantly, he never got hurt while being consistently effective. However, his best overall season since 2010 led to him being slightly overvalued on draft day 2015. In the end… Ramirez appeared in 154 games in 2015, a six-year low actually, but there that was again. However, he lost five homers from 2014, hitting 10. He lost 12 RBIs from 2014. He lost four steals from 2014. He lost .024 points in the batting average category. He lost 26 runs from 2014. He was effective in 2015 with a .249-10-62-54-17 line, but it stood out less than normal.

 

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OUTFIELD

Andrew McCutchen was a top-5 draft pick. He was likely a top-3 selection in most leagues. Why wouldn’t he be? Average, power, speed, health, consistency, all those words apply directly to McCutchen. He won the MVP award in 2013 and in 2014 he came in third. His effort in 2015 wasn’t up to those standards, though it was still very good. McCutchen tied his career-best with 96 RBIs and he scored two more runs than he did in 2014 (91 scored). However, and most damning to his fantasy value, was a loss of seven steals, from 18 to 11, and a dip in batting average from .314 down to .292. No one really has a right to complain about a .292-23-96-91-11 season, but it wasn’t quite as good as he was in 2014 or quite up to par based on expectations.

STARTING PITCHER

Corey Kluber wasn’t as good as he was when he won the Cy Young award in 2014. He lost nine victories – falling from 18 to 9 – and that level of loss craters the value of any hurler (see Shelby Miller). Kluber also gained a full run in ERA. Normally that would be catastrophic but it wasn’t in the case of Kluber given how low his ERA was in 2014 (2.44). His ERA was 3.49 in 2015. Not great, but not harmful at all. He also lost 24 strikeouts from 2014. Still, his total of 245 strikeouts was the third-best mark in the American League (fifth overall). He saw a slight reduction in his walk rate down to 1.82 per nine, but would it surprise you to learn that his 2015 WHIP (1.05) was actually lower than in 2014 (1.09)? Right?

RELIEF PITCHER

Jonathan Papelbon was good in 2015. He’s always good. He’s also a total jack hole, but that’s beside the point. Closing for the Phillies and Nationals in the just-completed season Papelbon saved 24 games, a 10-year low (he had 39 in 2014). His ERA went up a tenth of a point. His WHIP went up a tenth of a point. His strikeout rate per nine went down half a batter. Nothing catastrophic by any means, and totally on par with what expectations should have been. Alas, when you lose 15 saves from the previous season…

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Thursday at 8 PM EDT and Friday at 10 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).