His fastball velocity ticked up for the fourth consecutive campaign, so deGrom threw it a little more. The added playing time may have caused some wear, as Grandal's OPS was over 100 points worse after the break, but he will be 1B-eligible in 2020 as a result, and in the AL he should DH more often than play first when he's not catching. Castillo sported a 12.46 ERA over four Cactus League appearances amid reports that his velocity was down. Amazing what doubling your launch angle and getting pull-happy for the first time in your career could do for a player in 2019. This is where the difference between points and rotisserie leagues comes into play.Once you have prepared your spreadsheet, you are ready for action!
Well, Yelich did not reach 35.0% in 2019, but he did still post a 32.8 mark in that category -- the best in the league. Over the last two months, Jimenez sported a manageable 24.4 K% and hit .308 with a .917 OPS, which was a top-40 mark for all batters in that span. Since he doesn't steal bases, Alonso would probably need to trade more pop flies for line drives to emerge as anything more than a neutral asset in batting average, but the high floor he offers in three categories makes him a comfortable early-round fantasy selection in 2020, and likely, many years to follow.Alonso's 80-grade power plays in any environment, but the juiced ball made him especially lethal in his debut season. Not much should change for Freeman heading into the 2020 campaign, as he'll once again serve as the No. Devers could be dealing with the pressures to do even more with the bat to make up for what Boston loses this winter.We have seen this script before: positive rookie year followed by a sophomore slump, and then a huge breakout year.
All he did after that was impress at the plate, posting a .956 OPS the rest of the way. Repeat this step for each of the remaining categories in your sheet.Start a new column at the end titled ‘Total’ (or whatever the hell you want, it’s your player rater) to calculate your overall score. That's despite the fact his 42% hard-hit rate was easily the best of his four-year career. Like all great pitchers, deGrom constantly adapts. Overall it was a solid rookie campaign as he posted a .234/.364/.429 slash line with 16 home runs and 14 stolen bases. He continued the trend of a high-strikeout rate from the minors (28.6%), but he also had a 16.5 BB%, which would have been top five in MLB among qualified hitters had Biggo logged enough plate appearances to qualify. No pitcher is safe, but aside from the slider usage, there's little reason to ding Corbin's IP projection anymore.
His 10-start run with Cincinnati was a disaster, with Bauer posting a 6.39 ERA and nearly two HR/9. Voit proved to be a valuable presence near the top of the lineup by ranking fifth in the American League in walk rate (13.9%) and ninth in OBP (.378) last season. Donaldson also ranked ninth among qualified hitters with a walk rate of 15.2%, and he trimmed his K-rate slightly to 23.5% despite a downtick in Z-Contact%.
He has power to all fields, but also can be neutralized by lefties as he had a .996 OPS vs righties but a .744 OPS against lefties last season with just seven of his 32 homers coming off southpaws. Last season's .296 BABIP wasn't affected much, but there's noteworthy concern as evidenced by a .246 xBA -- 17 points higher than his actual .229 mark. That said, considering the league-wide spike in power and overall offense, perhaps last season was a small step back. He lacks the higher exit velocity and launch angle necessary to forecast a continued future in the 20-plus homer range, even though he has done it in each of the past two seasons. There is more in the tank here.Altuve failed to hit .300 for the first time since 2013, albeit falling just two points -- or one hit -- short. The risk with Sanchez isn't the production, it is the expectation of production. The result was a 26.2 K-BB%, fourth best in the league. The result was a swinging-strike rate of 15%, compared to 8.3% the previous season. He also stole just three bases. At that time, Flaherty was getting the strikeouts, but 1.9 homers per nine innings limited his success.
As long as he stays healthy, he will produce, but San Diego sets a ceiling on his run production numbers, and the batting average roller coaster is tough to ignore.
That said, considering the league-wide spike in power and overall offense, perhaps last season was a small step back. The NL MVP's production was mostly front-loaded -- he slashed .336/.432/.692 and slugged 30 of his homers in the first half -- but a refined plate approach was evident throughout. In 2019, nothing that happened was expected. He turned 35 in November and his injury history is a concern, but Turner's sample size of success is large enough to inspire confidence in another season of solid production at the hot corner in 2020.Raise your hand if waited for Carpenter to flip the script like in 2018. Ramos couldn't replicate that career-best mark, but he still paid off for fantasy managers, playing the third-most games among catchers while batting .288 with 14 homers and 73 RBI. Statcast doesn't offer much hope for a regression-related bounceback, suggesting he overachieved his xBA (.216) and xSLG (.405).