Drafting a fantasy baseball team can be a trick and frustrating moment. If you have been drafting a team for a few years you will at least be able to have a feel for what to expect and how to draft.
If you are a first time drafter than you are likely in over your head and feel a bit of anxiety come draft day.
My main problem when I started fantasy baseball was to try to get batting average in the early rounds (which you will still be able to do) and get power later in the draft.
After three years of drafting teams I have learned quite the opposite works. The power guys and big home run hitters are gone in a flash. While the batting average guys are still around late into your draft. Below is a few guys that you could get draft late who still hold batting average value.
Shane Victorino, Boston Red Sox
Victorino is a great example of a late round pick that can provide valuable assets to your team. In 2013 he batted .294 with 15 homers, 61 RBIs, 82 runs scored and 21 stolen bases! Those are worthy of a late sixth or seventh round pick yet he is falling all the way back to, in some cases the tenth or even 12th round.
If there is one guy to pick up in the late rounds I would have to without a doubt say that it is Victorino. Some might use the case that he is 33 years-old and will start to fall off. Those people clearly are not looking at the numbers and don’t realize that this guy is going to be the one or two hitter in a potent Red Sox lineup. Oh and he also had a WAR of 6.1 which is the highest in his career. Heck, his WAR in 2013 was even better than his WAR in 2011 when he went bonkers for the Phillies.
Manny Machado, Baltimore Orioles
Machado had an amazing 2013 that ended with a gruesome left knee injury that ended his campaign. This guy is being drafted even later than Victorino and has the potential to be a mid fifth round pick! The knee injury scared off a lot of fantasy owners but not me.
In 2013, he hit 14 homers, drove in 71 men, batted .283 all while scoring 88 runs of his own. Those numbers alone are good, especially when you see that this kid is only 21 years old. All of those numbers are fine and dandy but the number that really sticks out is his double. In 2013 Machado hit 51 doubles! Fifty one! Let me say it one more time. He hit 51 doubles!!! If he didn’t get injured who knows if he would have broke the single season doubles record which is 67. Either way just because this guy hurt his knee doesn’t mean that all of a sudden when he is healthy again he is going to forget how to hit. I would go as far to say draft this guy in the eighth or ninth round but the best part is that you can probably wait till the twelfth or thirteenth.
Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco Giants
We all know what the knock is on this guy. “He’s too fat and doesn’t run the bases well enough to help my team.” I’ve heard it all before and I’m sure we will hear it again. I’m sorry but all of this should be left in the past. Sandoval looks great coming into Spring Training and it is quite obvious that he has lost a lot of weight.
He won’t let us know exactly how much weight but if you look at a picture of him at the beginning of 2013 and a picture of him now in spring; its pretty obvious that things have changed. Even when Sandoval was bigger he could still swing the bat. He is a career .298 hitter who will be in the middle of a decent Giants batting order. This guy isn’t being drafted until the tenth to twelfth round as well.
If you want a good third baseman who is going to play almost every day and bat for decent average and power than this is your guy. You might get some trash talk sent your way when you drafted him but the joke will be on them when he’s batting.300 and hitting 15 homers.