One thing you always see during the fantasy season is owners gravitate towards rookies, trying to find the next Mike Trout, Yasiel Puig or Jose Fernandez. It’s always fun to try and find that young player who can immediately contribute for your fantasy team, but you have to be careful as well.
Coming into the year, Jon Singleton was a unanimous top-50 prospect and considered to be the Houston Astros’ third best prospect, in an very rich farm system. Singleton was suspended 50 games last season after violating the league’s drug policy for the second time, this in the midst of a disappointing season. He played 73 games for Triple A-Oklahoma City, putting up a .220 batting average with just six home runs and 89 strikeouts.
Singleton remained near the top of fantasy rookie watch lists entering the season. He has always flashed a swing that can generate a lot of power, while showing impressive patience at the plate for a youngster. We saw that great approach at the plate while he spent nearly 200 at bats gaining experience in Triple-A. Singleton hit 14 home runs while putting up a 52/42 K/BB line.
Everything seemed right for the Astros’ to call up their top-hitting prospect, but wanted to wait until they reached a long-term deal with the 22-year-old. Finally, on June 2, the Astros announced a five-year contract with the prospect. The deal, worth $10 million (all guaranteed), would insure Singleton remained with the Astros’ for the foreseeable future. Singleton. Just a day later, Singleton was in the Astros’ lineup starting at first.
His debut fit exactly what anyone could have expected—he struck out in his first at-bat, walked in his second and struck out in his third AB. Then we saw the power stroke that tempts fantasy owners—Singleton blasted the baseball 429 feet to right-centerfield, his first career hit and home run.
Singleton was pretty quiet over the next four games—collecting just two hits in 12 at bats and no walks. Fantasy owners had to be a little disappointed, but he lifted their spirits back up by going two for four the next night with three RBI’s. He came through with a three-hit game two nights later, and went deep back-to-back games on June 12 and 13. While Singleton’s .250 average and .292 on-base percentage left a lot to be desired in his first 11 games, he did drive in 10 runs and hit four bombs.
Things really dropped off rapidly from there on—opposing pitchers made adjustments quickly and Singleton has just been dreadful over the past 14 games. During that span, he has hit .148 with a .267 OBP and 22 K’s. Singleton actually has more walks (8) than hits (7) during that span and zero home runs. Singleton keeps looking for that pitch to take deep and as a result he has been sent back to the bench swinging at air. These numbers are beyond the type of player you keep on your bench, they are numbers of a player you should have dropped last week.
Despite all of this, there is reason to have some hope with Singleton’s chances of turning things around and maybe giving your team some fantasy contributions going forward. Over the past two weeks, Singleton has a .292 batting average on balls in play and a BB/AB rate of 0.136, showing signs of some discipline at the plate and actually creating good contact when he hits the ball. However, he is still young and many of his at-bats are ending in strikeouts.
There is no doubt if you are in a dynasty league, you are hanging on to Singleton and not even considering selling low on the rookie first baseman. The tools are there to be a very good power-hitting fantasy stud in the future, but that’s still a few years away. Keep looking for fantasy rookies to try and help you this season. Oscar Taveras was just called up and will start in right field and the Red Sox just called up outfielder Mookie Betts. Singleton however, is not ready for fantasy stardom and should be left in the free agent pool in redraft leagues.