It’s time to start the 2023 fantasy baseball Shuffle Up series. Below are my recommended salaries. if you are playing in a draft format with a salary cap. Catchers are the first to go through the car wash. We will return to other positions later, ahead of Opening Day.
My salaries are non-scientific in nature and are intended primarily to show how I evaluate players and in particular where the talent clusters are. Your list will of course look different. That’s why we have a game.
Big Tickets
$24 JT Realmuto
$21 Will Smith
$21
$18 Adley Rutchman
17 dollars Salvador Perez
I’m unlikely to write a check to Realmuto, just as I rarely get conceited in a fake football season (catchers are certainly the tight ends of fantasy baseball). But that doesn’t mean you can’t go after JTR, who has isolated himself as the most complete player on this list. He is also backed by a deep Philadelphia lineup, even with Bryce Harper off the field for half of the season … Varshaw retains the catcher despite playing in the outfield most of the time, and it’s always one of our favorite fantasy moves – a catcher without a catcher. The position is dead end. Catching is tiring. Playing in the outfield has a much easier effect on a player’s body. Toronto’s lineup is also absurdly deep, and as you’ve heard, barriers come into play – and even with the height of the barrier increased, I expect it to be a net benefit to the offense.
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Given Perez’s age, recent trend, and workload, I’m not going to preselect him… Rutchman is the group’s brilliant new toy, but he’s too noisy for me to consider as a target. I usually like to shop in the second tier, hoping to find a first tier jumper in this group. Baltimore Park is also causing a stir these days, a rare occurrence of a team pushing their fences back. Camden Yards used to be an offensive Disneyland; it’s pretty close to neutral now.
Second level values
$15 Wilson Contreras
$15 Sean Murphy
$14 Alejandro Kirk
$12 William Contreras
$11 MJ Melendez
$11 Tyler Stevenson
Stephenson will be one of my regular players (I already put him in Project LABR on Tuesday), in part because the Reds want him to play 140-plus games without using him full-time in catcher (load management to win). Stevenson is a rare quarterback who can deliver a positive batting average, and we love the offensive pieces tied to the Cincinnati ballpark.
Wilson Contreras changes teams but not divisions, so jersey changes don’t bother me; he knows the way to NL Central. He maybe a ticket for seat number 2 in the meaty composition of St. Louis. Yes, please… Murphy is also getting an obvious boost, trading in a big Oakland park and a leaky line-up for a friendly Atlanta park and a solid line-up. He is also a likely candidate for a career year as he enters his 28th season.
Talk to them, talk to them
$8 Cabert Ruiz
$8 Eric Haas
Cal Roly for $6
$6 Danny Jansen
$6 Travis D’Arno
5 dollars Jonah Heim
Raleigh’s game is full of shenanigans as he is shamelessly sold for power. It’s not uncommon in today’s game, or necessarily a sin, but I’m worried that the batting average could drop below .200… Ruiz hasn’t realized the forward potential we’ve heard so much about yet, but he’s watching in this part of Washington it’s like looking at the sun.
[2023 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP]
Haase needs to provide 15-18 homers at a reasonable price and an average that won’t be killer in this position. He’s a good target if you fill that position in the second half of the draft.
Trash bin
$4 Yasmani Grandal
$4 Logan O’Hopp
$4 Gabriel Moreno
$4 Christian Vasquez
$3 Shi Langelier
$3 Mitch Garver
$2 Joey Bart
$2 Elias Diaz
$2 Christian Betancourt
1 dollar Jose Trevino
1 dollar Austin Howe
1 dollar Carson Kelly
$1 Nick Fortes
1 dollar Francis Alvarez
1 dollar Bo Naylor
If I knew that Grandal or Garver would physically last the whole season, I would have chased them in double figures. But at their age, we need to be careful… Bart has the potential to give us something similar to what Raleigh did last year – jump on the anvil… Vasquez is a good second catcher if your format calls for two because that his playing time and average batting time in safe areas. However, his power potential is limited, and draw production will be routine… Diaz points out that Coors Field doesn’t magically turn all regulars into fantastic assets.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
