Deep Sleepers - AL East
Last minute deep sleeper series!
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Yankees
Spencer Jones
ADP 445
Spencer Jones is probably a Joey Gallo type guy who just can never make enough contact. But, in a short sample this spring, it’s an 81% Zone Contact%. It’s not going to be stable in just 25 PAs, but we’re going with what we have. And it’s not impossible that there’s some signal here.
Last year, against minor league pitching, it was a 70% Zone Contact%. We’ll see how he finishes out the spring and how it looks with a few weeks of games in AAA, but it’s certainly not a bad sign. The guy’s power is elite (.571 SLG, .297 ISO last year), so if he can just keep the strikeout rate around 30% when he does finally get an MLB look, he’ll be worthwhile in deep fantasy leagues for the bombs that he’ll bring.
I’m trying to get two from every team, but I’m not going to force something. I don’t see anybody else here worthy of a mention.
Blue Jays
I guess this will be a lame post, because I don’t see anything here, either! The Blue Jays are a good team coming off an elite year, and that will jack up the prices a bit. They don’t appear to be very deep, though. So it’s not the best place to go for sleepers.
Maybe I could mention Eric Lauer at ADP 600. He’s likely to make some starts this year, and he had some success in that role a year ago. But he’s obviously not a guy who you’ll be starting for multiple months, unless something on your team went very poorly. But with Berrios hurt, Yesavage getting eased in, there will be some spot starts and opportunities for non-frontline Toronto pitchers to play.
Red Sox
Marcelo Mayer
ADP 400
We found out that Romy Gonzalez will miss time at the beginning of the season. That opens up starts at second base against left-handed pitching, so it’s pretty clear that we’re going to see plenty of Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell, and Caleb Durbin in Boston. I think Mayer is the starter at second base right out of the gate, and if he hits well, he won’t give it back.
There’s nothing overly exciting about Mayer:
→ 100 fHit
→ 98 fDiscipline
→ 111 fPower
→ 95 fSpeed
The best we can hope for is that he turns into a fine hitter for fantasy. 20-25 homer power with 5-10 steals and maybe a good batting average. There’s no world, I don’t think, where Mayer is the breakout young bat of the year. But he could very well be a solid contributor at a tough position in a good lineup in a decent ballpark (although it’s not as great for Mayer as a left-handed hitter).
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