As we review the 2023 fantasy ball season, let’s wallow for a moment. We will look back at some of the biggest fantasy disappoints, the ones that cost us sleep and gave us ulcers this season. Some misses were small. Others were significant. Some were do to injury. Others were not. Get your box of tissue paper. Let’s go.
*ADP from NFBC from the month of March.
Trea Turner (3.1 overall ADP) / Jose Ramirez (3.8) – Both guys were top-30 performers, but they were drafted in the top-5. Is that a miss? Normally I would say “no”, but when you are talking about taking a guy in the first half of the first round – you need more.
Vlad Guerrero (11.5) went .264-26-94-78-5. Is he really the player think he is? Based on performance, he simply is not. His .788 OPS this year was miles from teammate Brandon Belt (.858).
Bo Bichette (13.0) was another disappointing Blue Jay. He hit .306, but what happened to the rest of his game? He went 20-73-69-5. He lost 20 RBI, 22 runs and eight steals from 2022.
Manny Machado (13.3) he went .258-30-91-75-3. That’s a low in steals since 2016, his worst average ever and his lowest full season runs scored mark ever. Offseason elbow surgery is coming.
Mike Trout (17.9) – I spoke about him in this podcast.
Paul Goldschmidt (23.6) went .268-25-80-89-11. He stunk down the stretch costing him a sixth straight full season at 30-80-95. He averaged .305-33-107-101-10 the last two years.
J.T. Realmuto (27.0) went 20/15, but he was also outside the top-125 overall. Lowest average since 2015 and his lowest RBI mark since 2017. Worst OPS since 2015.
Sandy Alcantra (29.2) went 7-12 with a 4.14 ERA and 1.21 WHIP over 184.2 innings. He hurt his arm late, and now there is a lot of concern moving forward for the former leading innings eater.
Jacob deGrom (31.0) was a failure yet again. If you drafted him, you deserve no pity, only scorn. I said so before the season ever began.
Nolan Arenado (32.7) went .266-26-93 as he was shut down late with back woes. That was his firs season of 135 games played where he didn’t go 30-100 (first miss in eight such seasons).
Jazz Chisholm (35.0) went 19/22 but only played 97 games. His last 157 games he’s gone .253-33-97-90-34. He’s a 30/30 guy waiting to happen – IF he can stay on the field.
Daulton Varsho (38.3) went 20/16, but he objectively stunk. Lost thirteen average points, seven homers, 12 RBI and 14 runs from 2022. No longer catcher eligible so he’s slaloming toward being – just a guy. Just no growth.
Brandon Woodruff (38.8) was fantastic with a 2.28 ERA and 0.82 WHIP with a 4.93 K/BB ratio. Too bad he only made 11 starts for the Brew Crew.
Justin Verlander (39.1) posted a 3.22 ERA and 1.13 WHIP, but he only threw 162.1 innings with his lowest K-rate since 2014 (21.5%). He was fine, but he just didn’t live up to the cost.
Shane McClanahan (39.3) is out next year with Tommy John surgery. He made 21 starts and was good, but 115 innings just doesn’t work at this price-point.
Cedric Mullins (49.6) went 30/30 in 2021. He went 16/34 last year. This year he hit .233 going 15/19. Has a .721 OPS the last two years after his breakout .878 mark in 2021.
Dylane Cease (51.1) punchouts 214 batters for a third straight season. Only went 7-9 with a 4.58 ERA and 1.42 WHIP walking more than four batters per nine.
Shane Bieber (52.3) made only 21 starts going 6-6 with a 3.80 ERA (the mark was 2.91 from 2019-22).
Will Smith (53.6) went .261-19-76-80. That’s fine. It’s basically who he has been the previous two years. He also wasn’t a top-125 performer.
Cristian Javier (55.6) lost velocity, lost movement, and his performance suffered. His ERA went up two runs to 4.56 while his K-rate went from elite 33.2 down to league average (23.1).
Julio Urias (59.8) made only 21 starts, posted a 4.60 ERA, and has serious issues off the field to deal with. Loser.
Oneil Cruz (61.9) broke his ankle and only played nine games. He’s gone 19/13 in 98 career games and still holds immense future expectations.
Salvador Perez (62.2) went .254-23-76 last year. Went .255-23-80 this year. Was outside the top-150 players this season.
Eloy Jimenez (66.1) has played five seasons and has never played 125-games. He hasn’t hit 20 homers in four seasons as a result. His lone season of 70-RBI was 2019. What a terrible disappointment to date.
Alek Manoah (67.4) went from nearly winning the Cy Young in 2022 to a disastrous 2023. An implosion of historic proportions. Check out this podcast.
Max Fried (68.3) was fantastic this season going 8-1 with a 2.55 ERA and 1.13 WHIP… over 14 starts. Twenty eight starts at this level and he’s a Cy Young finalist.
Tommy Edman (71.8) will qualify at OF-SS-2B again next season, but he had his worst season in three years at .248-13-47-69-27. The biggest hit was in run where he failed to hit 90 for a third straight season.
Yu Darvish (74.3) went 8-10 with a 4.56 ERA and 1.30 WHIP. Yikes.
Carlos Rodon (77.6) had no chance to replicate 2022, but no one could have seen this disaster (3-8, 6.85 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 22.4 K-rate). He flat out stunk. Like rotten, unclear underoos with diarrhea in them that sat in the basement of a damp house cellar for two weeks. Just horrid.
Tim Anderson (81.4) hit .318 from 2019-2022. He hit only one homer with a .245 average this season as he was straight up horrible (.582 OPS).
Wander Franco (82.3) played 112 games before his off the field issues came up. At this point, his MLB future is in doubt.
Starling Marte (82.5) stole 24 bags in 86 games, but went just .248-5-28-38 with a .625 OPS.
Byron Buxton (85.4) played 85 games. That was a sixth straight year of less than 95 games.
Jose Abreu (87.4) finished strong, but still had his worst season ever at .237-18-90. The RBI were fine. The rest of the game just wasn’t.
Robbie Ray (89.4) went from two great seasons to one start before injury ended his campaign. He had Tommy John surgery the first week of May.
Willy Adames (90.1) fell from .238-31-98-83 down to .217-24-80-73 with a .717 OPS. That level of performance just doesn’t work if you steal only five bases.
Vinnie Pasquantino (90.6) needed shoulder surgery and as a result he only appeared in 61 games going .247-9-26-24.
Tyler O’Neill (94.3) has gone 23/19 the last 168 games, but this year injuries held him to 72 games played with a .231-9-21-27-5 effort. He’s ripped, but no.
MJ Melendez (96.5) had some off the charts Statcast data. Had a strong second half with a .836 OPS, but .235-16-56-65-6, while fine as a catcher, simply wasn’t worth the draft day cost. No longer catcher eligible.
Joe Musgrove (97.8) went 10-3 with a 3.05 ERA and 1.14 WHIP with a K-per-inning. He was who he was drafted to be. He also made just 17 starts.
And one last name who was so close to the top-100 overall…
Taylor Ward (100.1) saw his .833 OPS drop down to .756. He got hurt. His teammates are hurt, and he simply never found his footing. He went .253-14-47-60-4.
Finally, a discussion about the daily problem in fantasy baseball… pitchers’ injured arms from a week weeks back.
*NOTE: Ohtani had the elbow operated on after this video was recorded – and what we know is that he did not have Tommy John surgery.
