Phillies Fantasy Impact: the Outfield
TBOH’s Michael Stern has been taking us through a series of 2015 Best/Worst case scenarios and giving us a good look into what fans of the Fightins’ might expect in this upcoming season.
Over the next week or so, I am going to dig in and take a look at the Phillies 2015 roster position-by-position, sharing how those same Phillies players might impact your fantasy baseball teams.
As of this moment, the top three outfielders on the Phils’ depth chart per MLB.com are: LF – Grady Sizemore, CF – Ben Revere, and RF – Domonic Brown.
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Sizemore is coming off a disappointing 2014 season where he posted a slash line of .233/.299/.354 in 112 games. However, it was his first taste of the big leagues since the 2011 season. That extended time off was surely a contributing factor.
I’m of the opinion that Grady will have a better season this year, but I’m not quite sure he will have much of a fantasy impact. If he has a good spring and lands a starting role, he’d be worth picking up in later rounds of your draft to give you depth in your outfield, but I wouldn’t count on him as a fantasy producer, even in leagues that require 5 outfielders.
Revere can help any fantasy team in need of stolen bases.
(Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)
Revere on the other hand is a little more intriguing. He put up a slash line of .306/.325/.361 and swiped 49 bags in 151 games. Ben will not provide you numbers in Homeruns or RBI, but he will get you strong numbers in Stolen Bases, and he is likely to hit for a high average. If you’re playing in a league where stats accumulate, you certainly would want to keep Revere on your radar.
What can we expect from Domonic Brown? Will we see the budding young star that showed so much promise in 2013, who hit .272 and slugged 27 homers on his way to a very strong OPS of .818? Or will we see the Domonic Brown of 2014 who disappointed, providing a slash line of .235/.285/.349 with 10 home runs and an OPS of just .634?
I think somewhere in between the two and a little closer to the 2013 version is what we can expect. He should at least be a 20-homer outfielder. The talent is there to exceed the output he’s reached to date, no question about it.
Brown just needs to put it all together, and if he does, he will definitely be an impactful fantasy player. Keep a close eye on him this spring. If it’s a good one, be sure to give strong consideration to adding him after the elite outfielders are off the board.
Other players could play a potential role on fantasy rosters as well, depending on how the actual Phillies roles play out in spring training. Darin Ruf could provide power numbers in the Homeruns and RBI categories if he plays every day in leftfield. Cody Asche is rumored in that mix as well, and could also put up decent numbers in those same categories, if he plays full-time and reaches his full potential.
Sizemore, Revere and Brown offer an intriguing mix of talents with lots of questions to answer for both the real Phillies and for potential fantasy baseball owners. Obviously, none is the type of player for even the most die-hard Phillies fans to build your fantasy team around. But the odds are that at least one of them will provide the kind of surprise production in a couple of categories that can make the difference on a fantasy baseball roster.