The Major League Baseball trade deadline featured a lot of good prospects trading teams, none more highly ranked than Austin Martin, who was transferred, along with Simeon Woods-Richardson, to the Twins’s system in return for José Berríos. If you don’t insert the latter’s last name into Enrique Iglesias’s hit single “Bailamos,” what are you even doing with your life, except reading a wonderful blog?
Anyhow, the trade set the stage for the Dynasty Community At Large to opine on Martin, largely in unison. The conclusion: He’s not as good as it would have hoped. He doesn’t have enough power to be a difference-maker. He’s someone you want to sell. I may be putting words in the Dynasty Community At Large’s mouth, but not many. This seems to be the consensus.
Earlier in the trade deadline, the White Sox traded Nick Madrigal to the Cubs for Craig Kimbrel. The White Sox are all in, Madrigal is out for the season, and the Cubs are cheap and rebuilding (but mostly cheap), so the deal made sense for both sides. I note this because a lot of what people have said about Martin they’ve also said about Madrigal, though in the latter case it’s a bit more extreme. Madrigal has better bat-to-ball skills than Martin, but, unlike the Vanderbilt product, he’s not likely to tap into any power borne of growing into his body. His body is tiny and he won’t ever hit home runs, because of the tiny body.
Now is the point where I note that both of these players are on my one relevant dynasty team. I drafted both of them pretty high in the FYPDs in which they were eligible, Madrigal sixth, Martin second. I also traded both away, and reacquired them this year. I am an interested party to their successes. I am invested. I do not claim indifference.
Still, there’s something about the chatter that really bothers me in both cases, to the point that the chatter likely depressed their prices to the point I could reacquire them on the relative cheap. Which doesn’t bother me. But the lack of imagination? That’s a chunky.
Here’s what I don’t understand about the naysaying of so-called dynasty “experts.” What, exactly, are you naysaying? In both cases, the players have 70 hit tools. 70! That’s stupid high! You know what that means about these players? They will absolutely play Major League Baseball for a long time, which cannot be said about 60 percent of Top 100 prospects. You know what else that means? They will bat near the top of lineups. They will provide merely good services in ample portions, and they carry little to no risk, given the provenance of their skills. If Bobby Dalbec has a 70 power grade (I don’t know if he does, this is just an example), does it matter if he can’t hit the broad side of a barn? No. Not all tools in fantasy are created equal. It’s been said many times, many ways, but in fantasy, volume is king. If you can get a volume of good play it might not beat the chance at a great player, but your roster has like 40 spots! You can aim for the mountaintop elsewhere. The rest of your lineup has to be good enough to support your stars. Passing on the easiest bets in the game is, if you can believe it, a bad strategy.
It’s also one I hope my league mates continue to employ so I can gather these dudes and beat them. You should do the same thing, unless you’re in my leagues. You won’t regret it the way you do rostering—to pick a name at random—Bobby Dalbec. Sorry Bobs.