Chicago White Sox Todd Frazier: An Offer He Could Not Refuse

By Brad Kelly | Dec 16, 2015

From becoming a Little League World Series champion to then only sixteen years later winning the 2015 MLB Home Run Derby, Todd Frazier has pretty much lived every young boys dream. While his 2015 will be punctuated for his rough second half slump, Frazier had a tremendous year for owners and carried them through the first half season nearly all by himself.

Frazier is one of the more likable characters in the game as his childhood enthusiasm and awesome nickname, “The Toddfather”, are right on par with his raw talent. It was clear early on in his career that he could become of one the pillars of the Reds organization as he produced almost immediately after being the full time third basemen in 2012.

He hit 19 homers in his first full time years, 2012-2013, but turned the corner progression wise in 2014 when he blasted 29 homers and stole 20 bases. Heading into 2015 he was firmly ranked in the top third basemen rankings and for those owners who took him, they enjoyed the spoils of his first half dominance.

More from Fantasy Baseball

The elephant in the room, or more appropriately the horse head in the bed, is the stat falloff after Frazier’s first half of the season. Over the first three months of the season you would be hard press to find a better hitter in baseball as he was able to muster a, .284/25 HR/87 RBI/8 SB/.922 OPS line, in only 78 games. Each week he was offering owners stat lines that often led them to victory and he was undoubtedly one of the more feared players in the game.

Frazier’s decline can be looked at with two schools of thought. On one hand you will have people who deem his struggles solely on him participating in the HR Derby and it messing his swing up for the rest of the season. The other school of thought is that regression was inevitable and that Frazier’s struggled were starting well before the derby even occurred.

For me, Frazier’s problems lie somewhere in the middle of those lines of thought. This year’s HR Derby was one of the best ever as he won it in Cincinnati and in dramatic fashion. He hit a ton of homers that night, but his tendencies to pull everything hard and normally in the air, did not differ from his regular season approach.

I think Frazier fell into a slump directly after the Derby as pitchers started to make adjustments too, and he over-corrected his swing to the point where he lost the mechanics of his first half swing in the process. This completely torpedoed his season, but it is certainly something that he can readjust over the spring as he goes back and looks at what he was doing wrong, so I am not scared off from owning Frazier in 2016.

The move to Chicago was a lateral move ballpark wise as U.S. Cellular and Great American Ballpark are both hitter’s delights. With Frazier’s pull-centric approach, both stadiums offer short distances to the left field seats so his power should be unaffected. His stolen base outputs are a nice boost as well, and he still will be one of the better opportune base stealers in the league so look for another 15 or steals again in 2016.

With the move to the White Sox he should either slot in front of or behind Jose Abreu, so either way he will able to keep his counting stats consistent and maybe even creep closer to the 100 RBI mark if he can put two solid half seasons together.

Next: Jose Fernandez: What to Expect in 2016?

For many Reds fan this is a sad day and rightfully so as a fan favorite is sent packing and the trade return did not really inspire that much optimism for the Reds future going forward. This trade does not really change his fantasy value though because he will still remain a premium option with the move with him being one of the few capable 30 HR/20 SB players in the game.

2016 Early Projections: .270/32 HR/85 RBI/15 SB/80 R/.800 OPS

Home/Fantasy Baseball