Fantasy Baseball 2017: What to Take Away From Spring Training

Spring Training is underway, which means Opening Day is not far behind. When preparing for your fantasy baseball draft, there is stuff to ignore and take away.

The fantasy baseball season begins in just over a month. Leagues are forming and both mock and live drafts are taking place. With so much research still needing to be done, I think it’s a little early for that. I like to watch as much Spring Training as possible before committing to a roster. Besides the risk of injury, there is a lot to take away over the next month.

There are certain players’ values that won’t be affected by Spring Training. If Mike Trout goes 1-for-50, he will still be the first overall pick. Same thing goes for Clayton Kershaw, Madison Bumgarner (and his 18.00 ERA) and many others.

No, Spring Training should be used to analyze those players that struggled last season, young players, and minor-league prospects. While the starting pitchers don’t pitch as long as they will in the regular season, it’s important to see how the prospects fair against them. The same could be said about young pitchers facing big-league hitters.

For batters, there are a few things to take away while preparing for your fantasy draft.

The numbers are not that important. Sure, it’ll be nice to see someone contribute to a majority of the categories, but I’m focused on how frequently they can rack up numbers in one category and how they look doing it.

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Philadelphia Phillies’ third baseman Maikel Franco has three home runs in two games. The fact that he is displaying that kind of power this early is good to see.

However, seeing Victor Martinez with his .182 average and four strikeouts makes me hesitant on drafting him.

In addition to the counting stats, I dig deeper into the at-bats. Are batters behind on pitches? Are they slow out of the box? What is the exit velocity of the ball off the bat?

These questions can be answered by watching Spring Training.

Outside of the numbers, I’m also interested to see how a player looks. CBS Sports wrote about some Spring Training breakout players on Monday. In the piece, though, they mentioned Bryce Harper adding 15 pounds of muscle. We already know he can crush the ball, evident by his home run last Saturday, but this will hopefully help him rebound from a down 2016 season.

Switching sides, starting pitchers have a lot to prove in Spring Training. The big thing to look for is control. Is the pitcher throwing wildly and walking a lot of batters or are they recording strikeouts and limiting opposing base runners? Looking at FIP instead of ERA is a better judge of a pitcher’s skill.

One pitcher who has performed well, albeit just two innings, was Tyler Glasnow. Against the Baltimore Orioles, he allowed just one hit and recorded all six outs by way of strikeout. That is a great thing to see after he posted a 4.24 ERA and 1.50 WHIP in seven starts last season.

Starting pitchers won’t go more than two or three innings at a time currently. They’ll increase their workload in the final few weeks. That’s when you’ll get a better assessment of the pitcher, which is another reason I wait until the final weekend before drafting my fantasy baseball team.

Next: Is Kole Calhoun undervalued?

Spring Training is very important to your fantasy baseball success. Do not worry about the lack of power or speed from the league leaders. The power guys will hit their home runs and fast guys will steal bases throughout the season. Just look at the mechanics of a player. The numbers will come.