Pirates: What to expect from Starling Marte in 2018?
By Brad Kelly
Starling Marte is one of the bigger fantasy disappointments this season. But, what can fantasy owners expect from the Pirates’ outfielder in 2018?
No fantasy owners want to look at back at the season and see who disappointed them. By now, we have cussed their name and swore to never pick them again after they have let us down. There may be no bigger disappointment this season than the Pirates’ Starling Marte.
Marte currently sits with a .271/7 HR/30 RBI/21 SB/.712 OPS line over 295 at-bats. While the line is not awful, the story of Marte’s season is his 80 game absence due to a failed PED test. With Marte being routinely taken in the late first round or early second, the blow was huge.
He missed all of May and June, returning in late July. It took him a while to get things going, he only posted a .250/0 HR/4 RBI/4 SB/.573 OPS line in July, and a .265/2 HR/8 RBI/7 SB/.702 OPS line in Aug.
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He finally decided to show up in Sep., .316/3 HR/11 RBI/8 SB/.857 OPS, but now either most fantasy owners had dropped him, or were out of the fantasy playoffs picture.
Digging deeper into his batted ball data, Marte is staying right on line with his career norms. He holds 21% LD, 48% GB and 31% FB contact rates. He is still making decent contact as well, he holds 46% Med and 26% Hard contact rates.
Marte’s HR rate had been precipitously dropping since 2013. Yet, in a smaller sample size, his HR rate is up to 11% and his 7 HR this season are only two off from what he had in 2016.
The one area that he still excels in, is his speed. Even though he missed over two months, he still ranks in the top-12 in steals. It would make sense to think that with a full season at at-bats he would have swiped 40+ bases.
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Starling Marte’s batted ball data points to the seasonal lines that he has been producing as a fantasy stud with the Pirates. For most owners, his stigma and failure this season, will drive down his fantasy value past the initial rounds. Thus, making him a prime buy low candidate next season.