Fantasy Baseball Today - 2026 Sleepers in Each 5x5 Category! (3/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: March 17, 2026Frank Stampfl and Chris Towers reveal sleepers for each category in the standard 5x5 league! Luis Arraez is the gold standard at batting average! Who are our favorites for power? What about speed? Pit...ching sleepers are a little tougher to come up with each category but we found some! Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Let's talk sleepers for each of the five-by-five categories up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome into FBT Express on Tuesday, March 17th.
Happy St. Patty's Day to all.
I am Frank Stamphle joined by Chris Sowers.
And let's get into category sleepers.
We will start with batting average.
We're looking at names who are outside of the top 280P.
Chris, who are a few batting average sleepers.
I mean, the poster boy for this exercise.
Luis Arias is the most obvious category specialist of any category, really.
His ADP is 262.3.
He is basically guaranteed to hit 300.
I know last year he had 290.
I'm going to say 300.
He's not going to really give you anything else.
You're going to get like eight homers and 10 steals and 60 RBI and 70 runs.
It's not a great overall player, but this is the cheapest he's been in a while.
And I think Luis Arias as a batting average specialist is just, you need batting average in the late rounds.
Go draft Luis Ruiz.
I'll also point out Alec Boe, Junghu Lee, Brendan Donovan, and Bram and Jake McCarthy for the Rockies.
He hit 285 a couple of years ago.
He's also a very good late round stolen base specialist.
But with Coors Field, I think he's a pretty good bet to hit, you know, not 300, but maybe 275, 280, maybe 285.
I can see that from Jake McCarthy.
see home runs this is a fun category lots of options later on in drafts who are some of your
favorites outside the top 200 i think dalton varshot for sure um we saw for a while he was one of
these guys like he sock paratus who kind of just one one weird tricked his way to hitting home runs
it was mediocre to bad quality of contact metrics but he pulled the ball in the air to the to the
right side in in varsh's case a lot and that helped him overcome the poor quality contact metrics well
His average velocity last year was two miles per hour higher than it had ever been.
And he kept the high pulled air rate.
So all of a sudden he hits 20 homers in 71 games.
That's like a 45 homer pace over a full season.
I'm not saying I expect that from Dawn Varsho, but 30 plus I think is within the realm of possibility.
I think it's also Colson Montgomery for the White Sox.
Another guy I think is just kind of a little bit undervalued.
It's 21 homers in his first 71 games in the majors.
The pop is there.
The pullside power is there.
I love our show.
Christian Walker hit 27 home runs last year in a disastrous season.
Isaac Paredes would also qualify for this one.
Giancarlo Stanton and Kyle Manzardo, who hit 27 homers last year very quietly.
I think he's going to play more against lefties.
I think 30 is a pretty good bet for Manzardo.
I'll throw out a few more names there for home runs as well.
I think Munitaka Moracami, the batting average, probably going to be low,
but I do expect the power to be real.
Jake Berger, hopefully a bounce back season for him.
Deerrest surgery in the off season.
Played through that all year.
Matt Walner, who has a clear opportunity with the Minnesota Twins,
puts a ton of baseballs in the air,
and so could get to his, you know, 25 to 30 home runs,
something like that this season.
What about runs scored?
This one's a little bit tougher.
Names going outside the top 200.
Who would you look at for runs?
I think Glaver Torres is a really good one.
He's probably going to hit second for the Tigers,
maybe lead off.
He has walked at least 9% of the time.
each of the past two seasons.
Last year it was like 14% walk rate or something like that.
I think he's going to get on base.
He's not going to do a ton else, right?
Like 16 homers and four stolen bases is basically his max the past two years.
You're going to get about 80, 85 runs, though.
You're probably going to get 70-ish RBI.
And, you know, 80 to 85 runs this cheap in the draft is a big deal.
I'll also throw out Ezekiel Tovar, who should hit near the top of the Rockies batting order.
really low OBP but should still score a decent amount of runs either way.
Marcus Simeon, I think he's kind of an R.
runs and RBI specialist if he bounces back
because that Mets lineup's going to be pretty good
and he's going to hit fifth, he's going to get on base.
Dalyle, I kind of just think he's just like a good late-round pick,
not just a specialist.
I think Dalyle and Lyle could be a great source of batting average.
Runs could be a stolen base source, so I like Dan Lyle a lot.
And T.J. Friedel,
It's the leadoff hitter for the Reds, 15 homers.
We haven't seen a lot of steals lately, but I think he's coming off an 82 run season.
Getting to 85 or 90, shouldn't be asking too much at the top of that lineup.
Yeah, I'll throw two more names your way, and both Cardinals, J.J. Weatherholt and Mason Win.
I think they're going to hit 1 and 2 in that lineup.
It's not a great lineup, but they'll get a lot of played appearances.
And, you know, maybe they score 75, 80 runs each there with Mason Wynn and J.J. Weatherton.
Hold. What about RBI? Who do you look at for RBI late in drafts this season? I think there are actually
some really good options here. Alec Bohm stands out as a guy that everybody has just kind of given up on,
forgetting that in 2023 and 2024, he had 97 RBI each season, and he's still heating cleanup
behind Trey Turner, Kyle Schwerber, and Bryce Harper. That is a great spot if you want to drive in some
runs. Alec Boe makes a ton of contact. I think he's a good source of batting average late in your
drafts as well. Jorge Polanco, I think we're going to see a huge RBI total from him.
He's a very good hitter. It just has to say healthy, and I think he's got a good chance for
his first 100 RBI season. As I said, I think Marcus Simeon both runs and RBI could be very
good if he bounces back. Andrew Vaughn, top or, you know, potential cleanup hitter for the
Brewers, potential everyday first baseman. I don't know how secure the playing time is, but
if he's anything like what he did last season, not even counting just what he did with the Brewers,
But the overall numbers were about an 800 OPS.
If we got an 800 OPS out of that guy hitting cleanup behind like Christian Yelich and Jackson Churio and Bryce Durang,
I think Andrew Vaughn could drive in 90 runs.
And then Brian Reynolds.
Everybody seems to expect at least a little bit of a bounce back, but he's going pretty cheap.
He's probably going to hit third.
I think he's got a good chance for 90 plus RBI as well.
Lots of options for stolen bases late.
Surprisingly, who are some of your favorites there?
Jose Cabiero is just a speed specialist.
He literally will not do anything, but he had 49 steals and 370 trips to the plate last season.
Victor Scott, Nassim Nunez, Caleb Durbin.
Caleb Durbin is a step down in the stolen base upside from those two.
Nunez and Victor Scott, you could see 35 to 40 steals.
Caleb Durbin, he had 31 and 90 games in 2024.
Maybe the Red Sox let him run a little more than the Brewers did.
And then Victor Robles, who I mentioned in our full episode of FBT as a just a late round sleeper,
he had 36 steals in his first 109 games with the Mariners,
including last season when he was playing through a shoulder injury.
So I think Victor Robles, at the very least, should steal a bunch of bases.
All right, let's take a quick break.
We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in FBT Express.
We're taking a look at category sleepers in each of the five-by-five categories.
Pitching a little bit tougher.
Wins.
Who do you think?
I mean, look, wins are impossible.
to predict. So I guess we're just looking at some late round pitchers who go deep in the starts
and they're on good teams. So who do you like for wins this season? Yeah, a lot of these
pitcher categories are more just late round pitcher sleepers. But Zach Allen, veteran should pitch deep in
games. He had 190 innings last season, even in a bad year. He showed some improvements in the
second half. The Diamondbacks are going to be a competitive team at least. So I think you can
expect a dozen or so wins at least from him. Carlos Rodan, he's
Coming back from that elbow surgery,
sounds like it's going to be like mid to late April, maybe May,
but he has, I believe, led the American League in wins each of the past two seasons.
Even if you only get three quarters of a season out of him,
that could be 15 wins for Carlos Rodan,
the way he's pitched the last couple of years.
His velocity was good in his most recent bullpen session.
They said he's throwing harder even at lower intensity
because his elbow's feeling better after pitching through bone spurs.
Matthew Boyd, great defense, great team behind him.
He's just undervalued.
Chris Bassett, veterans should pitch deep into games for a good Orioles team.
And Aranola, he's looked pretty good there in the world.
Baseball Classic.
Obviously a very good team situation.
If we just get that mid-to-high 3s, R.A.
back instead of, you know, I think it was over six last season, I think Aaronola is going to win a lot of games.
What about four strikeouts?
again, this could be a lot of the, a lot of just our favorite starting pitcher of sleepers,
but are there any in particular you like for strikeouts?
Yeah, I think one that stands out is Jack Flaherty.
I know he was frustrating last year, but he had 188 strikeouts in just 161 innings.
His 464 ERA, 128 whip, those hurt you a lot.
His peripherals were quite a bit better than that, though.
I think if Jack Flaherty gets a high threes ERA and 190 strikeouts,
I think you'll be very happy with that.
Garrett Cole also stands out as he's going super late.
He's coming back from Tommy John surgery.
We don't know what he'll look like.
The reports have been positive so far.
He hit 98 in a bullpen or a live batting practice recently.
He might get in a grapefruit league game this week.
I think he might be back by early May.
And you could get 170 strikeouts in 5.6th of a season from Garrett Cole if he's himself.
Kodai Senga, 29% strikeout rate as a rookie.
Velocity's been up with some.
tweaks to his mechanics this spring, so I'm hopeful there.
Ryan Weathers has actually not been a good strikeout pitcher in his major league career,
but the stuff is certainly there.
The 98 mile an hour fastball, specifically being a good foundation.
Kyle Harrison is a guy I like a lot as a late round sleeper.
Big strikeout stuff could be in the Bruehers rotation.
All right, how about we put the next two together, ERA and WIP?
Look, it could be different because, you know, WIP, you can find guys that get lots
fly balls and things like that, but who are some that you like specifically in ERA and others in WIP?
Yeah, so some of these guys are injury stashes. We'll put them together. Justin Steele, Spencer
Schwellenbach and Shane Bieber, and actually Bryce Miller as well. Bryce Miller, especially for WIP,
should be very, very good. I think he led the league in WIP two years ago. If he didn't,
he was very, very close. His injury is the least concerning of these. He's just dealing with an oblique.
He's just got to get past that, but his elbow seems fine after he pitched through bonespurs last year.
so hopefully Bryce Miller can get on board.
Matthew Boyd, I think he's just a really good sleeper across the board.
So ERA whip and wins.
Ian Seymour for whip, especially once he's in the raise rotation,
which should happen at some point.
Justin Steele coming back from that injury, like I mentioned.
Connolly Early, you have to stash, but I like his upside.
Braxton Garrett, his velocity has been up coming back from Tommy John's surgery.
And then I like the Guardians duo of Joey Cantillo and Parker Messick.
hopefully they both make the rotation.
I think they could be great ERA and whip guys.
And the last category that we have here is saves.
And there are actually some decent options going outside the top 200.
Which one stand out to you most?
Yeah, this is the year of Feaster Famine for saves, right?
There's a lot of guys going early and then a bunch of situations we don't know.
But Sir Anthony Dominguez is the White Sox closer.
And he is outside the top 200.
It's not a good team.
I'm not sure he's a great pitcher, but 25 to 30.
saves is 25 to 30 saves. I'll also go Robert Garcia. I think he's the
likeliest closer for the Rangers. Clayton Beater, the
likeliest closer for the Nationals. Kirby Yates,
likelyest closer for the Angels. And Robert Suarez,
just as a more of a true dart throw. But if
Reisel Iglesias falters early like he did last year, Robert
Suarez is under contract longer than Rice. Eliglesias and it wouldn't
take a ton, I don't think, for Ricell Iglesias.
to lose his job.
Hopefully that's not the case, Chris.
We have Rice-Hleglacius on our beat FBT team,
and I just took him in Tau Wars this weekend,
but I do understand what you're saying,
and it definitely is a risk there with Rice-Hilleglacius.
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