2019 Fantasy Baseball Undervalued Outfielders

The outfield position is deep, very deep. The later you go in drafts you won’t find those five-category players, but I guarantee there will be players who get drafted in the double-digit rounds that turn out to be key players on teams.

You will also be able to use the outfield to boost the categories that your team may have been lacking in earlier rounds. If you need power, you can find it. Speed? Yes, that too.

I’ll be honest though, it was hard to find values near the top of the draft. My personal rankings matched with ADP in a lot of places. I was able to find a couple. What this means though is you will have to pay fair value for most of the outfielders you want. Not a bad thing necessarily, just good to know as you enter your draft.

2019 Fantasy Baseball Undervalued Outfielders

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Khris Davis, OF, Oakland Athletics

Khris Davis is a robot @MLBNetwork pic.twitter.com/Ibq7yepkDl

— Parker Smith (@HParkerSmith) February 17, 2019

The league leader in home runs last year will still require a fairly hefty draft price of a fourth rounder, but I think it should be at least a full round higher.

He will not steal any bases, but a guy who has hit for over 100 RBI and 40 Home runs the last three seasons should easily go in the third round. The only thing I can think of that is holding his value down is the fact on some sites he does not have OF eligibility.

I can understand that, as having a Utility eligible player only is tough to manage. However, if you are in a league where he does have outfield eligibility he needs to be drafted much earlier. Even if he regresses back to just under 40 home runs and under 100 RBI he is still worth it.

Yasiel Puig, OF, Cincinnati Reds

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Puig was thought to be the next Trout after his rookie season where he made a huge splash. Since then he has disappointed, mostly due to a ton of injuries.

However, last year even though he was placed on the DL due to a hip injury he had a very productive season. In 125 games he finished with his highest ISO in his career and second most home runs (only to 2017).

This season he moves to a much better, hitter-friendly park, in Cincinnati. Puig should easily post the best power numbers of his career. This is exciting territory for an electric player such as Puig. Honestly, if he stays healthy, 30 home runs and near 100 RBI is not out of the question. He will also get you stolen bases, making him even more of a bargain at his eighth-round value.

Jake Bauers, OF/1B, Cleveland Indians

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Bauers has plenty of red flags thanks to his horrible first to second half splits last season. What you have to remember is he was a 22-year-old rookie and pitching adjusted to him.

It is now his turn to adjust to the pitching and I have full confidence that he will. It also helps that he moves from the more pitching-friendly park in Tampa to Cleveland that leans more hitter-friendly.

With a young player such as Bauers, you must look at his minor league stats. When looking at them I see a player who hit for more power than expected at first last season but well below it in the second half. Perhaps the power number even out, that’s fine. Where I see the most room for improvement is batting average.

The most telling stat for this batting average is the K-rate that jumped five points from his worst mark ever in the minors. Also, his BABIP sank to well below .300 which it had never been before.

Franmil Reyes, OF, San Diego Padres

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The addition of Manny Machado complicates things with Reyes for sure. As I mentioned on The Fantasy Six Pack Hour Podcast, how much playing time Reyes is expected to get depends on the site you look at. Some have him in the minors (at least to start the season) and some have him getting the most plate appearances in the Padres outfield.

I’m on the side that I think he may not get the most playing time, but I don’t see how they take his bat out of the lineup too often so he is still worth drafting.

Between Triple-A and the Majors last year he hit 32 home runs and actually got stronger as the major league season continued, mashing 10 in August-September. He is not a batting average liability either as he hit .280 last year. I don’t expect that and neither do the projections, but a good .260 is reasonable to expect.

Reyes, if he gets enough playing time, is a legit 40 home run threat and with an improved lineup thanks to the addition of Manny Machado, his RBI total should improve too.

Randall Grichuk, OF, Toronto Blue Jays

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Another injury-ridden player whose stock takes a hit because of it. Keep in mind though in 462 plate appearances (124 games) last year he still hit 25 home runs and over 60 RBI and Runs scored.

Batting average leaves a little to be desired, but his ADP is so low (253 at the time of writing this) it is worth the slight hit if you need the power numbers.

I would draft him quite a bit higher than this mainly because if he can get more plate appearances in, then his counting stats are bound to go up. In fact, projections have him receiving 80 more plate appearances on average. This makes his totals reach 30 home runs, 73 runs and 84 RBI. Tell me that isn’t worth a middle round pick even with a .240 average.

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