In case you haven’t yet opened your eyes to the upcoming—and fast-approaching—fantasy baseball season, it’s time to stop hitting the snooze button on your internal alarm clock, wake up and start sleepering.
Yep, you read that right. “Sleepering” might not be an actual, you know, word—at least, not according to the Oxford dictionary—but if it were, surely the definition would be as follows: “The act and art of identifying potential fantasy sleepers.”
Most draft-day sleepers fall into one (or more) of the following categories:
- Bounce-Back Vet: A longtime major leaguer who had a miserable 2014.
- Injury-Returnee: A player who missed much, most or all of 2014 on the disabled list.
- Lesser-Known: A player who isn’t getting much, if any, real-life publicity or fantasy love.
- New Role: A player who is taking on a different position or new opportunity.
- Post-Hyper: A once-promising player whose career has stalled and disappointed to date.
- Top Prospect: A highly rated youngster who remains rookie-eligible heading into this year.
- Youngster on the Rise: A player who’s ready to rise after a first taste of the majors in 2014.
The players to follow come with at least one of the above sleeper labels.
The other qualification required to be eligible? The players must fall outside the top 150—that’s the first 12-15 rounds for 10- and 12-team leagues—based on average draft position (ADP) from Fantasy Pros.
Here, then, are 25 fantasy sleepers, listed in order of ADP, to keep in mind over the next few weeks’ worth of prep work.
This list considers three factors:
First, everything is based on 10- or 12-team mixed leagues with standard five-by-five rotisserie scoring (BA, R, HR, RBI, SB for hitters; W, ERA, WHIP, K, SV for pitchers).
Second, lineup construction accounts for 22 active roster positions consisting of: one each for catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, corner infield, middle infield and utility, along with five outfielders and nine pitchers.
And third, to be eligible at a particular position, players either must have played at least 20 games there in 2014 or be in line to start there in 2015.