Corey Knebel (RP, MIL) - 2016 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers

BALLER MOVE: Target Late in NL-Only Leagues

CURRENT ADP: 498

ANALYSIS: Corey Knebel worked his fastball and curveball in very well together in his first real year in the majors, as he pitched 50.1 innings out of the bullpen with 58 strikeouts, a 3.22 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP.

He was snake-bitten by an ugly 1.43 HR/9, which explains his 4.03 FIP, but the regression police want to see that normalize, with a 3.16 xFIP and a stellar 2.85 SIERA. Now a guy who throws his 94 MPH fastball 68.4% of the time can struggle at times with homers, but that power curve helps the cause and he should improve on this metric in 2016.

As we’ve seen, Knebel has already made his strikeout stuff work for him at the Major League level, as he struck out over a batter per inning last year. He probably won’t get a crack at the ninth this year, as Milwaukee will likely give Will Smith and Jeremy Jeffress their shots first, but he still holds value as a reliever.