RADIO
Martin Prado has the patience of Buddha. The only difference is that he carries around a big wooden stick and strikes things violently with it. A lot. Prado nearly has the highest Contact% in the majors at 91.4%. Can you guess who's first? Hint: you'll never guess. That's why I asked. Read every single last word of this article to find out.
Prado has long been known as the consummate professional in the dugout and locker room. His solid defense, exceptional batting eye and leadership have made him a well-known contributor to every team he has been a part of. The problem? Unless you found a way to incorporate veteran presence as a stat in your weird roto league, Prado's greatest assets may seem insignificant to fantasy owners. He seems to have lost a great deal of fantasy cred lately, with an ownership rate under 50% in Fleaflicker leagues. Is he overrated? Not so fast, my friend.
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Breaking Down Martin Prado
As mentioned above, Prado's contact rate is above 91% and his averages reflect it. Entering the first weekend of August, he has a slash line of .319/.371/.426. His batting average places him in the top ten among all Major League hitters and the on-base percentage is top-20 in the National League. Prado's 7.5% walk rate isn't anything special, so he's reaching base the hard way the vast majority of the time.
"But what about his BABIP?" they say. "Isn't a .351 BABIP 36 points above his career average and 38 points above last season's average with the Marlins, suggesting regression for the remainder of the season?" They seem to have an oddly specific knowledge of advanced sabermetrics, don't they? While those facts are true, Prado has finished with a .300+ AVG in four other MLB seasons and is a career .293 hitter. Prado's average and OBP are his primary assets and should especially help fantasy owners in leagues that extend beyond the typical 5x5 category format.
I'm in a league that uses 20 different categories in the standings, so I'll take all the help I can get. True story.
Just as impressive as what he does with the bat is what he doesn't do - strikeout. Prado is fifth in the NL with an 11.1% K%. But when I talk about discipline, there is no better indicator than a phenomenally low 3.5% SwStr% which is tops in the majors. His walk rate and 0.67 BB/K aren't much to brag about, but he won't hurt you in points leagues by racking up whiffs.
I thought real hard about how to show him not striking out but this is the best I could come up with.
The one area Prado could be doing better is scoring runs. Hitting in front of the potent outfield trio of Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna should result in more than the 47 runs he has put up so far this season. Since mid-April, Prado has consistently hit in the #2 spot and retains that choice position in the lineup, so there is still promise for the runs to increase. After a relatively slow start to the season, he scored 18 runs in June and, frankly, should have increased that total in July after hitting .357. The Marlins offense caught fire, finishing the month third in hits with 250. For some reason, that hasn't translated into a higher run total for the veteran.
Prado's power may be dwindling, as he saw his streak of double-digit home runs snapped last season at nine. With just five dingers this year, it doesn't seem the power is coming back any time soon. I'll show you one anyway because who doesn't like a good home run gif?
and what a glorious gif it is...
To close our synopsis of counting stats, Prado has 43 RBI which is good for 47th in the NL. This won't win you any fantasy leagues obviously, but when you consider he's tied with Andrew McCutchen and Freddie Freeman, it doesn't sound so bad any more. Prado can help fantasy teams stretch their advantage in the AVG category quite a bit and he produces well enough in the R and RBI categories that he won't hurt you. The return of lead-off man and last season's batting champ Dee Gordon could actually help Prado in the RBI category, though, and lead to better pitch selection.
Martin Prado is by no means a fantasy MVP or budding superstar. At 32, he's one of the older players I've featured in this series so far. Heck, he's so old that when he was in school, there was no history class! He's so old, his social security number is 1! He's... well, he's actually a decent hitter who may finish in the top ten for batting average with ~75 R and RBI on the season. He could give you a much needed boost in a couple of key categories down the stretch, rather than taking a chance on a recently call-up rookie still getting used to Major League pitching. Can't promise you more than that though. After all, he's no Jose Iglesias.
For maximum effect, cue "Pony" by Ginuwine while viewing.
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