Orlando Arcia (SS, MIL) - Fantasy Baseball Draft Values

BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 315

CURRENT ADP: ~340 overall

ANALYSIS: Orlando Arcia was pegged by numerous fantasy baseball experts a year ago as a sleeper for the 2018 season. After polishing off his first full year in the majors in 2017 where he batted .277 with 15 home runs, 56 R, 53 RBI, and 14 stolen bases, Arcia took a significant step backward in 2018. The Milwaukee Brewers shortstop struggled mightily and was optioned down twice during the season to Triple-A. Finishing the year with an anemic .236/3/32/30/7 line, he burned the experts that believed in him as a 2018 breakout performer.

It would be unreasonable to call Arcia’s first half of 2018 anything other than a disaster. After a brief Triple-A stint in May, Arcia was sent back down on July 1 with only three SB and a ghastly .197/.231/.251 slash line. Most of Arcia’s fantasy value was expected to come in the AVG and SB categories, so these numbers weren’t anything short of disappointing. It was in Colorado Springs, however, where he began to turn around his lost year as he batted .357 in the minors.

Arcia came back to the bigs in the second half on July 26 and nearly doubled his LD% from 13.9% to 25.9%, resulting in a much more respectable .290/.320/.386 line. Although we would have liked to have seen more than four SB on six attempts to go along with the improved stroke, it was still very encouraging to see. Arcia kept his strong regular season going into the postseason where he got a hit in all nine games he started, chipping in with three big flies, equaling his regular season total.

With a current ADP of 339, Arcia costs next to nothing. He’s a terrific bargain in the last couple rounds, as he has proven the 15/15 skill set with upside for more SB to go along with a decent batting average. If everything starts coming together for the 24-year old, he’ll get you numbers comparable to Andrelton Simmons, a player going 120 picks ahead of him.