RADIO
BALLER MOVE: Draft target ~pick 290
CURRENT ADP: ~306 overall
ANALYSIS: Finally signing with the San Francisco Giants, La Stella should play just about every day and hit atop the Giants Lineup. Tommy La Stella is what I categorize as a roster stabilizer. His production is not flashy, but you can write it in pen. Each of the last two seasons, La Stella:
Featured Promo: Get any full-season MLB and DFS Premium Pass for 50% off. Exclusive access to our Team Sync platform, Premium articles, daily Matchup Rating projections, 15 lineup tools, DFS cheat sheets, Research Stations, Lineup Optimizers and much more! Sign Up Now!- Has a batting average of .281 or better
- Posted a wRC+ of at least 120
- Improved his strikeout rate each year
The improved strikeout rate is not a fluke. In 2020, Among players who had at least 100 PA, La Stella was one of five players who ranked top-10 in all of these categories: O-Contact%, Z-Contact%, Contact% & SwStr%. In 2019, we saw the power production. This came with a change in the average launch angle. He increased it to 13.2 degrees in 2019 and then increased it even further to 17.1 degrees in 2020. This change has led to more power production with 16 home runs over 80 games in 2019. The juiced ball likely assisted this as we saw just five over a 55 game sample in 2020 and that essentially paced him out to hitting roughly 15 or so in a full complement of games. However, now that he calls San Fran home, that is not good for his home run projections. You should still get double-digit home runs but the ceiling took a bit of a hit. There is a high-floor here and that is why the term "roster stabilizer" comes to mind.
More Fantasy Baseball Values and Sleepers
Top Hitter Streamers and Starts for Fantasy Baseball - Week 24
There are only two weeks left of fantasy baseball! It's going to be very sad when the season comes to an end, but the impending end of the season means that these are the most important, and therefore most fun weeks of the year – for those of you still competing, at least. I have […]
Are You For Real? Surprising MLB Pitcher Starts from Week 23
Welcome back to "Are You For Real?", a weekly column where we take starting pitchers who had surprisingly good starts over the past week and put them under the microscope to determine whether they're legit or just smoke and mirrors. The NL Central is our center of attention this week, as we'll be looking at […]
MLB Pitcher Studs and Duds - Advanced Metrics Leaders for wOBA (Week 23)
Welcome back to fantasy baseball and RotoBaller’s Statcast Pitcher Studs and Duds article series! Each week, I select one advanced metric, choose two pitchers with strong values and two with poor values, and analyze what those values may mean for future performance. This week, I will focus on a stat that describes how pitchers have […]
Top Hitter Streamers and Starts for Fantasy Baseball - Week 23
Hey RotoBallers! It's Jon Anderson, back again for one of the final weeks of hitter streamers. We've found a bunch of exciting hitters for next week with some incredible hitting environments on tap! Your league is probably in the fantasy playoffs now or entering them next week, so some big, tough decisions are ahead. I […]
Are You For Real? Surprising MLB Pitcher Starts from Week 22
Welcome back to "Are You For Real?", a weekly column where we take starting pitchers who had surprisingly good starts over the past week and put them under the microscope to determine whether they're legit or just smoke and mirrors. We're sticking to the east coast this week, with three arms in the eastern divisions […]
Download Our Free Draft App
Like what you see? You can download our free fantasy baseball mobile app for iPhone and Android which includes more draft sleepers at very position, 24x7 player news, notifications, injury alerts and daily articles... all free!
Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App
Like what you see? Download our updated fantasy baseball app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, sleepers, prospects & more. All free!
Check out RotoBaller's entire fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups and sleepers list, updated daily!
