Well, it’s official, baseball has finally started, and if Opening Day was a sign we are in for a special 2018 season. Numerous games had walk-off wins, and numerous players are off to torrid starts. Hopefully, you are an owner that rosters a few of these players, and a handful will definitely be sell-high targets. This week, I want to focus on a player that I was high on entering the 2017 season. He was off to a great start before being placed on the disable list early into the 2017. Still, after coming back, he went on to have a solid season. This week, I bring you “That’s Amore!” The Mitch Haniger Files 2.0.

You’ve heard the name, and you saw Haniger start off hot in 2017 before missing a significant amount of time with an oblique injury. Fast-forward to 2018, and he’s off to an impressive start. When it comes to fantasy baseball, everyone is looking for depth at the outfield position, and there are numerous players that fall in drafts for one reason or another. With most leagues having three starting outfield roster positions, there are numerous players to target. Haniger’s ADP was ESPN: 276,NFB: 212,Yahoo!: 371,and Fantrax: 196. That’s rounds 13-23 for 16-team leagues. There’s a good chance Haniger was available in the middle-to-late rounds of standard 25-man rosters. Still, he feel to those rounds, and a week into the season he’s looking like a nice addition.

Entering Sunday, Haniger was slashing .571/.700/1.143 with one home run, two extra-base hits, and a combined four for seven. Yes, it’s only two games in, but he’s playing with a rejuvenated lineup that looks to compete for the American League West division. What makes Haniger a solid outfield fantasy player is his plate presence. He managed to get on-base at an above average frequency of .352 and was just about 18 points shy of falling into the great OBP category. When I look for outfield depth, OBP is a state I invest a lot of research into, and he accumulated 16 home runs and five stolen bases. Assuming he stayed healthy and didn’t have a setback, he would’ve easily obtained 131 more at-bats. With that in mind, we could’ve been looking at 20+ home runs and double-digit steals. That would’ve put him in a list of 11 players. In case you were wondering, those players were: Charlie Blackmon, Mike Trout, Tommy Pham, Chris Taylor, Andrew McCutchen, Domingo Santana, Justin Upton, Andrew Benintendi, Mookie Betts, Brett Gardner, and Steven Souza Jr. That’s pretty good company, and nearly all of those players factored into teams that won their leagues.

Looking at Haniger’s batted ball percentages, throughout the 2017 season he posted a 19.3 LD%, 27.3 GB%, and 54.5 FB% while posting a 37.1 Pull%, 25.7 Cent%, and 37.1 Oppo%. From these numbers, we can easily see he would hit the ball where it was pitched. This typically leads to great success when a player uses all parts of the field, and doesn’t rely on trying to pull every pitch. HIs 19.3 LD% saw him with the top-half of all Major League hitters, and his 34.7 Hard% saw him with the likes of Andrew McCutchen (35.2%) and Christian Yelich (35.2%). Both outfielders were being drafted well before Haniger, and by season’s end, his numbers could be very similar to both players.

When understanding plate discipline, we tend to zero in on six categories. Those six are: Outside the Zone Swing Percentage (O-Swing%), Outside the Zone Contact Percentage (O-Contact%), Inside the Zone Swing Percentage (Z-Swing%), Inside the Zone Contact Percentage (Z-Contact%), Contact Percentage (Contact%), and Swing & Miss Percentage (SwStr%). Haniger’s 2017 numbers were as follows: 24.5 O-Swing%, 58.7 O-Contact%, 61.7 Z-Swing%, 88.6 Z-Contact%, 79.3 Contact%, and 8.7 SwStr%. His 79.3 Contact% was good enough for 22 of all MLB outfielders, and his 8.7 SwStrk% saw him sitting 19th. It’s easy to see that Haniger has great plate discipline, and hitting the ball to all parts of the field had him placing in the top-half of all MLB outfielders.

With Haniger off to a hot start and currently batting sixth in the Mariners lineup behind Kyle Seager and in front of Ryon Healy. This leaves Haniger with an ideal situation while at the dish with plenty of chances to drive in runs with Dee Gordon and Jean Segura being on base when he comes up to bat. Of course, runs and stolen bases will always being in play as Ryon Healy is more than capable to driving in runs. Haniger is hitting in the perfect lineup with high on-base hitters in front of him, and hitters batting behind him that are more than capable of driving him in.

Early on, Haniger is looking like a steal for owners that snagged him between rounds 13-23. There’s no question he’s capable of 20+ home runs and double-digit steals. Early on, if you’re looking for outfield depth, take a look at Haniger. He won’t break the bank, and if 2017 told us anything, it’s hard to find outfielders that will reach 20+ home runs with double-digit steals. In case you were wondering, Haniger is available in nearly 50% of all leagues, and that number will be shrinking by the day. And yes, I’m writing this article on Sunday, and Haniger has just hit his second home run of the season!

Plate Discipline Glossary:

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Major League Fantasy Baseball Radio Show: Join host Brian Roach, Jr, and Cole Freel live on Sunday April 1st, 2018 from -9pm EST for episode #111 of Major League Fantasy Baseball Radio. We are a live broadcast that will take callers at 323-870-4395. Press 1 to speak with the host. We will discuss the latest information in the world of fantasy baseball.

Our guest this week is Todd Nevin. Todd is a writer with majorleaguefantasysports.com, and his articles publish every Wednesday morning. Todd is also the GM of a professional soccer club in PA called the Harrisburg Heat.

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