My oldest fantasy baseball league has been going for almost 10 years now with the same core of players and only a few new members throughout the years. When a league has been going on that long you start to learn other peoples trends and players or teams that they like and can start to predict their draft or know what players they might want in a trade. Every year we do a live draft and the order was decided about a month before and I got 11 of 12. I have always been a fan of Giancarlo Stanton and the first year I drafted him as a rookie I reached way too early because when I announced Mike Stanton all i heard was “Who?”. Throughout the years I have him on my team more years than not and after a slightly disappointing 2018 I decided I was going to take him again in 19 with the 11th pick. Stanton was ranked 19th overall preseason and I knew most people in the league weren’t as high on him as me so I figured he was a lock to be there at 11 and then the person picking 10th a relatively new players took him and I froze and had no idea who to take, my first pick took me about 3 minutes to make because I had no backup plan. There is no worse feeling than losing a player you really want to the pick right before but there is no better feeling than getting the player you had circled on your sheet and having them return great value. Below are some players that have been outperforming where they were drafted and I believe will continue to do so throughout the year.



Anthony Rendon – He has always been underrated but has improved in almost every category. He is hitting more fly balls (2018 43.6% 2019 52.1%) and hitting the ball a lot harder than last year (2018 37.8% 2019 47.9%). While this numbers will probably go down a little towards his career average he is in his year 29 season which should be is prime. He might be tough to trade for now but if you drafted him you should be getting first round value.



Tyler Glasnow – Glasnow has been unbelievable to start the year and seems to have taken a big step forward. Has dropped his walk rate by over 3% from 2018 and has also increased his K/9 which is a good sign. My only concern might be an innings limit or the Rays seem to have the shortest leash for starters which might hurt his value slightly in points league but overall with an ADP around 160 he will return great value.



Chris Archer – Archer is a player I have often found on my teams throughout the years. While he has always disappointed with ERA but excelled in K/9 this year after 3 starts he has an sparkling 2.00 ERA. Archer has struggled with adding a 3rd pitch and has always had to rely on his fastball and slider but this year has been throwing a changeup more 13% and even a curveball 2%. If he is able to command and use those two pitches it will help him go deeper into games and make his fastball and slider even better. I think Archer fell a little too far in drafts this year and can be a solid number two or three starter that you drafted around pick 120.



Mike Trout – While it is impossible for him to outperform where he was drafted there was some debate about taking Mookie Betts over Trout and he has completely ended that conversation. Entering this year at the age of 27 we may not have seen the best of my Trout and he seems be getting even better. With an almost impossible OBP hovering around a Bonds esque 600 he is walking more and striking out a lot less with a 7.4% strikeout rate. If you were lucky enough to get the first overall pick and not take Mookie I cannot even think of a package that I would trade him for.

