This week’s Fantasy Sports podcast takes a look at potential Pirates surprises in a shortened season.
Jeff Erickson of RotoWire has a few. He says Joe Musgrove and Mitch Keller have a chance to pop in the pitching rotation. Musgrove may outperform his average draft ranking. And if Keller can get his fastball to move a bit more, his strikeout ratio may get you some fantasy results you weren’t expecting.
So if you need a pitcher late in your draft, in a trade or off the waiver wire, watch to see how Keller is performing early in the season.
If Keone Kela is healthy, Erickson likes him to get some sneaky save totals. After all, even though the Pirates may not win a lot of games, the victories they do get will be close. And that’s where marginal closers on bad teams tend to sneak up on people.
It’s not a bad formula. Look at the likes of Solomon Torres, Matt Capps and Mike Williams in years gone by. Maybe that could be Kela — or Kyle Crick — this season.
League-wide, we look at some other topics, including what pace to expect for home runs from your star hitters. The gambling lines seem to be setting season-high home run totals somewhere in the 13.5-14.5 range for the league’s top power bats. Erickson and I talk about how attainable those numbers are, who may attain them and where Josh Bell may be in that mix.
Keller isn’t the only Pirates player Erickson likes as a guy who’ll take a step forward. Bryan Reynolds is coming off a higher plane of success based on last year’s results. But there could be more power and production in his bat.
We also look at why you may find hidden value in the lineups in San Francisco and San Diego. Reds hitters are trending. One, in particular, stands out to Erickson.
Plus, we have some football. We kick around the impact of the Patrick Mahomes’ contract. Is he underpaid? I’m of the opinion that he is.
We both think Raheem Mostert’s trade talk is going nowhere. We explain why. And we see some tangible trickle down to the fantasy world when it comes to a shortened NFL preseason.
Listen: Tim Benz and Jeff Erickson of RotoWire talk potential Pirates surprises
