Fantasy Baseball Rankings 2018: Sleepers and ADP from the model that nailed Mike Moustakas' huge season
Mike Moustakas had a disappointing season in 2016. He only appeared in 27 games, producing 25 hits and 12 runs. However, the team at SportsLine was all over Moustakas from the start in 2017. The result: He bounced back and finished last season with 151 hits, 75 runs and 38 homers, a Royals franchise record.
Their model had him as a top-eight third baseman, and anyone who listened to that advice probably made a run at their league title.
SportsLine's model is powered by the same people who powered projections for all three major Fantasy companies. And that same group is sharing its Fantasy Baseball positional rankings for 2018.
In fact, when it came to ranking players in Fantasy Football, SportsLine's Projection Model beat human experts this season when there were big differences in ranking. And the model was the closest to the hole overall, meaning it best pinpointed where every player would finish each week. That could literally be the difference between winning your league or going home empty-handed.
One sleeper you need to be all over is Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez. He posted the second best ERA of his career in 2017 at 2.96 and surpassed 200 innings last season for the first time since 2011. Gonzalez finished as an SP1 in terms of earned 5x5 fantasy value.
However, drafters are sleeping on him again this year. The team at SportsLine projects a bigger season for Gonzalez (160 ADP) than starting pitchers like Gerrit Cole (82 ADP) and Jose Quintana (80 ADP). Don't sleep on Gonzalez -- he could be your ticket to the playoffs.
Another fantasy baseball sleeper: Indians 3B Jose Ramirez. He was arguably the best player for a 102-win Indians squad last season, raising his production in every meaningful fantasy category except steals. He still stole 17 bases to go along with 29 homers, making him one of only four players in the majors to reach both benchmarks.
SportsLine's advanced computer model has Ramirez (18 ADP) ranked above third basemen like Kris Bryant (12 ADP) and Manny Machado (15 ADP).
SportsLine also is extremely high on a starting pitcher you can get late in your draft who will outperform pitchers like Madison Bumgarner (9.3 ADP) and Stephen Strasburg (31.8 ADP).
So what Fantasy Baseball sleepers should you snatch in your draft? And what starting pitcher can you wait on until late? Visit SportsLine now to get Fantasy Baseball rankings for every single position from the model that called Mike Moustakas' huge breakout last season, and find out.