MLB

Sannes' 10 Dynasty Fantasy Baseball Players to Buy Before Opening Day

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Kris Bryant, 3B/OF, Chicago Cubs

I promise that not all of these players will be guys who are already high in the rankings. But Kris Bryant's fall after an injury-riddled season makes him someone we'll want to scoop up even at a respectable cost.

Bryant's 2018 was about as bad as it gets. He finished with just 13 dingers in 457 plate appearances, both of which were easily career lows. His isolated slugging percentage fell to .188, down 54 points from where it was just a year before.

Almost all of this seemed to stem from Bryant's shoulder injury.

Bryant first hit the disabled list on June 26th but said his shoulder had been bothering him for almost a month. One look at Bryant's numbers shows how much that affected him.

Bryant in 2018Strikeout RateWalk RateHard-Hit RateFly-Ball Rate
March through May17.2%12.3%40.4%41.1%
June through October29.6%8.7%20.9%40.3%


Bryant had been putting up his usual numbers early with a .286/.401/.524 triple slash on May 31st, and his strikeout rate was actually down almost two percentage points from where it was in 2017. The guy was quietly getting better. And then the brown stuff hit the fan.

Because of that down season, Bryant is now 19th in Cockcroft's rankings and 26th on Fantasy Pros. But Bryant was once as high as third on Cockcroft's rankings and was eighth entering 2018. This seems like the perfect time to buy before that price rebounds.

As with Story, you shouldn't approach the Bryant owner with a low-ball offer because everybody knows these guys are already valuable commodities. But you should at least reach out and see what it would cost to get them on your team. Both have the potential to be top-10 dynasty pieces by the end of the year, so it can't hurt to at least test the waters before they remind others of how good they are.