Fantasy Baseball: 5 Late-Round Players to Target in 2018
Mike Clevinger, SP, Cleveland Indians
It's rare to get a high-strikeout guy assured of making a start every fifth day for a potential World Series contender late in the draft, but this is the situation with Cleveland Indians hurler Mike Clevinger. He's currently being drafted at 205th overall, a 17th-round pick in 12-team leagues.
Clevinger made 21 starts last year (27 appearances), and in 121.2 innings, put up an ERA of 3.11 and struck out 10.13 batters per nine innings. His 27.3% strikeout rate was tied for 15th best in baseball among pitchers with at least 120 innings, better than Zack Greinke, Aaron Nola, Jose Quintana and teammate Trevor Bauer, all of whom are going much earlier than Clevinger.
In the spring, he's continued to get the whiffs, totaling 18 in 13.1 innings with just 4 walks, and our projections show him piling up 125 strikeouts in 116 innings this season, with an ERA of 4.29. If he can provide more innings than that -- with that strikeout rate -- you'll have landed one of the best pitchers in the American League in the 17th round.
