Matt Carpenter — Carpenter has been a very interesting player to watch in drafts thus far this season. On the one hand, there have been experts who have taken him in Round 6 or 7 thinking he will return with a vengeance, and on the other hand, he fell about 60 spots from his ADP in my NFBC draft last night. Who will be correct? I think I am going to lean towards Carpenter having a rebound season for the Cardinals. He is a prideful player who wasn’t completely healthy in 2017 and wants to make up for it this year. I am a bit worried about two things though: 1) his back is still an issue as it has given him some problems in spring training, and 2) Jose Martinez is a pretty good player in his own right and if Carpenter struggles St. Louis might get Martinez more playing time.
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Tommy Pham — I had never heard Tommy Pham’s name before Gene McCaffrey (wiseguybaseball.com) mentioned it on my radio show a few years ago. Since Gene has forgotten more about baseball than most experts know, I filed Pham’s name in the recesses of my brain and picked him up last season when I saw that the Cardinals were giving him a chance to be a starter. Pham exploded onto the season and was a Fantasy superstar going 23HR and 25 SB with a .306 BA. The problem with Pham in 2018 is that you are going go have to pay full price to own him. And while I like him as a player, it’s quite possible that his numbers take a slight 10-15% regression. If so, he’s still an excellent player, but his value might not be worth the round you draft him.
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