RADIO
BALLER MOVE: Target ~210
CURRENT ADP: ~240
ANALYSIS: It’s easy for lower-tier first basemen to get overshadowed in fantasy baseball, with the position being the home of mashers like Paul Goldschmidt and Mark Trumbo. Cron is one of those players – he’s shown consistency and a good amount of power in his first three years in the bigs, but not enough to generate much fantasy buzz. As he enters his age-27 season, however, things look like they could start to turn for the Angels’ first baseman.
Cron has hit 16 home runs each of the last two seasons, but last season he cut down his strikeout rate and walked more, and reached a career high in doubles with 25. This was all reflected in increased line drive, fly ball and hard hit contact rates, though his HR/FB rate dropped from 14.4 percent in 2015 to 12.1 in 2016. If he continues at the higher fly ball and hard hit contact rates in 2017, it’s reasonable to expect more of those fly balls to leave the yard, turning some of those doubles into homers.
If he can get on the field on a more everyday basis in 2017, fantasy owners who snag him in the later rounds after the big names go off the board could be rewarded with a breakout season from Cron.
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