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Snake drafts are the more common method, but salary cap leagues offer a more complex flavor to your draft day. That's not for everyone, and that's fine; part of the beauty of fantasy baseball lies in its high degree of customizability. Salary cap drafts take longer, and they're much less straightforward than snakes, but for those managers willing and able to put in the extra effort, the potential reward is vast.
The freedom to acquire literally any player you might want is a double-edged sword, and without sufficient preparation, it will be difficult to construct the foundation of a winning roster. That means being flexible in your thinking is of paramount important, and the easiest way to do that is to compile a deep knowledge of the player pool. That will illuminate the many paths to the numbers you're after.
The players we'll discuss today may or may not fit into every one of your visions for success, but they'll almost certainly fit into your budget. Here, we'll be looking at a half-dozen hitters whose recommended prices check in at single digits, based on our staff rankings. I've also included their average NFBC draft costs for reference, but didn't use them as the primary qualifier because that data includes only 15 drafts. Note that these values assume a $260 budget, so you may need to adjust accordingly for your specific settings.
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Rhys Hoskins (1B, PHI)
$9 | $8 NFBC
Hoskins won't boost you in batting average or steal any bases, but he'll give you plenty of production in the other three standard categories. His 162-game averages thus far: 36 home runs, 99 runs, and 102 RBI. Offseason Tommy John surgery has scared some managers away, but Hoskins has looked fine hitting in spring training and is expected to be ready for Opening Day.
He's locked into a prime spot in the Phillies lineup, essentially the same group that finished fifth in runs scored last season. That he's coming cheaper than Josh Bell and Eric Hosmer feels like free money. And in OBP leagues, you could double this price tag and it would still be a reasonable cost.
Ramon Laureano (OF, OAK)
$9 | $11 NFBC
Everybody loved Laureano a year ago after he hit .288/.340/.521 with 79 runs scored, 24 home runs, and 13 stolen bases in 2019. While his production cratered in 2020, that obscured some serious strides in plate approach, as the 26-year-old nearly doubled his walk rate and trimmed his swinging strike rate by four percentage points.
Looking at 2019-20 as a whole gives us 703 plate appearances with a line of .266-106-30-92-15. As a point of comparison, Bryce Harper's 2019 line was .260-98-35-114-15. Laureano isn't Harper of course, but at this price he doesn't need to be to turn a profit. The market has overreacted to his pandemic performance; don't follow suit.
Dylan Carlson (OF, STL)
$6 | $5 NFBC
Carlson struggled enough that the Cardinals demoted him last year, but he remains one of the top prospects in baseball. We saw why when he returned from that demotion to post a 142 wRC+ over his last 40 plate appearances.
The 22-year-old raked across multiple levels of the minors in 2019 as well, hitting .292/.372/.542 with 95 R, 26 HR, and 20 SB in just 126 games. Carlson is expected to open the year as the starting right fielder and could find himself hitting in the middle of the lineup behind Paul Goldschmidt and newly acquired Nolan Arenado.
Jesse Winker (OF, CIN)
$5 | $4 NFBC
Winker had a .932 OPS last season and is projected to hit leadoff in Cincinnati, which makes his modest price tag a bit of a head-scratcher. Yes, he's historically struggled against lefties, but he only has 188 MLB plate appearances against them, and 41 came last year to the tune of an .890 OPS.
That's not enough to conclude he's figured out how to hit same-side pitchers, but it does underscore the limited sample we'd have to use to conclude that he can't. Winker gets on base enough to flirt with 100 runs over a full season as a leadoff hitter, and he's a .280 career hitter with 20 HR pop.
Dylan Moore (2B/SS/OF, SEA)
$7 | $12 NFBC
At $5, this is the largest spread between our staff projected value and NFBC cost of the dozen players I've suggested as under-$10 targets this week. It's evident that Moore has an intriguing blend of pop and speed.
Where you ultimately come down on him depends on whether you think he can hit .250 like he did in 2020, and to a lesser extent how much you buy the power surge (he hit one fewer homer than in 2019, but did so in 123 fewer plate appearances). There's 20/20 potential here, and while he's currently projected to hit sixth, it isn't difficult to imagine him moving up.
Tommy Edman (2B/3B/SS/OF, STL)
$6 | $10 NFBC
Maybe you'd prefer to place your bets on another Swiss Army knife with speed in Tommy Edman. Across the last two seasons, the switch-hitter has batted .283 with 16 HR, 17 SB, and 88 runs scored. He figures to have a shot to replicate the latter number if he remains in the leadoff spot as he's been this spring.
Like Moore, NFBC had a higher dollar value on him than our staff rankings do, likely a reflection of a premium being placed on stolen bases.
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