It's been an long off-season in the MLB, with free agency lingering well into spring training and stars like Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel remaining unsigned. However, one team that did not beat around the bush was the Philadelphia Phillies. They signed Bryce Harper to a $330 million deal and also traded for J.T. Realmuto and Jean Segura. Suddenly, they look like they a major force, and their players will remain fixtures atop 2019 Fantasy baseball rankings. There's no arguing with the stability of players like Harper, but drafters everywhere will be looking for 2019 Fantasy baseball sleepers who often define seasons by vastly outperforming their ADP. They're also trying to find the biggest 2019 Fantasy breakouts to target and busts to avoid. So before you draft, see the 2019 Fantasy baseball rankings from the proven computer model at SportsLine. It has a history of finding value.
Last season, SportsLine's Projection Model identified several top Fantasy baseball sleepers, including Brewers third baseman Mike Moustakas. Drafted No. 137 overall on average, Moustakas hit 28 home runs and drove in 95 runs, the most of his career, to finish as the No. 45 overall player in all of Fantasy.
The team at SportsLine was all over Moustakas as a Fantasy breakout from the start. Their model had him listed much higher than expert consensus rankings, and anyone who listened to their advice was well positioned for a league title.
Their model is powered by the same people who powered projections for all three major Fantasy sites. And that same group is sharing its 2019 Fantasy Baseball rankings and cheat sheets over at SportsLine, helping you find Fantasy Baseball sleepers, breakouts and busts long before your competition. Their cheat sheets, available for leagues on many major sites, are updated multiple times every day. Any time an injury occurs or there's a change on a depth chart, the team at SportsLine updates its rankings.
In fact, when it came to ranking players in Fantasy football, SportsLine's Projection Model beat human experts last season when there were big differences in ranking. And the model was the closest to the hole overall, meaning it best pinpointed where every player would finish each week. That could literally be the difference between winning your league or going home empty-handed.
One of the 2019 Fantasy baseball sleepers the model is all over: Royals first baseman Ryan O'Hearn.
O'Hearn stormed onto the scene for the Royals late last season after being called up in August. The 25-year-old had a .262 batting average with 12 homers and 30 RBIs over 44 games in the first big-league action of his career. O'Hearn is on track to begin the 2019 campaign as the starting first baseman in Kansas City, and the model is projecting a highly productive MLB season. He's off to a fast start already, belting a three-run homer and driving in five runs in a spring training game last week.
In fact, SportsLine's 2019 Fantasy baseball rankings have O'Hearn (15th-round ADP) returning the same value as players like Cody Bellinger (sixth), Jesus Aguilar (11th) and Eric Hosmer (13th). He's one of this season's top 2019 Fantasy baseball sleepers you need to be all over in your drafts.
Another sleeper that SportsLine's Fantasy baseball rankings 2019 are extremely high on: Dodgers starting pitcher Kenta Maeda.
After bouncing between the rotation and bullpen, it appears Maeda will be a fixture as a starter this season, something Fantasy owners should be able to capitalize on. He struck out nearly 11 batters per nine innings last season thanks to elite secondary offerings that generate swinging strikeouts more than 25 percent of the time.
All the peripherals suggest that Maeda is exactly what we've seen the last three seasons. The one big variable is how the Dodgers use him and, while he'll certainly have to stave off competitors for his rotation spot, he'll likely get his biggest opportunity since 2016 when he threw 175.2 innings as a rookie international signing. That's why SportsLine's 2019 Fantasy baseball rankings list him as the No. 26 starter despite a composite ADP of 52.
SportsLine is also high on a starting pitcher who didn't finish in the top five in Fantasy points at his position last year but is ranked higher than starters like Clayton Kershaw, Chris Sale and James Paxton. This pick could be the difference in winning your league or going home with nothing.
So which Fantasy Baseball sleepers should you snatch in your draft? And which undervalued pitchers can help you win a championship? Visit SportsLine now to get Fantasy Baseball rankings for every single position, all from the model that called Mike Moustakas' huge breakout last season, and find out.
