Fantasy baseball analysts Scott Pianowski, Dalton Del Don and Andy Behrens reveal the player they’re targeting on each AL Central team. The reason behind their selections could be tied to draft value, a star they want to build around or someone they’re going out of their way to take.
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• An easy and inexpensive way to give your squad a boost in the pitching categories is to park 2-3 elite non-closing relievers in your daily active roster. To that end, you want guys like James Karinchak. He won’t cost anything in your draft, his ratios were exceptional last season and he struck out a ridiculous 62 batters in just 39.0 innings. Remember, you have an innings cap in Yahoo default leagues, so you need to concern yourself with K-rate, not total Ks. — Andy Behrens
• Triston McKenzie posted a 31:1 K:BB ratio over his final four starts last year and is a dark horse Cy Young candidate in 2023. The tall righty is equally effective against left-handers and should benefit from new catcher Mike Zunino’s strong defense/framing. McKenzie had a historical rookie season and built his innings up to 190+ last year. That said, it may or may not be worth mentioning that he’s struggled mightily in spring training, so I’ve likely drafted enough McKenCY for 2023. — Dalton Del Don
• You can draft Cal Quantrill outside the top 200 on Yahoo and outside the top 300 in NFBC, likely because he’s outpitched his component stats for two straight years. But he doesn’t need to do much to validate those inexpensive buy-ins. Cleveland still offers a plus defense, and I’ll consider Quantrill as a late-round depth play in my mixed leagues. — Scott Pianowski
• I will be the last occupant of Luis Robert Jr. Island, when the rest of you are long gone. Let’s turn the page on 2022, OK? He’s only 25 years old, his power upside is exceptional and he has speed enough to swipe 20 bags, particularly under the new rules. — Andy Behrens
• Elvis Andrus was quietly one of only 21 players who went 15/15 last season despite playing in one of baseball’s best pitcher’s parks in Oakland before moving to Chicago. In fact, Andrus hit more home runs for the White Sox than he did for the A’s last season, despite just 33% of his at-bats coming with Chicago. Andrus is 34 years old and clearly will regress in 2023, but if we prorate his stats with the White Sox over 600 ABs, we’d get: .271-83-30-93-36 (no…