When it comes to fantasy sports, we love a breakout. We spend days analyzing (or reading about) metrics that might suggest a player set to hit a new level or emerge into a role we never saw coming for them. However, the consequence of that is we tend to almost immediately discard players who don’t produce in the way we hoped. Draft rooms are littered with former “favorites” who we now sneer at as we scroll passed their names.
But post-hype sleepers have feelings too. As well as the ability to make a real difference on your fantasy teams.
This is the second season of me writing this article where I take a look at some post-hype hitters who I think could provide major value based on where they’re going in drafts. While I missed on more than I hit on last year, that’s the nature of these kinds of articles. We had some huge breakouts with Luis Garcia Jr., who was going undrafted, Colton Cowser, JJ Bleday, and Michael Busch, so hopefully, we can find some similar success this year.
As a reminder, post-hype here means somebody who was either a top prospect or had some buzz in previous seasons but failed to live up to that. They need to have languished in the minors for longer than expected or struggled in an extended major league attempt. Since they’re no longer hyped, they also need to be going outside of the top 200 in current drafts, which means none of these are slam dunk choices to outproduce their draft value, but they’re guys who I think can if given the chance.
All ADP data is taken from NFBC Rotowire Online Championship drafts up until February 6th (22 drafts)
Parker Meadows – OF, Detroit Tigers (ADP: 183)
OK, Parker Meadows didn’t meet the ADP criteria, so I’m fudging this already, but I think he’s being drafted too late, so I wanted to include him. Parker Meadows was my pick for “Who’s the Next Josh Lowe” when I published the column last year, but a slow start and injuries prevented that from coming to fruition. Still, I’m back in on Meadows this year. In that article, I mentioned that I believed Meadows had the minor league batted ball quality and approach to be a .260 hitter who would hit 15 home runs at spacious Comerica Park but also steal 20+ bases while playing every day because of his strong defense in center field. That didn’t pan out in 2024, but Meadows looked good at the end of the season after coming off the IL, and George Bissell also had Meadows as a breakout candidate in our staff hitter article.
I fully support George’s…