2022 Fantasy Baseball Insertion Ranking - Detroit Tigers
Creating my 2022 fantasy baseball rankings one team at a time
Explanation & Other Team Links Here
Hitters to Rank
Javier Baez
Akil Baddoo
Robbie Grossman
Jonathan Schoop
Jeimer Candelario
Spencer Torkelson
Eric Haase
Riley Green
Tucker Barnhart
Javier Baez
It was a typical Baez season last year with the good power numbers (31 HR, 17.6 PA/HR, 13.4% Brl%, 116.7 max velo), but the egregiously bad contact numbers (63% contact%, 34% K%, 5% BB%).
Baez is very easy to figure out. Last year, he swung at the 11th highest rate in the league (57%), and made contact at the third-worst rate (63% as mentioned). That makes him a crater in batting average (although it is possible for him not to be completely useless if he can run hot in BABIP) and on-base percentage (there is no chance of a good OBP from him). However, the homers and steals make up for quite a bit of that (31 and 18 last year in less than a full season). The move to the Tigers is bad for his power production as Comerica (it’s probably not called Comerica anymore but whatever I like the old days) is one of the worst parks in the league for homers. But hey you can do worse than Baez with how relatively cheap he goes, you can still feel good about HR+SB and the Tigers offense might not even be all that horrible next year. I’ll still be out on him, but I get it.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Joey Gallo, Franmil Reyes
Akil Baddoo
Baddoo’s 2021 season was fascinating. He started the year hot with four homers in his first 33 plate appearances. However, that was very easy to see through even then as he was striking out a historic rate (44% K% in April).
Then he just changed everything all of the sudden and brought his strikeout rate the whole way down to 27%:
He clearly stopped swinging as hard as he was. His barrel rate in April was 17%, and then after April, it was 8%. At the end of the year, we have a guy with a 9% barrel rate, a 26.5% K%, and a .259/.330/.436 slash line. That’s not all that bad of a hitter, especially when you see that he swiped 18 bases.
Baddoo is just 23 years old, making him very tough to project. I imagine he just takes the same approach as he did after April this year, which gives him upside to put up a pretty good fantasy season. If he keeps his strikeout rate in the mid-twenties, he could have a very nice season. You could see twenty-some homers with twenty-some steals and a .260-.275 batting average. That isn’t easy to find, but there is also the chance that he really falls off and doesn’t help much at all for fantasy.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Kyle Lewis, Eduardo Escobar
Robbie Grossman
The reason you’d draft Grossman is for runs, steals, and OBP. His 14.6% BB% was one of the best marks in the league, and he scored 88 runs even with that bad offense behind him, although it did take him 671 PA to get there.
Most of his value revolves around him hitting at the top of the lineup (he led off 87 times last year and hit 3rd another 57 times). That is a little bit less likely this year with the Baez addition, but for right now he’s projected to hit top-two with Baddoo - which does make a lot of sense given his walk rate.
If you’re in an OBP league and need some late steals, Grossman can help you out - but you aren’t going to kick yourself for not drafting him (I think that’s true for all these Tigers).
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Yandy Diaz, Garrett Hampson
Jonathan Schoop
Didn’t think we’d be back here talking about Schoop again, but his 2021 season justifies it. He went .278/.320/.435 last year with 22 homers (30.6 PA/HR) and an improved 19.7% K%. The 6.8% Brl% wasn’t very good, but he did hit some balls very hard (117 max velo, 104.7 90th percentile velo), although he hit a ton of balls on the ground (48% GB%).
Most of his big production came in a short spurt, hitting 10 homers in June with a .340 batting average. After that, he hit just seven more homers in 351 PA (50 PA/HR) with a .278 batting average.
I don’t think he’ll hit many homers (15-20?), and he won’t’ steal many bases. He could hit for a decent batting average, and I suppose the RBI could be okay as well if the Tigers really improve.
All-in-all I think you’re chasing a hot month by drafting Schoop this year.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Kolten Wong, Joey Wendle
Jeimer Candelario
Lots of contact (78%), but mediocre power (39 PA/HR), and no steals. Some upside with the power as shown by the 9% Brl% and 113 max velo, but unlikely to be anything but league-average I don’t think. This is a very easy player-type to find on waivers all year long so I’m not going to care much about Candelario.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Joey Wendle, JP Crawford
Spencer Torkelson
He is projected to be on the team come Opening Day, which would make all the difference here. Of course, we can’t speak with any confidence about a guy without a Major League plate appearance.
Minor league numbers last year (three levels):
A: 141 PA, 5 HR, .312/.440/.569
AA: 212 PA, 14 HR, .263/.373/.560
AAA: 177 PA, 11 HR, .238/.350/.531
All-in-all it was .259/.341/.506 with a 13.4 PA/HR and a very pleasing 21% K% and 10% BB%. It was just one year in the minor leagues, but given this guy’s profile he has a pretty good chance at being very productive at the Major League level.
We have seen plenty of top prospects mash in the minors and then outright stink the Majors, and anybody guaranteeing that Torkelson will be great in the Majors right away is selling you some snake oil. My rule with prospects is only to roll the dice on them if they managed great K/BB ratios in the minors, which Torkelson did. It’s not easy to go 10% BB%, 21% K% with a .847 OPS at any level. Right now Torkelson is pretty cheap, but that will likely not stay true if we hear for sure that he’s on the Opening Day team.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Marcell Ozuna??
Eric Haase
We have what looks like a split between Haase and Barnhart at catcher for the Tigers. Haase homered at a very nice rate (22 PA/HR) but did it with a high strikeout rate (31%) and nothing else to speak of (.231 average). This is a poor man’s Mike Zunino, and that’s assuming he keeps the homer rate the same. No real reason to get pumped about it.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Carson Kelly
Tucker Barnhart
A part-time player at best, and he’s not a very good hitter. He’ll be at the bottom of the list most likely (I’m not going to rank a ton of catchers).
Comps/Rank-Arounds:
Riley Greene
Steamer isn’t saying he’ll be on the team at the beginning of the season, so that is a dagger for fantasy. If he does get the call-up early on he could help a fantasy team though. In AAA last year he slashed .308/.400/.553 with a 12% BB% but a high 28% K%. The power numbers haven’t been great in the minors either (30 PA/HR) career. So we have multiple questions with Greene, about playing time and about his actual production. I’m just going to put him at the bottom of the list and be ready to move him up if he can make the team somehow.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Other non-elite prospects that won’t make the team on Opening Day
Pitchers to Rank
Eduardo Rodriguez
Tarik Skubal
Casey Mize
Gregory Soto / Michael Fulmer
Eduardo Rodriguez
E-Rod came back after a missed 2020 season and threw 157.2 innings with the Red Sox, posting a 4.74 ERA, a 1.39 WHIP, a 27% K% and a 7% BB%. That was pretty much what we’d come to expect from Rodriguez, albeit a worse ERA mark that wasn’t helped by a .363 BABIP.
Both the 27% K% and 7% BB% were the best marks of his career, and he kept the home runs down to 1.08 HR/9 as well. The ERA really doesn’t match with the rest of his numbers. Here’s the arsenal:
That’s a really, really good four-seam fastball in terms of CSW% and SwStr%. That pitch gives him a really nice base to the arsenal and his changeup was very good as well with a nice 15% SwStr% and more importantly a nice 58% GB%. The good news ends there without much of a tertiary option to speak of.
He will turn 29 at the beginning of the season, so this is not a pitcher of concerning age. The move to the Tigers is good for two reasons, a more friendly home ballpark, and a much lighter schedule pitching in the AL Central instead of the East. All of this makes him a pretty appealing pitcher option if you’re asking me - which you are!
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Tyler Mahle, Jordan Montgomery
Tarik Skubal
He started the year horribly with a 5.73 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP in his first 33 innings (8 starts). During that time he had a 20.4% K% and an 11.2% BB%. That was very alarming and I thought it was more than fair to cut him loose at that point.
However, things changed in the middle of the season for Skubal. From mid-May on he went for a 27.6% K% and a 6.2% BB% - a nearly elite ratio. He was still giving up a bunch of homers (1.86 HR/9) which kept his ERA bloated at 3.95, but the 1.17 WHIP was predictably strong.
He seems to still be figuring out what his arsenal should look like, but you can see how many options he has in the bag. He’s probably throwing too many four-seamers, and that’s the pitch that really gave up most of the damage with a 17.5% Brl% on 40%+ usage. His sinker also got barreled up a ton (16.5%) which is really not a good sign since that’s a pitch that is supposed to stay on the ground (although it kinda did with the 55% GB%, so that’s just kind of a weird stat).
His slider/changeup combination was pretty useful with solid SwStr% and much lower barrel rates.
The full season stats show a guy with an encouraging K-BB profile and a deep enough arsenal to tinker his way into success. It’s always tough to be very confident in a guy without a successful fastball, but that could change in a hurry for this young lefty and that could propel him up the charts.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Jordan Montgomery, Tyler Mahle
Casey Mize
Mize has mostly struggled in the Majors, but he did take a good stride in the ride direction last season. He posted a useable 3.71 ERA with a pretty darn good 1.14 WHIP. The downside was the low 19% K%, but some of the sting is taken off of that with the 6.7% BB% and 48% GB%.
I have a rule of just not drafting any pitcher with a sub-22% (or so) strikeout rate, and even in AA two years ago this guy only managed a 23.5% K%.
We need to get more swing-and-miss from Mize for him to really be a good fantasy pitcher, let’s see if there’s anything positive in the arsenal table:
The SwStr% on his four-seamer is better than average, but everything else stinks in that regard. An 11% mark on a slider is bad, and a 10% mark on a splitter is really, really bad. He’s 24, but I’m not sure where the improvement is going to come from exactly. The way to fantasy relevance for Mize seems to be on the Ryu/Wainwright path, just mixing it up and locating extremely well. That’s tough to do, as evidenced by how few names you can think of that do it. I’ll pass on Mize.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Cal Quantrill
Soto / Fulmer
A closer by committee situation in Detroit has not been a good place to go for saves in the past. This team should improve this year with the free-agent signings, so there could be a decent number of saves to be had. Neither of these guys is a dominant reliever. If one of them seems to have the job locked down then they should be rostered and started, and if I had to pick one I’d go with Fulmer given Soto’s 14% BB% last year.