Fantasy Baseball Rankings 2019 and Busts: Model that beat experts warns about Yasmani Grandal, Dee Gordon

One of the reasons that it took months longer than expected for Manny Machado and Bryce Harper to sign mega contracts as free agents is that MLB owners seem to be experiencing growing concern over long-term deals that could pay enormous salaries while players’ skills decline in their mid-to-late 30s. Machado and Harper are in their prime right now, but those deals will come back to haunt ball clubs if they’re hitting .240 and losing power down the road. Meanwhile, Fantasy baseball owners are more concerned about avoiding 2019 Fantasy baseball busts, so they’re looking past players like Machado and Harper who are safe bets to excel this season. Proven 2019 Fantasy baseball rankings are the best way to identify these landmines and the SportsLine Projection Model has a proven history of identifying players you should steer clear of.

Last year, their model warned that Orioles starting pitcher Dylan Bundy was being overvalued. Bundy was the No. 40 starting pitcher drafted on average in CBS Sports leagues, but finished at No. 68 thanks to a sky-high 5.45 ERA. The team at SportsLine was all over Bundy as one of its biggest Fantasy baseball busts from the start. Their model had him listed much lower than expert consensus Fantasy baseball 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 potential 2019 Fantasy baseball busts the model is predicting: Brewers catcher Yasmani Grandal. 

At a position where it’s often hard to find reliable power, Grandal has been steady with 22 to 27 home runs the last three seasons. However, his contact numbers, inability to run, and strikeout rate are all major issues for Fantasy owners who have more than home run and slugging categories to worry about. 

The fact that he became increasingly reliant on pulling the ball in 2018 is reason to believe that his average could continue to drop as he moves from Los Angeles to Milwaukee. Defensive shifts will continue to be more aggressive, which means any dip in power production could send his Fantasy value spiraling.

After signing an $18.25 million deal with the Brewers this offseason, Grandal has been the No. 5 catcher off the board so far. However, the SportsLine Projection Model predicts he’ll finish as the No. 12 catcher in Fantasy baseball, well short of his ADP.

Another player that SportsLine’s Fantasy baseball rankings 2019 are fading: Mariners second baseman Dee Gordon.

Gordon used his speed to take the league by storm, first with the Dodgers and then with the Marlins. He earned back-to-back All-Star appearances in 2015 and 2016 by making hard contact on the ground and taxing opposing defenses by hitting over .300 in two of three seasons from 2015-2017 and leading the league in steals three times from 2014-2017.

However, Gordon appears to be slowing down in his 30s. He went from stealing 60 bases in 2017 and leading the majors to swiping just 30 bases in 2018. His speed also cost him at the plate, with his average dipping from .308 to .268 and his OPS dropping from .716 to .637 in the process. Managers hoping for Gordon to provide steals with regularity are still drafting him 12th overall among second basemen, but SportsLine’s Fantasy baseball rankings 2019 say he’ll finish outside the top 20 at the position in 2019, drastically under-performing his ADP.

SportsLine is also predicting one of the consensus No. 1 players at his position to struggle mightily in 2019 and finish outside the top five. You’ll want to avoid drafting him with an early pick, as that could be the difference in winning your league or going home with nothing. 

So which potential Fantasy Baseball busts should you avoid in your draft? Visit SportsLine now to get 2019 Fantasy Baseball rankings for every single position, all from the model that called Dylan Bundy’s huge bust last season, and find out.