RADIO
CURRENT ADP: 327
RANKINGS STATUS: Undervalued
ANALYSIS: As we enter what seems to be the second coming of the “Dead Ball Era”, the age old fantasy baseball adage of “wait on pitching” rings truer than ever. While excellent value can be found in the later rounds of the draft, it’s still pertinent to correctly identify which sleepers are the keys to your fantasy success. One of these later round slingers that should be sitting on top of your personal sleeper list is none other than Jesse Hahn.
While many experts look down on pitchers moving from the NL to the AL as Hahn did this offseason, this effect has been minimized in Hahn’s case. Hahn moves from one pitcher’s ballpark to the next as O.co Colliseum sits a mere three spots ahead of Petco in HR ballpark factor. This places the Oakland stadium at a measly 21st in all of Major League Baseball.
Coupled with the fact that Hahn ranked 28th best in HR/9 amongst all pitchers with a minimum of 70IP, Hahn should see great success in limiting the longball. Not to mention that the AL West will likely rank as one of the worst hitting divisions in baseball. With the exception of the Angels, the Astros, Mariners and Rangers are perennially near the bottom half of the league in batting categories in the recent past.
In addition to keeping the ball in the park, Hahn does two more things exceptionally well: induces ground balls and misses bats. After posting an above 50 percent ground ball rate and a K/9 over 8.5 in his first major league campaign, Hahn has proven to possess an excellent skill set. The only dent in his armor was his walk rate which was sitting at nearly four walks per nine. This may prevent him from going deep into games if he cannot improve this factor.
Hahn has all the makings of a breakout year. This will likely be the final season you’ll be able to snag him above 300 average draft position and it would not be surprising to see him going near the top 100 in 2016 if he fulfills his promise. He is currently undervalued and should be targeted in the later rounds of your draft as a high upside, low risk asset.
