Some of the biggest surprises in fantasy baseball aren’t just helping your team make it into the playoffs this year, two of the biggest surprises are also up for MVP in the league. In addition to the two MVP candidates, two other fantasy surprises are up for awards as well. One is almost a lock to win the NL Rookie of the Year while the other will get Cy Young consideration in the NL.
Patrick Corbin could be the biggest surprise of the year at starting pitcher. Coming into the season Corbin was the number five starter for the Diamondbacks, now he is not only the ace of the staff, but if it weren’t for a guy named Clayton Kershaw, he might be the favorite for the Cy Young. Even with Mr. Kershaw getting all the attention as the best pitcher in the National League, Corbin is by far the best pick up of the year, because lets be honest, unless you are a serious D-Backs fan, you did not draft Corbin. What makes Corbin such a great pick up, though, is because he doesn’t just do one thing well, he is doing everything well, and thats the kind of pitcher you need on your team. He wins are high, 13, his ERA is low, 2.79, his strikeouts are about average, 154 and even his WHIP is low, 1.05 filling out the fantasy stat sheet nicely. With his consistency this season, he will not be a surprise next year, and if you are a savvy fantasy baseball owner, you should keep an eye out for him in next years draft, because he’ll be around for years to come.
Another huge surprise was a fellow teammate of Corbin’s, and a NL MVP candidate, Paul Goldschmidt. Goldy isn’t nearly as big of a surprise as Corbin or the other two that are still to come, but there is no doubt that if you drafted him in the third or fourth round that he was ranked in you are loving life right now. Someone had to step up this season and be the leader of this team when the D-Backs traded away Justin Upton and Chris Young, and Goldy really stepped up. He may have been a high round draft pick, but his stats as of today have him as a top six pick in the league. He is batting right at .300 to go with his power hitting stats of 31 home runs and 108 runs batted in, and if you have him he is also filling up the stats for you in the run department with 88 runs scored as well. He’s not going to fill up the stolen base category for your team, but 13 from a first baseman isn’t anything to laugh at either. Goldy is going to easily be a first rounder next season, and if he doesn’t win the NL MVP this season, it will only be because his team didn’t make the playoffs.
Right up there with Corbin as the biggest pitching surprise of the season is the Miami Marlins’ Jose Fernandez. You probably looked at the Miami Marlins roster before the season and realized, someone from this team was going to be a fantasy surprise, but there is no way you could have been sure whom. With a team full of unproven young kids mixed with just a couple cast off veterans someone had to step up and be a fantasy stud, and Fernandez is your man. Much like Corbin he has filled out the fantasy stat sheet this season, except for the wins. He does have a decent amount of wins with 10, but he could have had much more if his offense gave him any support at all. Fernandez stat line looks like this, a 2.30 ERA, a WHIP of one and a respectable 165 strikeouts that will only go up as he gains more experience. Fernandez will not be a surprise next season, and he will be one of the top pitchers taken in next year's drafts.
Last, but certainly not least, is a man who is simply known as “Crush.” Orioles first baseman Chris Davis is by far the biggest surprise of the fantasy year. He was listed as a sleeper by most experts before this season, but no one could have predicted what he has done this year. Davis came alive last season in Baltimore with 33 home runs and went on to set career highs in every offensive statistical category. This season, in eight fewer games than all of last season, Davis has surpassed all of those career highs, and is on pace to lead the league in home runs while batting over .300. In standard 12 team leagues the experts predicted that Davis would go in the 10th round, and in many cases he fell farther back because of the depth at the position, which makes it even more surprising what he is doing now. In the preseason rankings he was the 20th ranked player eligible for first base, now he is quite possibly the best first baseman on the planet, and the only way he won’t win MVP is because of the monster known as Miguel Cabrera. If you were the genius who drafted Davis in your league, go ahead and continue to tell everyone how amazingly smart you are, because you picked up by far the most surprising player of the fantasy baseball year.