Who is the one hitter outside the top 50 in hitter ADP and one pitcher outside the top 30 in starting pitcher ADP you are targeting as a must-have on all your teams and why?
Nelson Cruz
Regardless of his age, I think Cruz is one of the safest bets for any one of 40 homers, a .300 average, or 200 runs plus RBI. If he weren’t a UTIL-only player, I would be perfectly happy taking Cruz early in the third round. That said, even for me, his lack of a position does lower his value a little, but I still have him as a top 50 player, whereas his ADP is 88. My entire draft strategy revolves around Cruz. I draft pitching early, am sure to get a good steals source in the first three rounds, nab Cruz, and then draft guys with lots of eligibility to mitigate Cruz’s lack of flexibility.
Jesus Luzardo
There honestly aren’t too many stats backing up this take; I just have a good gut feeling about Luzardo taking a leap in his sophomore season. In 2020, he put up an unextraordinary 4.12 ERA and a slightly better 3.88 xFIP. However, if you take out his start against San Francisco, in which he found out he was pitching the day of the game due to Frankie Montas being scratched, Luzardo’s ERA drops to a solid 3.42. On top of that, it seems as though the fantasy industry has forgotten that the young ace contracted COVID in the offseason, and while we’re giving passes to Yoan Moncada and Austin Meadows, Luzardo isn’t nearly getting the same benefit of the doubt.