Fantasy Baseball: 5 Under-the-Radar Pitchers to Target in 2017

Marcus Stroman, P, Toronto Blue Jays

ESPN Ownership: 83.5%

So maybe Marcus Stroman isn’t far from your mind considering he just pitched pitched in the American League Wild Card game, but hear us out here. This is a guy who came all the way back from an ACL tear last year to throw more than 200 innings this season, and while his ERA (4.37), FIP (3.71) and strikeouts per nine (7.3) don’t necessarily scream “Ace!” here’s why that should be reconsidered.

The 7.3 punch outs per nine (K/9) is pretty middling -- in fact, the American League average for starters this year was 7.6 -- but it doesn’t tell the full story, or at least the part of the story fantasy owners are most likely to be interested in. After a really shaky April strikeouts-wise (4.9 K/9), Stroman trended pretty well for the rest of the year, posting a K/9 rate of 7.3, 6.8, 7.9, 11.1 and 6.3, respectively, for the subsequent months of the year.

And while there’s some variance in there to be sure, it’s still a guy who from May 1 on fanned 7.8 batters per nine frames. It’s always a little odd to just arbitrarily drop a month from a guy’s stat line, but when it’s the first month of the season, some of those worries can be more easily assuaged.

In the second half, Stroman pitched like the real deal; an ace, if you will. He had a 3.68 ERA (3.49 FIP) with 8.5 K/9 and just 2.2 walks per nine (BB/9). Those rates stand alone on their own as solid, but mix in his otherworldly 60.4% ground-ball rate in the second half, and this is an ace waiting to break out.

Sure, 83.5% ownership means the cat is out of the bag on Stroman, but as long as he stays healthy, he can be a fantasy ace next season at a much cheaper price than one might otherwise pay, in terms of auction dollars or average draft position (ADP).