10 Fantasy Baseball Assets to Buy in Dynasty and Keeper Leagues Before Opening Day

A.J. Reed, Houston Astros

The one person on this list who doesn't fit the bill of a stock that will rise within the next month is A.J. Reed. He'll start the year in Triple-A, meaning your buying window may be a bit longer. Still, this guy needs to be on our radars before he gets the call back to the bigs.

Reed is stuck in the same situation as Conforto where there's simply no place to put him. Carlos Beltran and Evan Gattis figure to lock down most of the time as a designated hitter, and Yulieski Gurriel is occupying first base. That's a lot of mouths and not a lot of playing time, and it could lead to a full year in the minors for Reed. This is still a bat we want long-term, though.

Before being shipped to the minors, Reed was raking in spring training. His 45 plate appearances led to 4 dingers, a 22.2% strikeout rate, and 20.0% walk rate. This means that of the 26 balls he put in play, four left the yard. Not too shabby.

Posting a 34.0% strikeout rate in the majors last year certainly put a dent in Reed's stock, but that number fell to 22.6% when he was in Triple-A. The marks he had from this spring weren't fully convincing due to the small sample, but at least his strikeout rate was creeping down. Reed slashed .291/.368/.556 in the minors in 2016, meaning he could just absolutely mash down there this year and force the Astros to get creative.

Beltran is turning 40 in April, and Gurriel will be 33 in June. Not only are they past their prime years, but there's also some injury risk in there. It's not a given that Reed toils away in the minors all of this year. As long as you've got the ability to be patient while the playing time unfolds, Reed is a guy we should be looking to add in the not-so-distant future.