Fantasy Baseball: 11 Players Who Disappointed in 2017
Mark Trumbo, OF, Baltimore Orioles
Preseason ADP: 74.23
The big news about Baltimore Orioles slugger Mark Trumbo from 2016 was his league-leading 47 dingers that he paired with 108 RBI. While his production tailed off a bit in the second half, the right-handed hitter never posted a month with an ISO below .200 or a wRC+ below 100.
Consistency hasn't necessarily been his calling card as a big leaguer, but maybe the tide was turning with him being in the middle of a powerful lineup with the likes of Chris Davis and Manny Machado? Let's also not forget that Camden Yards was the second-best park to hit homers at for right-handed hitters in 2016, per Baseball Prospectus. The park delivered once again in 2017 with regard to home-run factor, but Trumbo didn't enjoy the same kind of year.
It's not fair to expect a player to approach 50 homers in any given season, but that consistency from the year before completely vanished. It vanished so much, in fact, that Trumbo posted a monthly wRC+ above 85 just once in six opportunities. He still hit 23 homers, but that's not likely what fantasy owners were looking for since they drafted him ahead of sluggers like Khris Davis (102.37) and Marcell Ozuna (189.90), who hit 43 and 37 dingers in 2017, respectively.
He'll have to find a way to get his ground-ball rate (43.3%), fly-ball rate (40.6%), pull rate (38.7%), and hard-hit rate (30.4%) going back in the right direction after each of those metrics got worse compared to his impressive 2016 performance.
