We all love to pick up sleepers in MLB fantasy baseball – guys that nobody expected to excel yet did anyways. However, at the other end of the spectrum lies fantasy busts. These guys are considered some of the best in the game, yet do nothing more than let all of their fantasy owners down.
If sleeper picks are the holy grail of fantasy baseball, then busts are the Achilles heel. Every season, fantasy leagues rank the worth of each and every MLB player based on past performances and future expectations. Sometimes these rankings are true, like Mike Trout being #1 seemingly every year. Other times, these sites will rank someone too low, causing the player to far outperform their draft position: the sleeper pick. That situation is great for fantasy owners. The situation that isn’t so great is in the case of a bust.
These players are ranked high in the player rankings because they have consistently been able to produce outrageous fantasy numbers. Whether it be from age, injury, or a sudden dip in production, some of these guys end up performing more like a 20th round pick and less like a second rounder. This happens every year. It’s inevitable. There is a very slim chance that not a single highly touted player under-performs next season. Just look at last season’s Bryce Harper. Harper was easily a top five fantasy selection, yet performed barely inside of the top 100.
Not in every case will these guys be bad players by any means. Instead, they will fail to live up to their lofty expectations. Not to say that they won’t contribute; they merely won’t be worth the pick that you sacrificed for them. So with that being said, let’s look at some otherwise great options that you should avoid this fantasy season.