Fantasy Baseball: Top Ten Third Basemen for 2017 Season
By Jason Evans
9. Matt Carpenter– St. Louis Cardinals
2016 stats: 129 games .271/.380/.505 21 homers 68 RBI
2017 steamer: 144 games .268/.370/.445 18 homers 68 RBI
This is probably the last time you’ll be able to use Carpenter at third as he will move to first base this season with all the infield depth the Cardinals have, but while you can use him here you may as well. Carpenter is one of those guys who seems to fly under the radar and you look up at his numbers and you see a ton of production for not a very high price.
Carpenter went through some injuries last season, but has reinvented himself into a power threat from a contact guy that he came up as.
His K rate dropped, while his walk rate rose and he still eclipsed the 20 homer plateau for the second straight season. He also had over 30 doubles for the fourth straight season. One of the other impressive parts of Carpenter’s game is that last season he made either soft or hard contact 90% of the time.
He’s someone you can wait a little bit on and grab if you don’t get a third baseman early.