As we all know, the road to a fantasy baseball championship is paved with quality late round sleepers -- the guys that cost virtually nothing and give you fifth round return value. When looking at the ADP trend report, there are plenty of fallers out there that still may be worthwhile to you in the later rounds. Not every time you see a name dropping in the ranks is due to poor performance, low expectations or a loss of job. Sometimes it's just different league specifications that don't require as much depth at certain positions which causes a player to drop. Today we're going to look at a few late round players on the Fallers list and see whether or not they're still worth your attention.
Mat Gamel, 3B MIL (ADP: 255.40; -12.1|PERCENT|) – Third base thins out pretty quickly which always makes you look further down the list. With Gamel getting the opportunity to replace Prince Fielderat first for the Brew Crew, he began to pop up on plenty of folks' radar. However, with talk of Corey Hart also getting some work in at first (before the injury, that is), people's faith in Gamel began to wane again. He was considered a solid hitting prospect a couple of years ago, but never seemed to get anything going on the major league level. While he still may be worth a look in NL-only leagues, there has to be some concern once Hart comes back from his knee injury. The Brewers would rather keep Hart's bat in the lineup, so if first is the best place for him while he recovers from injury, then Gamel could be thrown to the bench again.
Cody Ross, OF BOS (325.71; -14.0|PERCENT|) – While Ross should spend a good amount of time platooning in right field with Ryan Sweeney this season, his drop in ADP right now seems a bit premature. With news coming down that Carl Crawford has been shut down and that he is likely to start the season on the disabled list, you would think that Ross would be a more intriguing early pick-up. He will likely be the guy playing left while Crawford is out and if he hits well enough, he could convince Bobby Valentine that he should continue to receive regular at bats. As a right-handed pull hitter, he could really do some damage to the Big Green Monster nice and early and build up your early season stats with the possibility of more to come on the horizon.
Travis Snider, OF TOR (334.32; -14.1|PERCENT|) – It's early in the spring but it already looks like Snider is losing the left field battle with Eric Thames. He's still struggling with strikeouts and needs to show some more consistency before the Jays give him the everyday opportunity. There's also the talk about the Jays looking to make a deal. They've got a glut of outfielders right now and Snider could be on the trading block. Trouble is, there are very few teams, if any at all, that would be dealing for him to start every day. Consider him a platooner this year which makes him waiver fodder at best right now.
Travis Hafner, DH CLE (353.63; -21.3|PERCENT|) – There haven't been many reports on Hafner since the offseason talk about possible foot surgery. But Hafner is in camp and playing in games , so everything looks "business as usual" again. The biggest problem we have with Hafner is that he only qualifies as a DH which hampers your lineup flexibility and he's so banged up that you have to expect DL stints throughout the year. But it's not like he doesn't have any value. Hafner actually makes for a decent plug-and-play candidate. When he's healthy and in the lineup, he can certainly help your power totals. Just don't rely on him for anything but bench work for your team.
Jeremy Guthrie, SP COL (379.48, -13.9|PERCENT|) – The immediate reaction to Guthrie moving to Coors Field was to cast him aside; that the new park was going to do horrible things to his already mediocre ratios. But given the fact that Camden Yards is a serious hitter's park, the move for him isn't that detrimental. That being said, Guthrie is still a huge risk to your fantasy totals. Though you might see a slight uptick in his strikeout totals with the move to the NL, the fact that he is a fly ball pitcher who has a tendency to give up the long ball a bit too often should ward you off enough. He could be a candidate to use late in the season if you're streaming pitchers, but he's not one to trust as a regular member of your rotation.
Bruce Chen, SP KC (411.53; -13.3|PERCENT|) – People must have woken up and realized he was Bruce Chen. Don't be fooled by his 3.77 ERA last season. His 4.39 FIP is much more indicative of the mediocrity he provides.
Manny Ramirez, OF OAK (437.38; -24.6|PERCENT|) -- The hype has finally died down and people are realizing that it's going to take a long time before Manny starts producing well enough to warrant a spot on your fantasy roster. Between his extended time off from the game, the fact that he's only going to be playing every other day in spring training and the looming 50-game suspension, he doesn't make for the most attractive option on draft day. Maybe if you're in a league with deep benches and you can afford to give up a roster spot for the first few months of the season only to wait and see if he warrants a call-up, then maybe you can use a final round pick on him. If all of that criteria is not met, then move along…nothing left to see here.
Oh yeah, and just so you didn't think we forgot about our usual tri-weekly update, Ryan Braun is up 498.5|PERCENT| with an ADP of 4.65 as of today. With Miguel Cabrera, Matt Kemp and Albert Pujols continuing to trend down, it could just be a matter of time before Braun is at the top of the ranks.
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Howard Bender has been covering fantasy sports for over ten years on a variety of web sites including Rotowire,FanGraphs and The Fantasy Baseball Buzz. You can follow him on Twitter at @rotobuzzguy or email him at rotobuzzguy@gmail.com.