One Man’s Trash: Treys for Trayce – Trayce Thompson

The start of any fantasy season is essentially the most fantastic time of the yr. After psychological masturbating over rosters, listening to pods, and studying prognostication after prognostication, the little white ball lastly travels from mound to plate, and the dwell scoring sparkles and lights up the display screen. We fantasy nerds latch onto each play and both go into bouts of despair when the gamers we mentally masturbated over all offseason don’t carry out or victory lap with out garments when our “guys” exceed even our most erotic goals and needs. After a couple of month, the honeymoon interval ends and the true grind begins. Till then, although, there can be overreactions galore, for higher or for worse, ’until loss of life do us half. On April 1st, Trayce Thompson went 3-for-4 with uno, dos, tres homeruns and eight RBI. Brother Klay Thompson didn’t play on that night time, so Trayce took care of all of the treys for the Thompson household. He was on SportsCenter all day and all night time. Now, most of you’ll not and haven’t fallen for the banana within the tailpipe, however he was scooped up by shut to fifteen% of homeowners in ESPN leagues. NFBC house owners weren’t immune both, as Thompson is now rostered on 18% of groups. Regardless that I’ve assumptions about many issues, I do love to do my due diligence….simply in case.

Thompson is 32 years outdated, 6-foot-3, 225 kilos, and bats from the precise facet. The Chicago White Sox chosen him within the second spherical of the 2009 MLB Draft. He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015 then bounced across the league with stints in Oakland, the White Sox once more, the Cubs, and the Padres. He returned again to the Dodgers in 2022.

Early in his minor league profession, the facility was evident, as he bopped 24 and 22 residence runs throughout his third and fourth seasons in Single-A. He additionally displayed some pace with 18 stolen bases. The batting common wasn’t good, although, and the strikeout charge was excessive. Not the great excessive like Cheech and Chong, however extra just like the radiation degree is excessive.

Two years later, there was marked enchancment in his recreation. The ISO did tick down however that’s as a result of the method was refined and the strikeout charge plummeted to sub-20%. He even made the large membership with the White Sox and slashed .295/.363/.533 with 5 residence runs, a 9.6% stroll charge, 19.3% strikeout charge, and .238 ISO in 135 plate appearances. The BABIP was .341.

Sadly, he was traded to the Dodgers the next season and lots of issues regressed. The strikeout charge spiked again as much as 25% whereas the BABIP swung the opposite strategy to .255. For the remainder of his profession, the strikeout charge remained elevated and the batting common remained muted. It’s trying like these two seasons in Chicago had been the outliers. A damaged clock is true twice a day, proper?

In order that’s the background and context to how we must always look upon Thompson’s sizzling begin to the season.

Positive, 3 residence runs and eight RBI in a recreation are nothing to sneeze at however, however, however….

44% strikeout charge. Gross. The swinging strike charge is 16.2% whereas the chase charge is 45.5%. The contact charge within the zone is 87.5%, the primary time over 80% since 2016. Now, it’s been 9 freaking plate appearances. That mentioned, the MO hasn’t modified so I’m not optimistic that Thompson can keep this heater.

Extra importantly, the Dodgers have performed 5 video games and Thompson has began solely two of them. Enjoying time goes to be an issue and the plate self-discipline points haven’t modified. Except these change, the taking part in time goes to be greater than an issue.