Right here’s how this JJ Bleday sleeper got here into being: I noticed he made good contact, then I spent about an hour attempting to determine learn how to not write this put up. Sadly, at every factor I checked out, I nonetheless appreciated him. Why did I not wish to write about JJ Bleday? Properly, it’s somewhat difficult. “A’s are transferring to SacTown however can they sack up?” requested my Inside Monologue. Properly, I’m extra of a DM man, but when I’m gonna reply an IM, I like the concept of the A’s, typically. Lots. I hate that they left Oaktown, due to what it meant for his or her followers, however that ship ran ashore on the coast of We-Can’t-Do-Nothing-About-It-Now-istan. I don’t hate that they’re taking part in in SacTown. Any park will likely be higher than the Coliseum in Oakland for offense-slash-fantasy hitters. It ranked twenty sixth for offense, twenty ninth for homers, and twenty fifth for hits on the 3-year rolling common. It ranked thirty first for homers final yr and there’s solely 30 groups. I’m not kidding; they ranked Rickwood Area in there, the place they performed the particular Playing cards/Giants sport. Actually, simply stunned the Coliseum didn’t rank under London Stadium and different commemorative stadiums. (There have been 35 parks in complete final yr; Giants’ Oracle Park was really worse than Oakland in your normal group parks.) Lengthy story quick, SacTown can’t be worse than Oaktown. Sutter Well being Park, the place the A’s will play, dimensions are 330 ft. down the left discipline line, 403 to straightaway, and 325 to proper. It’s mainly the identical because the Coliseum (5 toes in proper shorter for SacTown). They’re the A’s now, no extra Oakland, and the lack of the silly foul territory in Oakland alone will assist. I’m going with: It’s mainly a push, however higher BABIPs due to much less foul territory, till I see it play in a different way. Everybody I talked to stated it’s mainly samesies. That is getting lengthy, let’s segue out to subsequent paragraph: So, what can we count on from JJ Bleday fro 2025 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?
PSYCHE! My 2025 fantasy baseball rankings are all on Patreon. Don’t look forward to the rankings to come back out subsequent month. Anyway II, the JJ Bleday sleeper:
Again to what I used to be saying within the intro, I didn’t wish to write a JJ Bleday sleeper as a result of it feels bizarre to love so lots of their hitters. I just like the A’s much less about SacTown and extra as a result of their lineup seems to be nice: Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, JJ Bleday. Dot dot dot. I almost wrote a sleeper about Tyler Soderstrom, I believe Langeliers is fascinating and I wrote a Seth Brown sleeper just a few years in the past. That was dead-wrong, however he nonetheless has some surprisingly first rate attributes. In all? It’s stable. A’s hitting is just not their concern; their starters are. So, I believed, “How can this many A’s hitters be good? I like 5 of them and JJ Bleday? That simply feels fallacious.” That was my IM. (Once more, Inside Monologue, until you’re nonetheless on AOL.) It’s fallacious to consider it like that. They are often good. Nothing says they’ll’t, besides earlier unrelated gamers. Until Bleday married Jed Lowrie’s sister and they’re associated. Is without doubt one of the J’s for Jed?
Final yr, JJ Bleday went 74/20/60/.243/2 in 572 ABs. He did it with a ten.4 BB% and 19.5 Okay%. These numbers alone don’t add up, solely. In case you have a terrific stroll price, a stable Okay price and hit .243, properly, why? In his case, it’s due to a 47.8 FB%. He additionally had a .279 BABIP. That’s not extraordinarily low for him, however, as talked about above, A’s may have a park with a probable higher BABIP. In 2023, he had a 42.9 FB%, however the next Okay%. If he can get again to somewhat little bit of a flatter swing and proceed to mature as a hitter — he simply turned 27 in November — it’s straightforward to see how JJ Bleday is the reply for: Who is that this yr’s Brent Rooker? Bleday has nice energy and plate self-discipline and may even chip in a handful of steals. The one factor he must do to faucet into his potential is solely break up the distinction on his 2023 swing and 2024. He is among the best sleepers to see when you’ve stopped being blinded by your hatred of A’s hitters. Oh, it additionally doesn’t damage that he’s additionally barely being drafted within the prime 250 general. For 2025, I’ll give JJ Bleday projections of 76/27/82/.252/5 in 551 ABs with an opportunity for extra.
