Finding this year's Justin Steele
Mar 6 2024
Justin Steele (LHP, CHC) was barely being drafted inside the Top 300 this time last season. Over 170 innings of a 3.06 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, and 176 strikeouts later, he's nearly a Top-100 pick coming off one of the more profitable breakouts of 2023.
The purpose of this column is to find this year's version of Steele, looking back on Steele's pre-breakout indicators to see which pitchers in the pool check similar boxes. We're looking for some combination of the following:
- A 150+ ADP. We can't be picking low-hanging fruit here. Steele was nearly free in drafts with a 293 ADP entering 2023.
- Volume. Steele threw a career-high (at the time) 119 IP in 2022, so we'll set a similar filter here on starters who threw 100+ innings in 2023.
- A good...
Almost!
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