Don’t even know if Ranger Suarez is a 2022 fantasy baseball sleeper. I’m sorry, I think he’s a 2022 fantasy baseball sleeper. I’m just not sure. See, I looked at his Statcast numbers and my eyes fell out of my head. Since that moment, I’ve sorta been flailing around with my fingers on what I think is the keeeboard. How’s my spellling? I spellled spellling wrong, didn’t I? And misspelled ‘spelled’ too, huh? Hey! I got my eyes back in my head! Sweet! Now to look at Ranger Suarez’s Statcast page again–Ow! I just dropped my jaw on the ground! This sucks! Could someone please tamp down Ranger Suarez’s Statcast numbers so I don’t bug out my eyes or drop my jaw? We’re unable to do that? Okay, well, I want to warn you all before I show you these gorge digits. Brace yourself. They are some of the best stats I’ve ever seen. (If you click the image, it gets bigger. That’s what she never said!)
How many of you also lost your eyes and/or jaw bottoms? I see a show of a few hands. Oh, man, I can see that one guy lost his bottom jaw and it smashed down on someone else’s eyes. What a mess! Okay, let’s go through these numbers to help those who are not impressed become impressed. So, what can we expect from Ranger Suarez for 2022 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?
Psyche! Before we get into the Ranger Suarez sleeper post, just wanted to announce that I’ve finished my 2022 fantasy baseball rankings and they’re all available on our Patreon. Anyway II, the Ranger Suarez sleeper:
My goal is to show you who Ranger Suarez compares favorably to to (stutterer!) illuminate how well he pitched last year. I figure if you know at least one name he compares to then you’ll know him better. Ranger Suarez had the 12th best HardHit% at 31.1% and that’s about the same as Freddy Peralta, who was, ya know, a top 10 starter.
Ranger Suarez had the 9th lowest (best?) Launch Angle off, which produced a 59.2% ground ball rate, that’s 3rd best GB rate in the majors, behind only Framber and Logan Webb, two top 40 starters. Each of these stats on their own get me giddy, and I’m just rolling from one giddy to the next giddy, and yelling giddy up to my mop outfitted like a pony.
Ranger Suarez’s .276 xSLG is obscene. But let’s come back to that, because that’s for all his pitches. His .268 xSLG on his 4-seamer is basically closer-type numbers. In fact (Here goes Grey again!), Jordan Romano, who did excel as the Jays’ closer last year, had a .292 xSLG. Sorting by starters with a xSLG that low and you have Chris Bassitt and Lance Lynn, that’s it. One top 40 starter, and one top 20 starter. I cannot stop loving Ranger Suarez ever, can I? Sorry, I was addressing this piece of toast I’ve drawn a likeness of Ranger Suarez on in butter. See, I heard about drawn butter, misunderstood and–Well, you get it. For all pitches, Ranger Suarez .276 xSLG is bit better than Lance McCullers Jr. and 19th in the league. By the by, Ranger’s spot in these rankings includes some top middle relievers and closers, because he only threw 1614 pitches or 106 IP.
When sorting by 250 balls in play and xwOBA, Ranger Suarez is third in the league behind Corbin Burnes and Lance Lynn. One top five starter and Lynn again. Finally, Suarez’s 2.6% Barrel%? He’s the best starter. 2nd best is Burnes again. 6th best is Zack Wheeler. (There’s some closers in here; Tyler Rogers is number one overall, right in front of Suarez.) If you lower the number of batted ball events to include deGrom, Ranger Suarez is 5th overall and deGrom is 33rd best, right by Freddy Peralta. Ranger Suarez basically had one of the best 106 IP seasons in history.
I need to pump the brakes a little, because those numbers are so goofy. You see the differences in previous years and last year right on that chart. To say this is out of nowhere is the understatement of the year, and this year included such understatements as “We’ve got this pandemic under control.” Ranger Suarez went from bleh reliever to deGrom seemingly overnight. Hey, it’s possible, and I like him as long as the price is decent, and right now it is more than decent around 170 overall. Just keep in mind, being in an iffy home park, and having issues with the long ball before could rear its head again. Plus, going from a reliever to a starter might cause some tired extremities this year. Maybe not, but I’m hedging a little because his Statcast page caused my eyes and jaw to fall off my head! For 2022, I’ll give Ranger Suarez projections of 10-7/3.55/1.15/142 in 145 IP with a chance for more.