Dynasty Sleeper-Stud: Chance Sisco
Buster Posey, Willson Contreras, and the already seemingly-immortal Gary Sanchez – all of them are alright to own at catcher in a dynasty league, to say the least. Of course, if you do not happen to own stock in one of these commodities, where else can you look? Sure there are plenty of other good fantasy catchers, but there are more mediocre ones. Maybe when you grew up in a small town, when the rain would fall down, you’d just stare out your window dreaming of the day you could draft the next Pudge in your dynasty league. Well purveyors of the fantasy baseball biosphere, I present to you Chance Sisco.
Chance Sisco is a 21-year-old catcher in the Baltimore Orioles system from Corona, California. He was drafted in the second round of the 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft and he now ranks as the second best prospect in the Orioles organization (top position player) according to mlb.com. He also ranks fifth amongst all catchers behind Jorge Alfaro, Zach Collins, Francisco Mejia, and Reese McGuire. I suppose his high rankings might have you questioning his sleeper-status, but I’d call him a sleeper because I believe he can be one of the better fantasy catchers in the league as soon as 2017.
Many other rankings have Sisco as the Orioles’ top prospect overall and I think that his number five ranking amongst catchers might not quite correlate to fantasy value either. Sisco is a bat-first catcher. He even played shortstop for most of high school before switching to catcher his senior year just to fill a need on their roster. The catchers that rank ahead of him on MLB are great prospects, but someone like Reese McGuire stands out more for his defensive prowess than his bat (which does not bode as well for fantasy). Mejia is an interesting switch-hitter that has a fantasy outlook fairly similar to Sisco. Alfaro has great power and Collins looks pretty great all-around. These guys deserve to be ranked highly, but if others are biting on these names, I think you can get just as much potential value out of a guy like Sisco and maybe hold out a touch longer to grab him in a draft.
Sisco has not shown an overwhelming amount of power thus far, but he might be able to develop it as he progresses (still, don’t expect Gary Sanchez in the HR category). What Sisco does best is get hits and get on base. He has made adjustments and proved himself at every level so far. In 2016 Sisco played almost exclusively in Double-A before playing four games in the Triple-A playoffs. He had a slash line of .317/.406/.430 over 116 games. He only had six home runs and two stolen bases, but he sure ought to help in nearly every other category you might use.
The future of Sisco might also be coming sooner rather than later. With Matt Wieters as a free agent, the Orioles’ future at catcher is wide open for Sisco. While the recent signing of Welington Castillo may muddle things for the time being, it’s only a one-year deal and talent always finds a way to gain playing time. While Castillo may keep Sisco to Triple-A a bit longer than expected, the Orioles have no reason to play Welington, merely a temporary acquisition, over their top prospect. It’s all coming together sooner or later, and there’s plenty reason to be excited. If you have a new dynasty draft coming up, I implore you, take a Chance. Make a change. And breakaway.
4 Comments
Thanks.
He has no power and no speed. Sleeper Stud? Hardly. I’ll pass.
Yep, I held on to him in my league since I joined two years ago and he still has not gained much steam. I’m dropping him soon, can’t hold on to a catcher that will rank in the bottom teens. Sometimes prospects just don’t pan out like you hope.
He hasn’t tapped into his power, he is not devoid of power. Also, catchers with speed are almost a myth outside of Realmuto’s 12SB, after that Norris had 9, he’s awful, and nobody else had more than 6, so lacking speed behind the plate is pretty standard and not really a negative trait for Sisco.
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/188659034/v920516783/wldusa-sisco-hits-a-solo-homer-in-the-4th