Fantasy Baseball: Which Mid-Tier Pitchers Could Emerge as Aces in 2017?

Gerrit Cole, Pittsburgh Pirates

After a 2016 season that saw the the Pittsburgh Pirates' righty take three separate trips to the disabled list, it’s easy to forget that heading into last year, Gerrit Cole was one of the odds on favorites to vault into the tier of fantasy aces.

Let’s not allow recency bias to push his awesome 2015 too far into the rear view. That year Cole trailed only Clayton Kershaw and Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta in FIP among qualified starters.

Sure, his strikeout rate took a nose dive in 2016 while his walk rate jumped to almost three free passes per nine. But injuries pretty clearly prevented Cole from ever finding his groove last year -- the longest stretch of uninterrupted pitching that we saw from the young Pirate was the 68-plus innings he pitched before his first trip to the disabled list in July.

His numbers before that injury? How about a not-too-shabby 2.77 ERA backed by a 3.07 FIP.

Cole may be the cheapest pitcher in drafts who holds top-five upside, so he’s a no-brainer target at his current deflated price, which is just inside the overall top 100.