Fantasy Baseball: 5 Bargain Starting Pitchers to Target

Anibal Sanchez, Washington Nationals

NFBC ADP: 306th

Draft Round: 26th

Basically free in drafts, Anibal Sanchez heads to the nation's capital on a new deal, and if the 35-year-old righty can post numbers anything close to what he did in 2018, he will be a major draft-day value in the Washington Nationals' rotation.

In an ugly 2017 pitching for the Detroit Tigers, Sanchez recorded a 6.41 ERA over 105 1/3 innings pitched, but a deeper dive into some advanced metrics showed that maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed. A 4.16 SIERA with a 21.6% strikeout rate and 9.8% swinging-strike rate indicated that there was something left in the tank.

He proved that in 2018 as the veteran logged a 2.83 ERA over 136 2/3 innings, finishing with 24.4% strikeout rate and 10.5% swinging-strike rate. Sanchez induced a good amount of ground balls (45.0% ground-ball rate) and limited hard contact with only a 27.7% hard-hit rate. He did so thanks to increased usage of a cutter (23.4%), a pitch which was almost non-existent previously in his career.

Assuming he rolls with a similar arsenal this season, Sanchez, who is often going undrafted, makes for a perfect last-gasp dart throw in drafts.