This Son is the dog at Razzball. Not the glamorous dog that saunters around at dog shows or gets to be in commercials. Nope, this dog dumpster dives. And Razzball is the perfect place because Grey is a lover of dogs. Bow wow wow yippee yo yippee yah. Laura Holt is the deep league specialist. Coolwhip and Doc Blair are the both gurus. The Itch is the prospect maven. JKJ shuts it down with closers while Keelin has the bandaids in hand. In Truss I Trust while Grey is God, so all the other lanes are well taken care of at Razzball Baseball HQ. Like any good dog, I sniff around and latch onto the undervalued and underappreciated. This week has allowed this dog to jump into McCovey Cove and get wet, as LaMonte Wade Jr. of the San Francisco Giants has some appeal to me.
Wade is 30 years old, 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, and bats from the left side. The Minnesota Twins selected him in the ninth round of the 2015 MLB Draft. In 2021, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants.
Throughout his minor league career, the plate discipline was exquisite, often boasting a walk and strikeout rate both in the teens. The power was middling, though, but he did post a .200 ISO in Single-A in 127 plate appearances.
In 2019, he made his major league debut and received 69 plate appearances. He had two home runs, 10 runs, and five RBI while having a 15.9% walk rate, 13% strikeout rate, .179 ISO, and .196/.348/.375 slash. The BABIP was a paltry .200. He only got 44 plate appearances the following season.
After being traded to the Giants, he racked up 381 plate appearances and produced 18 home runs, 52 runs, 56 RBI, and six stolen bases. The walk rate was 8.7%, strikeout rate was 23.4%, ISO was .229 and the slash finished at .253/.326/.482. Late Night LaMonte was a platoon bat and played at first base and the corner outfield positions.
2022 was a down year, as he slashed .207/.305/.359 and only received 251 plate appearances. The walk rate was 10.4% while the strikeout rate improved to 20.3%. The ISO plummeted to .152. Last season, he racked up 519 plate appearances and hit 17 home runs with 64 runs, 45 RBI, and two stolen bases. The walk rate went to 14.6% while the strikeout rate was at 18.3%. The ISO ticked up to .161 while the slash improved to .256/.373/.417.
I know what you’re thinking. yip-dee-do. <Yaaaawwwwnnnnnn>
Yeah, I just went and took a 30-minute nap.
Here’s why I will likely be Wade-ing into the LaMonte waters often this season:
In NFBC drafts from the start of the new year, Wade has an ADP of 455. TGFBI has 30 rounds and drafts 438 players. He’s free. In this economy?
Wade won’t be a league winner by any stretch of the imagination. He’s a potential CI off the bench but he provides valuable depth. My perspective is warped for sure because I play in a few 30-team leagues, but he’s someone I like in 12 and 15 team leagues as well.
The dual eligibility is nice, as you can slot him into both 1B and OF slots.
In OBP leagues, he’s gets a bump due to his excellent plate discipline. The chase rate is only 20.6% while the swinging strike rate is only 7.7%. Last season, he had the fourth-best O-Swing%, behind Juan Soto, Mookie Betts and Lars Nootbaar. The swinging strike rate was 27th-best. Here’s a list of the batters who had a sub-25% O-Swing%, a sub-8% SwStr% and .150+ ISO (ADP in parenthesis):
He’s going to be a platoon bat, so that puts a cap on his plate appearances, but he will likely be hitting third in the lineup. He had 519 last season, but all the projection systems have him in the 480 range. I think there’s room to the upside, for both plate appearances and counting stats.
Last season, the Giants had an atrocious offense. They were 24th in at-bats, 24th in runs scored, 28th in hits, 24th in OBP and 27th in SLG. They should be much improved this season, as they acquired Jung Hoo Lee, Jorge Soler, and Matt Chapman. Lee will likely bat lead off and is projected to have a .350-ish OBP. Soler had 36 home runs last season with a .341 OBP and .512 SLG. Chapman is projected for 21 home runs and .414 SLG by Steamer.
In a vacuum, Wade is definitely meh, but when factoring in the acquisition cost, multi-positional eligibility, and potential upside from an improved lineup, then this dog go…..
Editor’s Note: LaMonte Wade Jr. might only be a streamer in the RCLs, but he will definitely be streamed on short schedule days. Put your streaming to the test against fellow commenters and writers by joining a league, HERE. We have drafts going all month long!
