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Lars Nootbar can deliver sneaky fantasy value

Drew Silva touches on Lars Nootbar's recent emergence for the St. Louis Cardinals and how he should continue providing sneaky value as long as he keeps hitting atop their stacked lineup.

Video Transcript

- When the Cardinals bowed out of the Juan Soto sweepstakes just before the August 2 trade deadline and then, moved Harrison Bader to the Yankees in exchange for Jordan Montgomery, the writing was on the wall that Lars Nootbaar would have an everyday role in the outfield moving forward. And, wow, as he taken advantage of that opportunity. Since the beginning of August, Nootbaar is batting 3-15 with a 4-73 on-base percentage, and 10-47 OPS in 74 plate appearances.

He's begun to get regular looks at leadoff versus right-handed pitching. And there is talk that he might even see starts at leadoff against some right-handers. The 24-year-old doesn't offer a ton of upside in terms of home runs and stolen bases, but he's not a total negative in those areas. And he can make up for it with high-level output, in the more teammate-dependent counting stats like runs scored, and maybe rbi's if he sticks at the top of the St. Louis lineup.

Buoyed by ML MVP candidates Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. Nootbaar should be rostered in all mixed, and ML-only fantasy formats at this point.