Daniel Nava (41% ownership)
Nava played his first season of more than 100 games in 2013 and had a nice season, coming in with a 128 OPS+. The main category that Nava would help your team with is on the batting average side (he was 8th in the AL last year, even better he was 5th in OBP). He will crack the occasional home run but there are plenty of other options available if your trying to get some more power.
The most similar player to him through age 30 is Jim Eisenreich. In his age 31 season, he hit .280/.335/.397 5 hr, 12 sb. While this amounted to slightly above average production in 1990, those numbers aren't exactly going to win many fantasy leagues.
For 2014, I think Nava's batting average will be in the .285-.300 range and he might even develop some more power and get in the 15 to 18 homer range. He's not a game changer but could be a passable fill in/bench player if your regular first baseman gets hurt.
Ike Davis (26% ownership)
Ike Davis has shown signs that he could be a fantasy baseball monster in short spurts (such as 2011) and that he can help in the power department (such as 2012).
It's unknown whether he will start the season with the Mets or get traded. During the off-season there were rumors that there was an Ike Davis to the Brewers for Tyler Thornburg trade. Even with the desperate situation of first base for the Brewers (where Mark Reynolds/Juan Francisco platoon passes as a substantial improvement) i'm glad the Brewers didn't take this offer if it was on the table.
The one thing buried in 2013's numbers is that he actually did hit better during this time even if the power numbers weren't there. There is at least the potential of upside in where there is at least one monster season in there if owners are willing to take a flyer on Davis.
His most similar player through age 26 is Carlos Pena. In his age 27 season Pena, only had 295 plate appearances but hit 18 homers in those appearances. For Davis, a Carlos Pena type career may be a best case scenario. While it took Pena until about age 29 to figure things out, once he did he had three seasons where he was a monster in the home run category.
For Davis, assuming he stays healthy I think he hits about 20-25 homers but is likely to be a liability in the batting average department. He's not as safe or consistent as Nava as a back up but the potential for reward is also higher.
James Loney (16% ownership)
Yes, Loney did have nice season with the Rays last year but i'm skeptical of his ability to repeat his performance again. Loney is another player where there was speculation that the Brewers may try to pick up and again he's a player where i'm glad they didn't sign him for three years.
If owners are lucky, they may get some help in the batting average department but expectations on power number production are very modest at best. The most similar batter through age 29 is Willie Montanez.
His age 30 season he had reasonable hr & rbi totals (17/96) but only had a .256 batting average (along with .320 OBP and 102 OPS+). While I think Loney's OPS+ will come in pretty close to that total, he'll probably get there through the route of better batting average but lesser contributions in the power/run production categories.
Michael Morse (13% ownership)
The main question with Morse is can he stay healthy over the course of an entire season? More often than not the answer of this question seems to be no. But, the one time he did stay healthy (2011) he put up some monster numbers .303/.360/.550 31 hrs.
Even if Morse doesn't go back to playing 140+ games, there is enough power in the bat that there will be at least a few weeks where he goes on a scorching hot streak and can help the saavy fantasy owner. There's now way he should be used for a high-level draft pick but he's a good buy low candidate either as a last round pick and should be available on the waiver wire if you need to find some power at some point this year.
His most similar player through age 31 is Charlie Maxwell. He had himself a productive age 32 season .251/.357/.461 31 hrs in 1959 which happened to be the first and only time he had 30 plus homers.
For Morse, I think his batting average comes back closer to his .281 career average and I think he'll get enough plate appearances to hit 20-25 homers.
Yonder Alonso (11% ownership)
Alonso is a player that has a lot of potential. He was listed as a top 100 prospect for four years in a row and he was part of the return the Padres got for trading Mat Latos to the Reds. In his two years with the Padres, he has been a productive player with above average OPS+ the last two years (110 & 106).
However, that hasn't translated to fantasy value as his batting average has been in the .270-.280 range and his power has been limited (15 over the last two years). While Alonso isn't a bad player, he isn't necessarily the optimal player for fantasy purposes. Part of it, is that Petco park does suppress power and the other part of it is it seems like his power is still developing. Eventually, a lot of those doubles that he's hitting should turn into home runs.
In the long term he could hit a peak of hitting .290-.300 with 15 to 20 homers per year but I don't think he's quite there yet. Through age 26 his most similar player is Carlos Quintana. He played 101 games during his age 27 season to underwhelming results (56 OPS+). I think that's where the comparison ends with Alonso. My guess is that he has some decent if not spectacular seasons ahead of him. I think he holds steady on batting average and cracks the 10 to 12 homer range. He strikes me as someone who will have more valuable to his actual team than fantasy owners.
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