10 Underrated Prospects for Fantasy Baseball Drafted on Day 1

We flew through three rounds of the MLB Draft last night. We enter Monday with 105 picks taken so far and 17 more rounds to go. While the old format was three days and Monday going through just round 10, we are sure to see some excitement on Monday with teams having to make much quicker decisions in what will be a long day of drafting.

While little was chalk yesterday in the first round, there is still a large group of well-hyped players. We got off to a wild start with Eli Willits going 1.1 to the Washington Nationals, but down the board, there were plenty of intriguing and unexpected picks.

Which players are a bit underrated and could be good values for dynasty fantasy baseball? Let’s talk about some of the underrated prospects selected yesterday.

The 10 Underrated Day One Fantasy Prospects

Alex Lodise, SS, Atlanta Braves, 6’1”/190

For the first time since 2019, the Braves opted to take a position player in the first round. That player was not in fact Alex Lodise, who the Braves landed in the second round with the 60th overall pick. Lodise offers a good mix of floor and ceiling and gives the Braves a much-needed infielder inserted into their farm system.

After beginning his career at North Florida, Loside transferred to Florida State in 2024, posting a solid sophomore campaign. This year, the power really came as Loside hit 17 home runs and had 38 extra-base hits in 58 games. Loside slashed an impressive .394/.462/.705.

Despite showing a hyper-aggressive approach, Loside still made a ton of contact and struck out in just 20 percent of plate appearances. Chasing at an absurd 32 percent clip, Loside also had one of the best in-zone swing rates in college baseball. The contact rates of 74 percent overall and 82 percent in-zone were a bit below average, but coupled with the power can play.

Loside mashed, and the extra bases were backed by a 113 max exit velocity and a 108 mph 90th percentile, both showing potential plus power. He has a strong arm at shortstop and has a good chance to stick at shortstop long term.

Cade Obermueller, LHP, Philadelphia Phillies, 6’0”/170

After working out of the bullpen in his freshman season at Iowa, Obermueller moved to the rotation in 2024. Command and control were major issues until this season, as Obermueller walked 60 batters in his first 80 innings in college. This year, the command took a leap, and he walked just 32 batters in 83 innings while posting a 3.02 ERA.

If you like Jamie Arnold, you can draft Obermueller at a discount, as the profiles somewhat resemble each other. Throwing from an extremely low 4’9” release height, Obermueller creates above-average extension at 6’6”. The fastball sits 92 mph, a tick down from Arnold, but he creates 12 inches of IVB and 14 inches of arm-side run. He located it much better this year and created a 28 percent whiff rate.

Obermueller led with his sweeper, which averaged 20 inches of glove-side movement while sitting in the low-80s. The changeup in the mid-80s has carry and 15-18 inches of fade. Obermueller spins his entire arsenal well, but could benefit from another pitch in the arsenal. His development with the Phillies is something to watch closely.

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