Fantasy baseball is like the stock market. Players are the stocks that fluctuate daily
depending on their history, recent output, position, injuries, etc. Winning a fantasy baseball league comes down
to one simple term, Value. Value is the
key to playoff appearances and championships as it is the key to profit margins
on the market. Value is first found on
draft day with late round steals but game-changing value can come with early
season trades. Now is the time to
strike, when the iron is hot or in this case, the unproven overachiever. I’ve highlighted 2 players, who if you own,
you should attempt to trade in the search for value, as well as a few players
to target.
Chris Davis
There is no denying Mr. Davis’s power. Last years 33 homerun output in 139 games
finally gave us the numbers to back up all the hype surrounding Davis since his
prospect days in Texas. Sporting a cool
.270 batting average, the first baseman impressed many considering it came at
the hands of a 30.1% K rate (5th worst out of all qualified batters). Davis entered today hitting .352 (career .263
avg) and a .386 BABIP which means regression is in order. Not to say Davis won’t finish with career
high totals in home runs and rbis but his average will certainly dip down well
below .300, leaving him as more of a 2.5 tool player rather than the 4 tool
player he is currently impersonating.
Players to Target:
Allen Craig, Billy Butler
Coco Crisp
Ahh Covelli. Bet you
didn’t know that was his real name. I
also bet at some point over the past 5 seasons you have owned Coco Crisp. His streaky play throughout his career has
landed this guy on the waiver wire more times than Erik Bedard. Now, Crisps batting average is sitting at
.283, which isn’t too far off from his career average of .274, and his .264
BABIP tells us that he isn’t getting lucky.
So where does the abnormality lie?
In his power. Crisp has been
playing the part of a young Grady Sizemore in tune to a .273 isolated power
(Career .136 isolated power) to go along with 5 homeruns, 12 ribbys, 24 runs
and 8 stolen bases. Add it all up and
you have your #4 ranked player in ESPN leagues.
If you can sell Crisp off as a 5-tool superstar then the gained value will
be astronomical. Don’t get too greedy
though, as most educated owners will know of Crisps history.
Players to Target:
Jason Heyward, Michael Bourn, B.J. Upton
