1 – First/Second half splits are arbitrary.
2 – Don’t read too much into second half success or struggles unless there are reasons beyond the raw numbers to look at. (A) Was the player hurt? (B) Did the player wear down? (C) Were the player’s weaknesses exposed? (D) Were we looking at nothing more than a regression to the mean?
Take all of that into account folks, I implore you, before you just blindly accept second half performances as the “new norm.”
Jose Abreu hit .319 with 14 homers and 48 RBI his last 73 games.
Elvis Andrus has always been a favorite of mine. Should be of yours too though I know he isn’t since people seemingly violently react with anger every time I suggest rostering him in the preseason. Andrus hit .314 with a .380 OBP in the second half as he stole 11 bases in 64 games. He never get hurts, steals bases, scores runs and doesn’t hurt you in the batting average category at all. Folks never like to draft him though which vexes me.
Adam Duvall hit .231 with a .306 OBP in the second half. He also hit 10 homers and drove in 42 runners over 67 games. By the by… Jackie Bradley hit .233 with a .315 OBP, 12 homers and 32 RBI in the second half. Hell, Duvall doubled Bradley in the steals column, four to two. How many of you have the stones to take Duvall ahead of Bradley next season?
Dee Gordon hit .268 with a .312 OBP and 24 steals his last 58 games. Who is he heading into the 2017 season? That’s a huge question that I will be exploring at a later date. Dee certainly didn’t impress after returning from his PED suspension. Was his 58 game run a sign of the struggles that are to come? Did he ‘roid to success? Is it merely a sample size thing to explain the struggles? Look for my breakdown in 2017 but I’m leaning toward being nervous.
Yasmani Grandal tantalizes but never seems to truly live up to expectations. The second half was one of his better efforts though as he socked 15 homers with 35 RBI his last 61 games.
Freddie Freeman had a .634 SLG and 18 homers with 57 RBI in 70 games. He ended the season hitting .320 with 34 homers, 91 RBI and 102 runs driven in. Please, I implore you, can we stop with the questions I get about him each year, the one that says he won’t be good cause his teammates aren’t? Stop it. This guy is just good. Period.
Paul Goldschmidt hit only nine homers his last 70 games. His homer and stolen base marks were reversed as he stole 21 bags.
Curtis Granderson hit 15 homers with 46 runs scored in the second half. Mookie Betts had 13 homers and 47 runs scored in the second half.
Randal Grichuk had 231 at-bats in the second half, 83 fewer than Kris Bryant. Randall had 14 homers and 37 RBI, the exact same marks as Bryant.
Jason Heyward (three homers), Max Kepler (nine) and Jonathan Schoop (11) hit 23 homers in the second half. Khris Davis hit 23 homers in the second half.
J.D. Martinez his .332 his last 55 games. He’s not that guy. I base that on history and his overall skills. There’s also the .418 BABIP which tied with Joey Votto for the highest in baseball in the second half.
Wil Myers damn near went 30/30 but he hit just .223 his last 70 games. Can’t see how the speed continues next season, but I thought this season would never have happened either.
Eduardo Nunez hit .244 with a .297 OBP in the second half. Just didn’t do much after that great start. Still stole 18 bags to bring the fantasy value.
Hernan Perez hit nine homers and stole 24 bases in the second half. He also hit .281 but that .313 OBP was scrapping league average. Great counting cat stuff, but his overall skill level just isn’t high enough to support that seven half homer/speed combo.
Albert Pujols hit 16 homers with 59 RBI in a mere 65 games. He ended the year hurt though with that foot bothering him. Seems like it always is actually. 
Check out this footprint.
Salvador Perez wore down, yet again, in the second half. This season he had eight homers and 23 RBI over 61 game as his slash line fell to vomit inducing levels for a hitter of his caliber: .201/.248/.357.
Brandon Phillips is aging and boring. He was also locked in during the second half with a .335/.350/.478 line. Phillips even swiped nine bases in a fountain of youth movement.
Miguel Sano slugged 11 homers with 30 RBI his final 56 games. He also scored a mere 23 runs. That’s right, he scored 12 times in the second half when he didn’t knock himself in. That’s what happens when you don’t get on base as Sano hit .228 with a .286 OBP. Who would have thought that Sano’s performance would have been dusted by Evan Gattis who was at .288-19-36 with a .358 OBP over 63 games?
Justin Upton was a failure given expectations. No real disagreement there. Still, it’s not like he receded from fantasy significance. Upton’s last 68 games played looked like pretty much what we were hoping for this season as he hit 22 homers, stole four bases, drove in 49 runners and scored 41 times. That’s some really impressive stuff by the way.
THE 2016-17 NBA FANTASY ALARM DRAFT GUIDE IS NOW AVAILABLE.
THE PLAYOFFS
Josh Donaldson went 7-for-13 (.538) with four doubles in the Jays three game sweep of the Rangers.
The Giants face elimination against the Cubs Monday night. They have won 9-straight games when facing elimination.
Corey Seager has hit the ball very hard in the playoffs.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).
Player News
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told reporters that Zach Eflin (lat) is likely to return and start Sunday against the Angels
It was assumed that Eflin would be back this weekend, but now we have a concrete date. The 31-year-old may not be at full strength after throwing fewer than 60 pitches in his rehab start, but the Orioles feel confident enough to have the right-hander back on the bump for the series finale against the Angels.
Riley Greene is not in the lineup for the first game of a doubleheader against the Rockies on Thursday.
Greene will get a break and likely return to the lineup for the second game of the twin-billing. Zach McKinstry will get the start in left field while Greene rests.
Yu Darvish (elbow) is facing live hitters on Thursday.
Darvish has been throwing bullpen sessions and traveled to the team’s complex in Arizona to face live hitters on Thursday. It will be his first time facing live batters since a spring training appearance on March 13th. He will likely need a few sessions like this before the Padres can map out a rehab appearance timeline for him.
Adael Amador is starting at second base and batting ninth for the Rockies on Thursday.
Amador has now started three of the last four games at second base for the Rockies. He’s gone just 7-for-43 this season with 15 strikeouts in 16 games. He’s just 22 years old, so there is plenty of time for him to adjust to the MLB level, but he doesn’t need to be on redraft radars right now.
Jackson Holliday is playing second base and batting second for the Orioles on Thursday against the Twins.
With Cedric Mullins sitting out on Thursday, Gunnar Henderson will bat lead off, and Holliday will jump up from sixth in the order to second. Holliday is riding a hot streak right now, and the Orioles are taking advantage. This is likely just a one-game sample with no Mullins or Adley Rutschman in the lineup, but Rutschman has been struggling, so perhaps it could become a more permanent spot in the lineup for Holliday moving forward.
Endy Rodriguez (finger) had his splint removed this week.
Rodriguez suffered a lacerated right index finger on April 14th. Now that he is out of his splint, he “is playing catch and doing a slightly modified swing.” Once he can progress to taking full swings, we’ll have a better sense of the timeline for his return.