It is three weeks into the season and time to do some real review of how your teams look and what may need to be done. Have no fear we at Fantasy Alarm are here to help!
Anthony Rizzo: Rizzo blasted a three-run homer Friday and then followed it up with another dinger and three more RBI Saturday and yet another dinger Sunday. We all know that Rizzo is a stud in real and fantasy baseball and he proved it again this weekend. However, what you may not know is that he has notched three games at 2B already this year! That makes him 2B eligible in some leagues and just games away in others. Imagine being able to replace a Darwin Barney or Ryan Goins in your fantasy lineup with Rizzo. Sweet!
Jedd Gyorko: Gyorko went 2-4 with a run Friday and continued to fill the stat sheets Saturday going 1-4 with a run and a RBI. As of Saturday the fantasy baseball Swiss army knife (he is eligible at 2b, SS, 3b) is hitting a cool .310 with 3 dingers, an OBP of almost .400 and an OPS of over 1,000. Many still question if Gyorko will get enough AB to replicate last year. Answer – he will play. I am not a believer in Jhonny Peralta at this stage of his career and Kolten Wong (despite the nice sounding first name) has not proven to be reliable. If you can get some shares of Jedd before it is too late, do it.
C.J. Edwards: Edwards recorded his first win of the season Friday against the Reds by pitching a scoreless 10th striking out two. He added another K in 1/3 of an inning Saturday. Through play Saturday, the Cubs’ hurler has no ERA, having allowed no runs and only 1 hit in his 7 innings of work. As if the fireballer needed to give you more reason for optimism, he is inducing ground balls at a greater rate than years past. With the Cubs’ infield defense, that will prove to be a very good thing. I am rooting for Wade Davis to stay healthy all year (indeed, I am rooting for everyone to stay healthy all year) but should Davis have any issues, Edwards could easily vault Uehara and Rondon and be the man to close. I am buying.
Adeiny Hechavarria: Hechavarria took the collar Friday in his return from the DL. Hechavarria hit a solid .281 in 2015 and a respectable .276 in 2014. Yes, he hit only .236 last year but that is deceiving. He was unlucky (BABIP went down approximately 50 points from the prior two campaigns). Indeed in 2016, the Marlins shortstop increased his contact rate to over 85%, struck out less, walked more, and jumped his hard contract percentage to over 32% -- a number far above league average. Yes, he is off to a slow start but he was hurt, has a decent track record for batting average as shown above and displayed a lot of growth in 2016. Will he be a superstar with the lumber? No. Will he be better than most predict? Yes. Deep leaguers pay attention.
Eddie Rosario: Rosario blasted a three-run homer Friday – his first of the year. He then added one for good measure just before I hit send on this to the Fantasy Alarm editors! The young Twin is coming around and the advanced metrics paint a promising picture – contact rate up, walk rate up, strikeout rate down, soft contact down, infield flies down. Rosario is the classic Rules of Engagement upwardly mobile player – he had over 800 plate appearances coming into the season despite being just 25 years old. Next level here we come.
Ryan Madson: Madson fired a scoreless eighth inning Thursday and then came back to strike out three Saturday to earn his first save of the season. I know the Oakland pen has been a jumble but do not write Madson off. He is throwing just as hard as last year, getting more K’s, has a higher swinging strike percentage than last year and has managed a nice low ERA despite a bloated BABIP. Buy low if you can. Hold ‘em if you got ‘em.
Jeremy Hellickson: Last week, we wrote: “Hellickson allowed just two runs and five base runners in seven innings Saturday. Thus far on the young season, Helly has been great. I was a believer before the year based on his three straight years of swinging strike rates over 10%, and his 2016 ability to avoid hard contact (under 26% when league average is about 30%).” Well, Jeremy made us look good by going out and giving up just two runs on three hits while striking out five across seven innings. The Phils righty now sports a 1.88 ERA and a microscopic 0.71 WHIP. The window may be closed already but I would check if I were you.
And now, the moment you likely have not been waiting for -- Schultz says: “As we ease into the last week of April, it surprises Schultz that it's taken him this long to start to referring to himself in the third person and even more so that I have an overwhelming desire to talk about an outfielder that's hitting .109, has scored one run, stolen one base and has yet to hit a home run or drive in a solitary run. Yes. Let's spend some time together discussing Byron Buxton - gestating roto-monster or impending roto-bust of historic proportions?
The Twins super-prospect's pedigree is well-known to anyone that spelunks the minor-leagues looking for the next big roto-thing. The #2 selection in the 2012 draft out of high school, Buxton tore through the minor leagues, winning Baseball America's 2013 Minor League Player of the Year. In 2016, the future was supposed to be now with the Twins naming Buxton their opening day centerfielder. However, anyone hoping that Buxton would immediately fulfill his destiny as an impactful roto-hero of Troutian proportions was gravely disappointed as B-Bux's career started much the same way as Trout - an unmitigated disaster. However, the then-22-year-old salvaged his season and raised expectations for 2017 by returning from the minors and putting up a .287, 9 HR, 22 RBI over the season's final month.
It's that last month of 2016 that makes Buxton's present start so befuddling. It's also why no one should be giving up on him quite yet. Given how long Buxton's been in the collective roto-consciousness, it’s easy to forget how young he is. If he's already on your team, the rewards for being patient could be astronomical, especially if you are in a keeper league. If the Buxton-owner in your league is beset with doubts, it shouldn't take much to pry him away. The key word here is patience.”
Response: Nice SAT word – spelunk. Schultz must have done well on the verbal section. #impressive.