Justin Morneau has 26 home runs in his past 270 games played, which over 162 games would be a measly 16 long balls. For a first baseman, that just does not cut it. Yet still, Morneau is owned in 58% of Yahoo leagues.

While his RBI totals have not been bad and he still nets a 100 wRC+, the guy just does not have the skills he once had and is a drag on your first base slot if you throw him out there every week. He currently ranks 24 in wRC+ so even though he has been league average, everyone knows and understands the quality of first basemen around the league and that the fantasy worthwhile first basemen hit well above Morneau’s current levels.

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If you had the patience to stick with Pedro Alvarez or the wherewithal to acquire him during his huge early season slump, you have been amply rewarded for your decision over Alvarez’s last month of play. The question is whether this performance will continue.

I think we can all be in agreement that he will not hit .312 as he has over the past 30 days. He probably also will not lead the league in RBI for the remainder of the year either. However, that does not mean he is a worthwhile candidate to move after his big power month. I would rather hold onto Alvarez and keep the 26-year-old’s power in my lineup as there is a non-zero chance that he ends up leading the NL in home runs.
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Before Brandon Beachy had been pushed back with a bit of elbow soreness after his final rehab start, I posted my thoughts at Talking Chop on how the Braves would manage their rotation with the impending return of one of their best starting pitchers.
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Nick Swisher has been pretty much perpetually underrated in fantasy formats for the past number of years. He has been dual eligible at 1B and OF and has been a strong contributor in OBP leagues, which are the only types of leagues I personally play in. He has pretty consistently hit for mid 20’s power with equal RBI and R contributions that start at the low 80’s and reach to the mid 90’s.
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Andrelton Simmons may be one of my favorite players in the league, but I do not find any reason for him to be owned in nearly half of Yahoo! leagues at this point in time. I was down on Simmons from a fantasy perspective entering the year, he just does not have the base stealing acumen or power to be as useful as other options in fantasy formats.
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If you have not already done so, it is well past time to let go of Dan Haren. I have been one of the biggest Dan Haren fans for some time. He encompasses all I like to see from a pitcher, or at least he did when he was good and healthy. He is extremely athletic, he hardly ever walks batters, he gets a good deal of strikeouts without having dominant stuff, and he had a large amount of success in both leagues.
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If you took Jason Heyward in your draft this year you almost certainly spent a pretty penny on him. After a 27 homer and 21 steal campaign and the fact that Justin Upton was acquired to hit directly behind him in the lineup, Heyward was an extremely attractive target on draft day and if you left the draft with him as your top outfielder you probably felt pretty happy about it.
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Julio Teheran is owned in just 52% of Yahoo! leagues but I expect that number to jump up pretty swiftly after last night’s performance. If he’s available, it’s time to put a claim in on him and offer up a hefty amount of FAAB if that’s how your league operates. The one concern around owning Teheran and investing a lot into him this season was the return of Brandon Beachy. With Teheran’s sixth straight quality start, he has all but assured he will remain in the rotation when Beachy returns in the next two weeks.
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Josh Johnson returned to the mound last night for the first time since April 21. The oft-injured 29-year-old (it still surprises me that he’s just 29) impressed against the Giants, throwing seven innings with one earned run allowed with six strikeouts and no walks. Granted, it was a return to the NL and the Giants do not have what we would call a high powered offense, but they can certainly string together sets of hits to put some runs on the board.
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Always an underrated power source, Josh Willingham has become more and more Adam Dunn like this season than the Willingham we are used to seeing. In the past, Willingham has been a tremendously undervalued source of power while not destroying your batting average. While he has never been a contributor in that category, he has scuffled along with serviceable .260 marks in three of his four seasons leading up to this year.
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