With just three and a half weeks to go in the season, you should be targeting specific categories in which you can move most easily. Even if it’s just a couple of points, if you can take them, take them now.  In looking at the standings of my roto leagues, stolen bases still looks like the easiest category in which a move can be made in a short period of time, so here are readily available two guys who you might consider picking up to get a quick speed boost. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s only about 3 1/2 weeks left of the season, so it’s scrambling time if you’re lucky enough to be in contention. Any hitter with a pulse who’s receiving every day or near regular at-bats could get hot and be the guy to bring home the trophy for your team. Here are two possibilities for that honor.

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The fun part about MLB trades for fantasy owners is all the new opportunities afforded to players on the teams involved. New roles open up and suddenly intriguing fantasy options are available for the taking from the free agent pool.

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It’s like a mad lib! Alex Gordon is… sexy? Misunderstood? Pretty good with a chance of more? Not as good as last year? Better than this year? Let’s try something else. Let’s try to answer it with another name and find him a ‘fantasy comp.’

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This week’s American League Stock Watch has a little bit different of a flow. With September right around the corner — and thus September roster expansion and call ups — there should be a strong infusion of minor league talent about to jump onto the scene. To help you get a jump on your leaguemates regarding some of these soon-to-be-available outfielders, here is a list of AL club outfielders that are already on their respective 40-man rosters.

Michael Taylor – He happens to have a top 10 wOBA among Pacific Coast League outfielders and already had a brief stint with the A’s. During his time in Sacramento this year Taylor has amassed 506 plate appearances and although he only has 12 home runs, his triple slash is a robust .289/.406/.449. His power might have waned a bit but his speed is still intact. His SB/CS ratio is a very strong 17/3 mark. His strikeout rate won’t ever impress, but given his combination of plate discipline, still solid power and above average speed, Taylor makes for a potentially intriguing pick up. The only downside to Taylor would be playing time. The A’s are currently juggling Coco Crisp, Josh Reddick, Yoenis Cespdes, and Jonny Gomes on a regular basis. That doesn’t leave too many PA’s for Taylor, especially with the A’s in the playoff hunt and most likely unwilling to give PA’s to a still unproven player.
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On Monday, I took a look at the hitter BABIP leaders and tried to determine how sustainable those marks were for 2013. Today, I will check in on the bottom dwellers in the metric. This could be your initial list of undervalued hitters in next year’s fantasy drafts.

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Let’s face it.  Sifting through the waiver wire at this point can be an exercise in futility.  I mean, if the guy is just sitting out there waiting to be snatched up by anyone desperate enough to have to employ his services for the final month of the season, how good can he really be? There is no “long term” anymore, so it’s time to turn that roster spot into a revolving door and start playing the hot bat.  They’re certainly not the be-all, end-all, but here are two that just might be of service for the home stretch. Read the rest of this entry »

Monday is the first day of the work week, and while we all have our jobs to take care of, more importantly, we have fantasy baseball to discuss! It’s what the player has done for the entirety of the season, his past recent performance and then what I personally think each player will do (or is most likely to do) for the remainder of the season.

Bullish:
Adrian Gonzalez – I don’t much care for first and second half splits, but this season has been pretty wild for him. After hitting just two home runs each in April, May and June, many owners began to panic and trade A-Gon. If you were smart enough to hang on to him, you’ve been handsomely rewarded in the second half of the season. He picked up his power stroke a bit by hitting four dingers in July and already had four halfway through August. His month-by-month fantasy numbers have seen a massive uptick as well. The table below spells it out much clearer than my words ever could.

*August is of course still not finished yet. The rate stats will float and the counting stats should increase.
Other than stolen bases (which no one drafted him for anyways), Gonzalez has been doing it all for the past month and a half. Kudos to those of you who either didn’t sell low or managed to trade for him on the cheap. This is the Gonzalez that a lot of imagined when envisioning him in Fenway.

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The fantasy season is starting to reach crunch time, so let’s begin the week with two players who have recently taken on more prominent roles…

David Murphy | OF | Rangers | Owned: 12% Yahoo! and 13.3% ESPN

From 2008-2011, his first four full seasons as a big leaguer, the 30-year-old Murphy posted a 115 wRC+ against right-handed pitchers with a 62 mark against southpaws. His split this year is 129/145 thanks to some serious BABIP (.529) love in a very small sample (53 PA) against left-handers. It’s not the most sustainable performance, as you can tell.

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With a little over a month left of the season, BABIP marks shouldn’t change too significantly through the remainder. The five hitters with the highest BABIPs could potentially be overvalued in fantasy leagues next year as a decline could trigger a drop in batting average. Let’s see if that may be the case.

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