September is right around the corner, which means it’s time to really start preparing for the fantasy playoffs. Here are a pair of AL East youngsters who can boost your roster for the stretch drive…

Pedro Ciriaco | 2B, SS, 3B | Red Sox | Owned: 21% Yahoo! and 29.9% ESPN

Ciriaco, 26, got his shot with the Red Sox early last month due to various injuries and has quickly established himself as a pesky, “this guy shouldn’t be killing us” type of player for whoever happens to be playing Boston on a given day. The infielder is hitting .360/.374/.500 (145 wRC+) with two homers and nine steals (in nine chances) in 141 plate appearances for the Red Sox, and now he’s playing third base pretty much everyday with Will Middlebrooks on the shelf. He managed to pick up both second base and shortstop eligibility along the way.

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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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The trade, as it stands now, is Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the Dodgers for Jerry Sands, James Loney, Ivan DeJesus, Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa. We’ll have plenty of in-depth analysis over the coming days, but fantasy is often about speed, so let’s try to break down the “blink” style fantasy implications.

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Brett Wallace was drafted in the first round of 2008, and he subsequently compiled an impressive minor league career line of .307/.381/.491 over 400 games. 315 of those games were at the AAA level for five different teams, and peppered in between was one short and disappointing debut and one long and mostly disappointing season. Brett Wallace could very well be the poster boy for the quad-A label. And yet he was very useful for a period of time in 2011 and his recent performance for the Houston Astros has me wondering if he’s going to make this an annual occurrence.

In his first 31 games in 2011, it looked like the Wallace that many fantasy enthusiasts were waiting for had finally arrived. He had a .353/.421/.500 triple slash with a pair of home runs to go with nine doubles and ten runs batted in. Small sample size mavens were quick to point out his over-.400 BABIP but even when it started to regress, Wallace continued to produce. Over his next 38 games, he hit .287/.396/.417 with another pair of home runs, nine more doubles, and 11 RBI.

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The future position of Xander Bogaerts has become a hot button issue this season. Baseball Prospectus’ prospect guru Kevin Goldstein cited a potential move down the defensive spectrum, possibly even out of the infield, as a reason the 19-year-old didn’t make his mid-season top 50 prospect list.* Goldstein’s rationale drew the ire of many despite the commonly overlooked fact that Kevin is far more connected and knowledgeable than just about everyone who hurled accusations at him. Why does Boegarts’s future position rile up so many? Rabid Red Sox fans and the fantasy implications. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s never fun when your starting middle infielder goes down and you’re choosing from the crap heap of those no-power, limited speed leftovers. If this has happened to you, it’s your lucky day. Here are a pair of middle infielders who might actually contribute.

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Let’s kick off the week with two Athletics, one current and one former…

Grant Balfour | RP | Athletics | Owned: 42% Yahoo!

With Ryan Cook having allowed six runs in his last four appearances and nine runs in his last nine appearances, A’s manager Bob Melvin gave the ninth inning reigns over Balfour against the White Sox this weekend. He closed out Saturday’s win without a problem, though Melvin has yet to make any sort of definitive statement about his closer for the short or long-term. When in doubt, I always lean towards the veteran in the short-term.

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Trading deadlines loom across most of fantasy baseball, and let’s just assume your squad is still sniffing contention — or better yet, looking to pull away from the pack. Should third base be one of your glaring problems over these last seven weeks of baseball, I’ve got a few ideas for you. These are almost exclusively ideas for standard 5×5 leagues that are non-keepers.

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Last night, Evan Longoria returned to the Rays after missing 85 games with a torn hamstring. He was the DH and went 1 for 3 with an RBI. For some fantasy owners his return may be too late to really help them (#raiseshand). For others, he may provide a much needed boost. Besides being one of the top 3B options, his return has implications on other Tampa Bay players.

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The future is now for the Chicago Cubs. With very little to play for this season, the Cubs have called up prospects Josh Vitters and Brett Jackson. Entering the season, Marc Hulet ranked Jackson as the Cubs second best prospect, and Vitters as the twelfth best prospect in the system (that was before the addition of Anthony Rizzo, so both should really be moved down one slot). Now that they are with the major-league club, they’ll be able to contribute to fantasy teams down the stretch and in the playoffs. But just because they are now available, doesn’t mean they’ll be helpful this season.

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