Players Owners are Picking Up and Dumping
ESPN has a nice feature that shows which players are being added and dropped in all their leagues. Here is a look at the top pitchers and hitters being added and dropped.
Hitters
Kyle Blanks (57.5% owned, +15.5% increase) – Kyle is just getting noticed in fantasy and is a great reserve OF in small leagues or decent starter in NL-only and larger leagues. He should hit 20+ home runs with around a 0.270 average.
Colby Rasmus (66.5, +14.9%) – Great upside and people seem to be picking him up. Colby also has the chance to hit 20+ home runs also.
Miguel Tejada (73.8%, +14.6%) – Though I don’t like him as a starter, there is no reason for him not to be on a bench, especially with the 3B qualification coming soon.
Alex Gordon (31.2%, -40.6%) – Alex’s trip to the DL has caused a huge sell off. Buy low here. He should be back within the month, so if you have some DL spots available, stash him there.
Corey Hart (71.1%, -12.0%) – Corey value is down because he now seems to be platooning with Jim Edmonds. Corey looks to be starting against LHP only.
Chris Young (42.0%, -6.3%) – Not sure why the sell off. Maybe there are just better and more consistent options available.
Pitchers
Matt Lindstrom (59.9%, +40.5%) – Get the closer nod of Lyons has pushed him up quickly
Francisco Liriano (96.4%, +26.9%) – Looks like Francisco should no longer be available in any league. He is not close to a sure thing, but a chance should be taken on him. Other high risk, high reward pitchers are Ben Sheets, Fausto Carmona and Ervin Santana.
Jon Rauch (87.0%, +20.6%) – Owners sucking up Joe Nathan’s replacement.
Brandon Lyon (37.9%, -53.2%) – Lindstrom is not a lights out closer yet. Lyon will put up decent rate stats and has a good chance to take over Houston’s closer role. Buy low.
Wade Davis (64.0%, -30.9%) – The drop may be from being the 5th starter and not having as many starts. Pitchers will get injured and he will get his share of starts. Buy low again.
Joba Chamberlain (33%, -12.9%) – Joba should be picked up immediately if available. Can fill in a SP slot when starter not going and provide some good rates stats. Yes, buy low again.
Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.
what are these, 8 team leagues?
What do you mean? I’m in a 10 teamer and the only guys from this list that are owned are Liriano and Tejada.
I really want to pick up Blanks but I have no one to drop. Kemp, C Lee, Ellsbury and Carlos Gonazalez are my OFs. And I have Billy Butler and D Lee on my bench.
Anyone have thoughts on Latos vs. Kuroda?
I mean these are players who should be owned in every league.
-Latos for help with Ks and keepers (innings limit though)
-Kuroda for WHIP help
I am going to try to get a feel of the number of owners and players in each Fangraphs reader’s league. In one of may leagues, it is so deep that the highest % owned is 5 for available players. Let me see what I can do.
I guess I’m just used to uber-deep leagues. I’m in two 16 team dynasties, and one 20 team yearly redraft. All 3 are slow-auctions where most, if not all, of the guys mentioned in this article went for $5+.