Get bats in push to end
AFTER six long, arduous months of drafting, trading, and spending every Sunday sifting through an incredibly deep free agent pool, your quest for a fantasy baseball championship is finally nearing its end. As such, you need to make sure your current roster is as stacked with players who are offering the highest-quality atbats.
The bottom-feeding Nationals have been eliminated. We’ve all heard of Juan Soto and Josh Bell, but how many know about Lane Thomas?
The 26-year-old, right-handed center fielder started seeing some regular playing time in mid-August and has been a fixture atop the Nationals’ lineup. During this final month, he has hit .280 with six home runs and 17 RBIs while adding 22 runs and two stolen bases. The numbers aren’t gaudy, but steady. With the Nats opening next week with a three-game set in Colorado, Thomas should be able to provide you a nice short-term boost.
The Orioles are another team that has long spiraled to the bottom of the standings, but are still loaded with options who may provide you with decent totals over the final week. After a mostly pedestrian season, outfielder Austin Hays is finally living up to some of the scouting reports that put him on our radar back in the spring. Since the calendar flipped to September, Hays has hit .301 with eight home runs with 21 RBIs, and he has even kicked in a stolen base for good measure, yet somehow his ownership numbers in fantasy leagues on Yahoo and ESPN are well below where you would expect to see them.
To paraphrase Dan Fouts from the movie “The Waterboy,” it’s the last week of the season. You can’t hold anything back. Again, there is no tomorrow, so unless you’re in a keeper or dynasty league, it’s way past the time of cutting top names who aren’t delivering. Every little bit of production, no matter where it comes from, is necessary to bring home that 2021 fantasy title.
Howard Bender is the VP of operations and head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on Twitter @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy baseball advice.