Know who to buy, and sell
AS WE sit here one month into the MLB season, it is the perfect time to take stock of your fantasy baseball team. Hot starts are cooling off, cold starts are heating up, and we have enough data to assess which players are worthy of our attention and which ones should go.
Buying low is always a tricky proposition as your trade partner, while likely disgruntled, doesn’t want to just give away his players. We would all love to acquire someone like Trea Turner at a discount, but the name recognition alone will keep costs up. To truly buy low, you should set your sites a little lower, but still of a quality worth rostering.
Max Muncy and Justin Turner of the Dodgers present themselves as strong buy-low options. Neither have hit for the power of which they are capable, and both have low batting averages on balls in play, which is usually a strong indicator of bad luck. In fact, their respective BaBIPs are nearly .100 points off their career averages. They are stats waiting to be corrected.
On the other side of the trade market, consider pitchers such as Merrill Kelly of Arizona and Pablo Lopez of Miami as candidates to be dealt. Kelly is the easy choice, as his 1.71 ERA is expected to shoot up closer to his career average 4.02 mark. He also doesn’t play for a competitive team, so wins will be scarce, too.
Lopez might be a tougher sell for you, given how amazing he has looked with his 1.00 ERA and strikeout-per-inning average (0.97). Remember his shoulder issues from last year, however, and think about what one poor start or “late scratch with shoulder discomfort” will do to his trade value.
Wheeling and dealing in fantasy baseball can be a tough task at times. It’s difficult to part with a player who is performing well for you, just as it is difficult to assess which guys will turn their season around. But that’s the nature of the fantasy game.
Howard Bender is the 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.