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Five Burning Questions (Fantasy Baseball)

Five Burning Questions (Fantasy Baseball)

Here are some questions that permeated my brain over the last week. Hopefully, some of my thoughts can be of assistance in the decisions you may be thinking of making.

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What to do with Masahiro Tanaka?
Tanaka is currently sporting a 5.80 ERA and coming off a disastrous start in which he allowed eight earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. Since joining the Yankees in 2014, the K/9 has decreased every season (9.31 to 7). The walk rate has also increased every year. That’s troubling for a pitcher that was known for pinpoint control and has elbow issues. The average fastball velocity has also decreased 1 mph, from 92 to 91 mph. In his brief career, he’s been effective against both LHB and RHB, with no discernible difference. This year, though, righties have been mashing him (.422 wOBA). He’s also been getting creamed at home. His trade value is low, so it’s a waste of time to shop him right now. He’s still a decent pitcher and the peripherals do show that some positive regression could be in the works (.312 BABIP and 4.22 xFIP). With that said, I’d hope for that to happen and then try to get what you can for him. What’s the upside with Tanaka?

Is Jose Bautista Back?
For the first month of the season, Bautista hit one home run and had an ISO of .067 with a wOBA of .259. Since May 1st, he’s hit four home runs with an ISO of .288 and a wOBA of .369. He’s striking out almost 30% of the time, though. To put things into perspective, he hasn’t had a strikeout rate over 20% since 2009. The swinging strike rate is also 9.6%. It hasn’t been over 8% since 2006. The contact rate is at 73%. It’s never been below 75% in his entire career. Now would be the perfect time to try and get something in return for him. He’s got some name value, is on a heater, and Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki should be returning to the lineup soon.

Trade Mark Reynolds?
No player should ever be untouchable. Even Mike Trout. If someone’s willing to pay up for Reynolds, you trade him. With that said, there’s a lot to like here. The strikeout rate is down to 21%. His career mark is close to 30%. The swinging strike rate is still at 13% and contact rate is only 70%, so there will be some lean times, but he plays half of his games in Coors Field. He has also solidified himself as the starting first baseman for the Rockies. The return of Ian Desmond has not affected his playing time, as Desmond has been playing left field.

Am I Buying Keon Broxton?
Short answer? No. Long answer? No. Broxton is striking out 37% of the time. His walk rate is a paltry 6% and the BABIP is .406. The swinging strike rate is 16% and the contact rate is 64%. Now, to be fair, there’s potential here. He did steal 23 bases and hit nine home runs in 75 major league games last season. Just not my kind of player.

Is Ian Happ Up for Good?
If he keeps hitting the way he is, then yes. Duh…Seriously, though, the switch-hitting outfielder is here to stay. The offense is as good as advertised. He will rack up some strikeouts, but he’s been an OBP monster all throughout the minors. Hey, that sounds like Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber, etc…The keys for me are 1) Maddon already has some trust in him, as he’s already batted cleanup for the Cubs. He never had that trust with Javier Baez. 2) His defense is not good, but Schwarber is patrolling left field. Enough said. 3) Albert Almora Jr. and Jon Jay are the other centerfielders. Enough said Part Duex.


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Stan Son is a featured writer at FantasyPros. To read more from Stan, check out his archive and follow him @Stan_Son.

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