Well, it may still feel like winter, but baseball season is back in full force. We’ve got bench-clearing brawls, players chirping about silly unwritten rules being violated, and Babe Ruth re-incarnated out in Anaheim.
As fantasy owners surely understand, a couple of weeks’ worth of baseball is hardly enough of a chance to get a sense of your team’s strengths and weaknesses. We’ve got loads more ball left to play, and you shouldn’t even be looking at your standings for at least another month.
But there are always potential trades to be made, particularly if your team has been beset by injuries right out of the gate. So let’s check in with our handy trade chart and see if we can make some deals.
Reminders:
- This is based on standard-sized rotisserie leagues
- No, don’t try to use it to justify 8-for-1 trades
- Yes, these are just loose guidelines
- No, I don’t hate your favorite player or your favorite team. It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.
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It’s still incredibly early so there’s not all that much to discuss. The majority of the movers are due to injuries, with some slight gains or losses due to extremely notable early-season performances. But let’s touch on a few of the more significant changes at ludicrous speed:
I’m sure both Anthony Rizzo and Christian Yelich will be fine. But as of this writing, their statuses remain somewhat questionable. So if you were trading for them as of this moment, you’d need to be a little conservative, despite little reason for pessimism.
Shoehei Ohtani is incredible. But the majority of you probably can’t use him as both a hitter and a pitcher in the same week, his innings are capped, and pitchers will likely adjust to him as a hitter anyway. He’s amazing and he has plenty of value. He’s not a full-on fantasy stud at this point.
Here’s what I know about David Price at the time of this writing: there are rumblings that he could have opted for Tommy John surgery after his elbow injury last season, he got shelled against the Yankees in his lone inning on Wednesday, and he was removed from the game after feeling a “sensation” in his pitching hand. Price may be fine, and in fact, Alex Cora has already said the injury is nothing major and Price should be okay. But as of this moment, I’d be wary, and I wouldn’t trade for him unless it was for pennies on the dollar (but note: do not trade him away for pennies on the dollar. In fact, just no trading David Price until we get more definitive word. Done and done.).
Poor Elvis Andrus fractured his elbow on a hit-by-pitch late last night. That’s a devastating blow for fantasy owners at a thin position. I can’t imagine that a fractured elbow results in anything less than a six-to-eight week absence, and hopefully, you have plenty of DL slots. But obviously, the usually durable Andrus drops significantly in value.
Finally, a few notable performance risers: Gerrit Cole is legitimate and I feel like the whole Astros thing of “throw your fastball less” shouldn’t be that hard for other teams to follow? Zack Godley probably deserves to be higher but I make the rules. And if Hanley Ramirez can somehow stay healthy, he may be the MVP of the fantasy season.
Happy trading, all!
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Dan Harris is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Dan, check out his archive or follow him on Twitter at @danharris80.