The baseball season moves fast, does it not? We’ve barreled through the first half of the season like it was nothing, and the All-Star break is right around the corner.
But even though it’s getting late early, there’s always time to improve your team. Whether it’s with a minor tweak here or there or a full-fledged monster deal that changes the entire makeup of your team, there are plenty of ways to keep working to ensure that you’re pulling out all the stops to win a championship.
There are plenty of movers this week in the trade chart, so before you make that big deal, make sure to check it out below.
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The Injury Movers
There hasn’t been much injury news this week that significantly affects the trade values, but, as always, there are a few players worth mentioning.
Carlos Correa has been out since June 25th with a vague back injury, and the latest word is that he is still not doing baseball activities. There’s no indication that Correa’s injury is serious, but the fact that he isn’t even doing any activity suggests that his return is far from imminent. And really, why would the Astros rush him back? Yes, the Mariners are on their tail in the AL West, but few think that the magic of winning every one-run and extra-inning game can last, and back injuries have a way of lingering if you’re not careful. Correa’s uncertainty drops him a bit.
As does Yu Darvish’s, as the veteran went from on the verge of returning, to feeling a little pain in his triceps, to having an “elbow impingement.” A quick google search shows that this is also called “pitcher’s elbow,” and that it’s relatively non-serious. Still, Darvish just got a cortisone shot and there’s been no word on a timetable. So, you don’t need me to tell you that all of this is not good – not good at all. Darvish could easily come back in the second half and be a strong asset, so he’s not without value. But tread lightly.
In addition, Gleyber Torres, who left Wednesday’s game against the Braves, was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a hip strain. There’s no word yet on how serious the injury is, so it’s largely guessing at this point as to how much time Torres will miss. But I’d value him as if he’ll give you at least two months of elite production.
But it’s not all bad news for injuries. And that is because Avisail Garcia is here and he is angry at baseballs. Truthfully, he’s more of a performance mover, but since we’ve got plenty of those, and since he was just activated off the disabled list, let’s keep him here! Garcia has the always popular 7:1 HR/BB ratio which, you know, is just nuts. He’s not going to be quite this good all season once pitchers start, you know, throwing him balls out of the strike zone. But for now, he’s white-hot, and he’s consistently hit for batting average in his career. Although most in the fantasy community wrote off his performance last year, he was certainly productive and looks like he will be again in 2018.
The Performance Movers
I was going to go with a clever lead-in given how much we have to cover, but I’ll let Samuel L. Jackson do it for me. Here we go:
Entering Wednesday’s action, Francisco Lindor is on pace for a 143-44-106-19-.300 season. He should legitimately stand at home plate after every game and look up at the stands Russell Crowe style and scream “are you not entertained??” Frankly, he might deserve to be higher. Complete stud. Note: I would have used the Russell Crowe gif but my editors have told me I am limited to one gif per article. I have appealed that decision to no one in particular.
Nelson Cruz is going to miss games with aches and pains. He’s going to be removed from games with aches and pains. And he’s going to hit 40 home runs with 100 RBI. Just because I’m younger than Cruz and feel like it takes me six days to recover from a cramp doesn’t mean I should keep taking it out on his trade value.
Nope, I can’t explain Max Muncy. Yes, I’ve reached the point in my fantasy analyst career where I’m willing to accept that things that shouldn’t make sense just continue to exist. Dude has nearly a 50% hard contact rate. He’ll continue to rise in value each week he maintains anything close to this level of production.
Javier Baez’s value has been too low now for a bit and that’s on me. There was a bit of confirmation bias when he went through his bad slump, and I just never bothered to give credit where it was due, always thinking the next slump would hit. But he’s now on pace for a 104-31-118-29-.286 season. I’d take the under on every one of those numbers, but still. He’s far more than a throw-in in any deal.
Some pitchers making moves up the trade chart include Edwin Diaz and Alex Wood. Diaz is having an absurd season, and could legitimately threaten Francisco Rodriguez’s single-season save record. Considering the sheer volume of his saves total, the fact that he offers excellent numbers aside from that means that there’s pretty much nothing separating him from the truly elite closers. As for Wood, it simply looks like he’s found whatever he’s been missing this season, and the Dodgers’ offensive turnaround means he has finally started getting some wins. It’s not rocket science there. Go ahead and buy.
As for the significant performance fallers, we’ve got George Springer and . . . that’s all. First, let’s just accept that despite his speed, Springer is never going to develop into a base-stealer. That’s fine, and he can continue to be an elite player, like he was last season when he batted .283 with 112 runs, 34 homers, and 85 RBI in just 140 games. The problem is that despite playing nearly every game this season, Springer is on pace for just 28 home runs and 78 RBI, to go along with a .254 batting average. Those numbers are still valuable, especially when you consider his elite runs scored total. But they’re not quite as valuable as recent trade charts suggest.
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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 @danharris80.
