It’s Thursday. You know what that means.
Each and every week during the fantasy baseball season, we’ll be doing a stock report, looking at the players who are improving their value on a week-to-week basis.
If there are players you want me to dive into, feel free to tag me on Twitter @MichaelWaterloo.
Now, without any further ado, let’s get to it.
Fantasy Baseball Stock Report
Stock Up
The good thing about Soler is that he will play every day. And against right-handed pitching, he does just enough in the power department to warrant a spot in the lineup, with eight homers this year.
Against lefties, however, he’s a different player. In 57 plate appearances against southpaws this season, Soler has nine home runs, is hitting .354, and has just 10 strikeouts.
Soler has been on a heater as of late, slotting in as the No. 2 hitter in standard leagues during the last two weeks.
He’s been streaky in the past and I expect that to continue this year too, but the end-of-season numbers will be there for him. I’d look to acquire.
Stock Down
The Guardians are one of the worst power-hitting teams in the league, and a lot of that falls on Bell. It seemed like a good fit for the veteran, and while his Hard Hit% and Barrel% aren’t too far off from last season, his GB% rate has increased to 57.9% and his Launch Angle has dipped from a below-average mark of 8.4 last year to 4.2 degrees this year.
Bell is in his age-30 season, and we saw the power decrease last year too, so seeing it continue to go down is concerning. I’m not expecting a bounce-back from him.
Stock Up
I’m not concerned with Alcantara to the point that I’m looking to move on from him just for the sake of it. But for someone who wasn’t generating a lot of swings and misses despite averaging 97.5 mph on his fastball, seeing a decrease in K% and a rise in BB% concerns me.
On the year, Sandy has a 20.5 K% – down from 23.4 last year – and an 8.5 BB% – up from 5.6 last season.
He’s throwing the sinker more this year, despite it carrying his highest xBA (.297), and throwing his changeup less, despite the xBA of .251 being much lower than the actual average against (.333).
I’d look to buy if anyone is panicked enough to sell with his 4.93 ERA.
Stock Down
McCarthy is back up in Arizona, and he has five steals in as many games since being recalled. The speed is legit and he was doing well in Triple-A, as we highlighted in our Prospect Report last week.
But I’m still not quite there. Speed is hard to get, yes, and the Arizona offense has been fantastic. But I question McCarthy’s overall skills and his ability to make consistent good contact.
If I feel OK about where I’m at with my steals, I’d look to trade him away while he’s hot and address other needs.
Stock Up
I’m not sure what else De La Cruz has to do to get called up to Cincy. Hell, he was posting photoshopped pictures of him in Reds’ gear on his Instagram. It should be just a matter of days for the stud prospect, who really only has issues with making contact. Outside of that, he has legit first-round upside.
In Triple-A, De La Cruz is slashing .304/.401/.659 with 11 homers, 11 steals, and 64 runs+RBIs.
There is no player worth stashing more than Elly right now.
Stock Down
This is what Schwarber does, so we shouldn’t be too surprised. He’s historically streaky, but he’s hitting .166. Now the .168 BABIP should point to better days, but the xBA isn’t much better (.217).
We’re seeing a lower Barrel rate and him actually upping his walk rate this year. But despite that, he’s chasing more and making less contact when going after pitches outside the zone.
I’m expecting him to heat up over the next couple of months and go on a big power streak, but the average is tough to swallow.
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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.
