CBRACKE
Loading ...
Knowing when to buy and sell players in fantasy baseball is not unlike playing the stock market. Correctly predicting a streak of excellence or futility is a difficult, but essential ingredient to the success of a franchise. The players that follow are a couple key sell high candidates for fantasy owners looking to avoid future slumps and make a push in their standings over the remaining few months of the season.
Jorge Cantu, 3b, Marlins
Anyone who tells you they expected Cantu to club 14 homers, drive in 46 runs, and hit .291 through 254 at bats is full of it. His 14 dingers puts him half way to his career high and while he’s the right age (26) for a breakout, he’s simply hitting at a level that is too great to maintain. The main reason he won’t be able to remain as successful is the fact his batting eye is questionable. Case in point, his very average batting eye (K/BB) of 2.5 in 258 at bats. He may be making more contact with the ball these days, but the margin between his current success and his average numbers of the last few seasons isn’t that great.
Milton Bradley, OF, Rangers
Over the last two weeks, only one player has driven more balls into the stands than Bradley and we just finished discussing him (Cantu). Bradley has been benefitting from hitting behind the blistering hot Josh Hamilton in the Rangers’ lineup, and has connected on six homers and has driven in 14 runs in just 35 June at bats. The reason why fantasy owners should strike while the iron is hot is Milton’s lengthy injury history. He hasn’t accrued more than 351 at bats in a single season in any of the last three years and he’s already dealt with knee, hamstring, shoulder, and quadriceps soreness this season. He’s a ticking timebomb and while fantasy owners will likely continue to benefit from his hot hitting, but that run may come to an abrupt end if fantasy owners don’t act fast.
Bartolo Colon, SP, Red Sox
Over the last 28 days, only the Phillies’ Jaime Moyer has more wins than Colon. I don’t fault fantasy owners for picking up Fatolo when he came back to the majors. I did. I do turn up my nose at them if they expect his success to continue through much of the rest of the season. Sure he’s 4-1 on the season, but he’s gone into the seventh inning just once in five starts and he’s given up at least five hits in each of those outings. In case you don’t remember last year, he came back from an injury just like this year, rattled off five straight wins, and then proceeded to lose eight of nine decisions over the rest of the season (albeit missing all of August). This kind of pattern has become commonplace with Colon throughout his career and it would behoove those fantasy owners who took a chance on him to recognize this and make an appropriate move while he still has some value.
No Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>