Grey pointed this out in yesterday’s recap, but I feel it deserves some special attention here: Ruin Tomorrow Jr. has come out and said that Cesar Hernandez has wrestled the starting second base position away from Chase Utley in Philadelphia. While Utley is being shamed, which is a bummer way to close out a stellar career, the upside here is that we get to see more of Cesar. Cesar has been leading off or hitting second for the anemic Phillies lineup, with ridiculous success. In the past two weeks, Cesar is 26-for-58 with 9 steals and a .508 OBP (1.025 OPS). Yeesh! Cesar has been benefitting from an inflated .535 BABIP and will certainly fall to earth, but the speed should help soften the descent. I don’t think Cesar is the next Dee Gordon, but Gordon-lite? Sure. Cesar could post an OBP in the neighborhood of .340 over a full season with 35 steals, based on his minor league track record.
I mentioned Miguel Sano as a guy to grab last week, and “the Shark” has produced. Sano has begun his career 9-for-20 with a homer, 5 RBI, and a .542 OBP. Beautifully, he has looked very patient at the plate thus far and isn’t hacking as much as I had expected. He’ll still take his lumps and strikeout, but this is a guy who can post a very solid on-base, particularly as pitchers challenge him here early.
I keep expecting Adam Lind to go away, but he keeps producing. At this point, Adam Lind may be here to stay, in that Adam LaRoche sort of way. Good enough to warrant ownership across the board, but not sexy by any stretch (unless you dig chin beards). Lind has worked his way to 15 homers and should wind up in the mid-20’s with serviceable OBP. He’s sitting at .377 right now and had a .381 last year with Toronto. Lind is 21-for-53 over the past two weeks with a .476 OBP. He hasn’t even benefited from an outrageous BABIP like Cesar. I would happily roll with Lind in my 1B or CI spots in most formats.
The talk of Andrew McCutchen’s demise was a bit overstated to begin the year. The Dread Pirate has rebounded from an abysmal start and is starting to take off in OBP formats. He had been an OBP standout, having posted an OBP over .400 for three straight years entering 2015. He is about to pull over that mark again, bringing his OBP up to .397. McCutchen has been en fuego, walking at a 21.1% clip with a beautiful .509 OBP over the past two weeks, good enough for second best in baseball over this period. He still hasn’t stolen many bases (5), but at least the power (10) and OBP/OPS have begun to look more like the Pirate we all know and love. This is still a stud and a bonafide top-10 player.
I was on the Christian Yelich bandwagon entering year. I tossed around a “young Hunter Pence” comparison a few times, flip-flopping the power and the speed. Needless to say, he has been a bit of a disappointment on a variety of levels. With just 5 home runs and 7 steals, Yelich hasn’t been on the pace that I hoped for. But, he may be turning a corner. Yelich’s OBP is at .341, still down from his career on-base average but not far off. This past week, Yelich is 9-for-20 with a .560 OBP, chipping in a homer and a legs. If we go back over the past 30 days, Yelich has a very solid .421 OBP with 3 homers and 3 legs. He is rounding into form, and if you can still buy low on him, I would snatch him up. Somehow, Yelich is unowned is almost 40% of ESPN leagues.
