If you can’t find a high risk/high reward outfielder on your waivers right now, you’re just not trying very hard. Sorta on topic, I feel like picking up the latest high risk/high reward hitter is like double dog daring your leaguemates. You think picking up Snider is risky? I just picked up Wladimir Balentien! Oh, yeah? I’m grabbing Matt Diaz and Chase Headley! *beads a sweat from random italicized voice* Fine, I’ll grab Angel Pagan! As for Travis Snider, he’s still very young and raw like a nice piece of toro. If you need pop, he’s worth a flier in all leagues to see if you can catch some lightning in a bottle, Thor. Though he’s just as capable of striking out 30 times in the next month and batting .130 as he is of hitting 8 homers. If your itchy for rookie nookie, go for it. Just beware the rash. Anyway, here’s some more players to buy and sell this week in fantasy baseball:
BUY
Matt LaPorta – The MLP Package is on in Cleveland. Now it’s up to LaPorta to make it watchable.
Drew Stubbs – Has great speed and BBQ.
Kyle Blanks – For power, you could do worse. Fun fact about Kyle Blanks, every year for Halloween, he dresses as Michael Clarke Duncan and he wears no costume.
Julio Borbon – Great, terrific, wonderful. All signs pointing to fantastic. Could win Player of the Week. Has a long way to go to being worthwhile for an extended period of time, but while he’s hot, grab him.
Carlos Gonzalez – We’re all gonna go blind if I keep flagellating Carlos Gonzalez.
Rajai Davis – SAGNOF! I’m only mentioning him again, because he’s still only owned in 25% of ESPN leagues. Even if 75% of ESPN leagues are abandoned… Wait, does that means he’s 100% owned? Hmm… Color me confused.
Bronson Arroyo – He’s had one bad start since the All-Star Break. That is all.
Billy Wagner – Lukewarm buy here. If you really need saves, okay. But he needs to not only get dealt, but he needs to end up on a team where he’ll be getting saves.
Mark Ellis – Picking up Mark Ellis and an orangutan couldn’t even get Jane Goodall’s nipples hard, but Ellis has been hot and he has 2nd base eligibility, so there.
Jeff Baker – I almost went with the title, The Fabulous Baker Boy and Jeff Baker as the lead. Jeff Baker? Boy, perhaps. Fabulous? Seems to be overselling him. Wow, this is already shaping up to be a major sell on this buy. So what can we expect of Jeff Baker? He has great eligibility! How’s that for a buy? He has good pop that never fully materialized in Colorado. So now it’s going to materialize? Yeah, I know what you’re saying. He hit 20+ homers in his last full year of Triple-A. He also has ten steal speed over an entire season. Right now, he’s the Cubs starting 2nd baseman. So if you need some pop from your MI slot, Baker’s worth a look.
SELL
Aubrey Huff – I didn’t like him at all in the preseason. Then when he was terrible, I looked at his 2nd half splits. Splits, indeed. But like Biff Tannen, make like a banana. I’m done ever liking him.
Brett Anderson/Trevor Cahill – Way over their innings. Beane needs to either shut them down or trade them for seven first round picks.
David Price – Another guy that’s pushing the limits of what a young pitcher should throw. Murmurs say Sonnanstine will be taking over Price’s rotation spot in September. Murmurs also say, the guy on Megan Wants a Millionaire is a murderer, but I really want to see the rest of the season. C’mon, VH1! This could be the best TV ever. He goes to open a wine bottle and you try to imagine what he’s thinking about holding a corkscrew.
Ryan Doumit – I preach patience with catchers relying on the Ron Popeil, “Set It and Forget It” method. I’m going to make an exception for Doumit because he’s been terrible. Even the Pirates have noticed his egregiousness and moved him down the order. When the Pirates are moving guys down the order, it’s time to abandon ship.
Hiroki Kuroda – Regarding his concussion, he said through a translator, “The first two days I had a hard time sleeping and I even had a dream about getting hit.” The translator was Nicole Kidman. Weird!
Travis Hafner – At this point, the only advantage to owning Hafner would be to use his head to crack open walnuts.
