We’ve played roughly a quarter of the season so far, and I can’t remember a season where rookie pitcher bids are through the roof and treated as the most valuable commodity in the waiver wire pool. A league-mate of mine astutely remarked: “A pitcher’s repertoire is like a car, once it goes around the block a couple times, it starts depreciating in value.” Looking at the big bids for Taj Bradley, Bryce Miller, Mason Miller, Taylor Bibee, Logan Allen, Eury Perez, Brandon Pfaadt, JP France, it seems like much of the fantasy community agrees with this sentiment. Lucky for us, middle infielders are not as volatile, and for the most part, we know what we’re getting ourselves into with our middle infielders, with the typical variance in either direction. Let’s take a look at some middle infielders around the league:
Casey Schmitt – Giants: Promoted to the big league club and has had a blistering start to his MLB career, batting 5/2/5/.550 in his first 20 at-bats, primarily playing shortstop. Schmitt has the positional versatility to also play third and second. Schmitt had a remarkable collegiate/minor league career as a two-way player and showed more power as he advanced levels toward the big leagues. Casey possesses great zone-contact numbers but the only knock on him is that he seems to be a bit of a free-swinger and can expand the zone at times. Still, Casey’s a great deep-league add and should be a solid four-category contributor.
Max Muncy – Dodgers: Has been as expected: high power, OBP, counting stats, low batting average.
Luis Arraez – Marlins: Batting an ordinary .261 over the past two weeks to bring his average down to .379. Slacker!
Gunnar Henderson – Orioles: Struggling this campaign is an understatement (.175 average) and is useless against lefties. However, he’s showing extreme patience, to the point of being too passive (.341 OBP) and when he’s hitting the ball, he’s still hitting the ball fairly hard. At this point you have to hold him on your bench. The Orioles will keep running him out there, but middle infielders Jordan Westburg and Connor Norby loom in the wings. Ramon Urias’ injury buys Henderson some more time to figure things out.
Marcus Semien – Rangers: Setting the table for a Rangers team scoring a ton of runs before the weather really heats up in Texas, filling up the stat sheet with a 32/7/33/.288/.376/7 line halfway through May, a drastic turnaround from last year’s first half.
Jonathan India – Reds: The real-life Reds aren’t good but that’s not because of India – with India’s 30/3/17/.301/.391/8 line. If you put last year’s burn out of your head, he’s been a great bounce-back and is on pace to be an NL Comeback Player of the Year contender.
Jose Altuve – Astros: On track to return to the Astros next week as he returns from his thumb injury. Altuve and Harper are fast healers! Altuve will likely never produce like the late first/early second round pick he once was, but chances are you need a boost at second base. Altuve should start slow but should hit his stride around the All-Star break. Mauricio Dubon has played decently in Altuve’s absence.
Ji Hwan Bae/Rodolfo Castro – Pirates: Have cooled off as the Pirates have come back to Earth. Still, I’d hold Bae if you needed some speed.
Christopher Morel – Cubs: Morel’s been hitting well in the Minors and Nico Hoerner’s injury has opened the door for Morel’s opportunity with the Cubs. A toolsy player, he’ll flirt with a 20HR/15SB pace, and an average over .230 is gravy. The Boss told you to BUY.
Anthony Volpe: Yankees: His .210 average and .298 OBP won’t wow you, but the Yankees have batted him leadoff at times. He’s shown some pop and speed (6 homers, 13 stolen bases) and has had some highlights under the microscope that is New York baseball. Volpe likely won’t win Rookie of the Year, but like Gunnar Henderson, Volpe should figure things out in time.
Jake Cronenworth – Padres: He’s played as expected, accruing counting stats with a decent OBP, but still struggling with the batting average and fastballs (-3 run value) against the heat. Cronenworth at 29 years old seems to be what he is at this point, better in real-life and better in deeper leagues.
Andres Gimenez – Guardians: One of the bigger middle infield disappointments, a 22/3/9/.231/.299/6 line with a cold Savant page, especially taking into consideration his breakout season last year. The underlying numbers don’t look good but he’s better than this. The Guardians overall have been lacking in power and are counting on Gimenez to be a catalyst to turn their season around.
Have a great week.
