Almost 10 years before The Fast and the Furious, many of my friends were into street racing. They’d form crews and fix up their cars to race at Battle of the Imports or on the street for cash or pink slips. I remember one crew was called the Decepticons and had the logo plastered all over their cars. Some looked so tight. I’ll never forget one guy, though. He’d spend a ton of money on the exterior: rims, lights, body kit. He even decked out the interior with a roll cage, racing seats, pedals, instrument gauges, etc. His ride looked so, so nice. The only problem was that he spent no money on the engine. ALL SHOW NO GO. Which segues perfectly to Carlos Gonzalez (70% owned – decrease of 6.1%). CarGo sucks. One of Grey’s favorite movie lines is: See that S Car Go from Trading Places. One of my all-time favorite movies by the way. Anyways, this CarGo ain’t going anywhere. He hit 40 home runs two years ago. Last year, he hit 25 home runs. This year? He’s hit six. SIX! The ISO is at .116. The triple-slash line is .218/.296/.335. wRC+ is 47. His ground ball rate is at a career-high, hard contact rate is at a career-low, and he’s going oppo at a career-low rate. Steamer has rest of season projections at .277 average, 12 home runs, 33 runs scored, 38 RBI, and one stolen base. I’m just not buying it. He’s 31 years old. Side rant. Why didn’t the Rockies trade him last year? Anyways, other than the fact that he sucks, is he even going to play everyday? Charlie Blackmon is entrenched in centerfield. You guys know my love for Gerardo Parra. I guess he platoons with Ian Desmond. But….what happens when David Dahl returns? TRASH.
Tommy Pham (49% owned – increase of 21.1%)
Pham has seen the greatest increase in ownership over the past week. We already went over him a few weeks ago here. I’m glad he’s at the top of the list because it gives me another excuse to post one of my favorite clips.
Michael Pineda (37.6% owned – decrease of 45.3%)
Season-ending Tommy John surgery. Uh, to the 37.6% of you, season-ending means that he won’t be playing this year. Another way of interpreting that ownership percentage is, as of July 19th, 2017, 37.6% of teams have thrown in the towel. Good times.
Paul DeJong (44.4% owned – increase of 18.7%)
I went over DeJong here last week. I shall employ the Martingale betting system and double down. What could go wrong? Don’t answer that. There are two instances in my past that always provide perspective for me. Both were when I worked on trading floors. The first was when a trader came into work every morning and would add to his short position in an internet stock. All the research he did led him to one conclusion. That the stock was shit. The second instance was a trader shorting all the housing stocks during the boom. He also did all his research and all the numbers led him to one conclusion. That the stocks were shit. In the end, they both got carried out. Sometimes, irrational exuberance elevates things for prolonged periods of time. Eventually, though, things return to normalcy, except for CarGo. Timing always plays a part in things, but the ability to withstand the irrational factors is huge. Also, always having a worst-case scenario plan is necessary. The good thing for me is that I won’t get carried out monetarily by betting against DeJong. Whew. The wife and kids wouldn’t be too happy if I lost everything. Especially due to a guy named DeJong. Anyways, the BABIP is .366. He’s striking out 30.5% of the time while walking only 2.6%. The swinging strike rate is 15.5% and he chases 37.3% of pitches outside the zone. The contact rates are in the 70% range. Could DeJong continue to ball? Sure. Am I fading him? Most certainly, although I do understand that I could take a lot of pain in the process. TRASH.
