Let me assure those of you who came here to read a fantasy baseball article that you’re in the right place. While the title might conjure up images of Brock Lesnar’s new submission hold (“He has the Brock Lock applied – it’s all over!”) or the latest late night item on your local home shopping network (“Get the Brock Lock for just $19.95”), it actually refers to this week’s waiver wire darling, the Boston Red Sox newly anointed starting left fielder Brock Holt (72.1% owned; +57.3% over the past week). Holt has truly been locked in during the first week of the season, producing a .412/.444/.882 triple slash line including 2 home runs and 8 RBI across his first 18 plate appearances. So the Brock Lock doesn’t refer to a submission hold or a crappy “as seen on tv” gimmick, but a hot schmotato! The good news is that Holt is 2B/3B/OF eligible in most formats, and might even have SS eligibility in a few. He has no split issues to worry about, and actually has a higher career OPS against left-handed pitching (.753) than right-handed pitching (.700). His solid plate discipline has led to solid batting averages of .281 and .280 in the previous two seasons. The bad news is that while he has enough speed to steal a base (21 steals in 289 career games), he’s unlikely to swipe more than a dozen or so bags across a full season. Those two homers that he hit last week represent a quarter of his career total in MLB. I’d be willing to bet that his current 100% HR/FB will come down a smidge, and that homers will be a bit tougher to come by in the future if his 15.4% FB% doesn’t rise significantly. Expect a .280ish average with 6-8 homers and 10-12 steals from Holt if he reaches 500 PA. Definitely useful, particularly considering his positional versatility, but far from indispensable.
Here are a couple of other interesting adds/drops in fantasy baseball over the past week:
Jeremy Hellickson – 20.0% owned, +17.0%
“Jeremy Hellickson? I thought you were going to talk about some interesting adds and drops.” Hey, quiet in the peanut gallery! Hellickson might not be the sexiest option out there, but it wasn’t too long ago that he was considered to be a rising star. During his 2010-2012 seasons with the Rays, he posted the 17th lowest WHIP (1.17) and the 13th lowest ERA (2.96) among 127 qualified MLB starting pitchers. A down year and a couple of injury-shortened seasons later have made the 29 year old Phillie a fantasy afterthought. Two strong starts to open this season (11.2 IP, 11/1 K/BB, 1.54 ERA, .60 WHIP) have piqued the interest of a few owners though. While he misses more bats than you might think (11.2% SwStr% in 2016; 10.0% and 10.3% in 2014 and 2015, respectively), his K-rate usually hovers around the league average and his fly ball tendencies (50.0% FB% in 2016; 40.6% in his career) are likely to come back and bite him in the bandbox known as Citizens Bank Park. He’s worth a look in NL Only and deep mixed league formats, but he’s best left on the wire in standard 12 teamers. TRASH.
Pedro Alvarez – 44.7% owned, -13.1%
Alvarez is a donkey. Plain and simple. But in fantasy baseball, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Over the last four seasons (2012-2015), he’s hit 111 home runs, good for 11th most in MLB. In fact, Alvarez has hit at least 27 homers in 3 out of the last 4 seasons, which is something that only nine other players have accomplished over that span. This offseason, he left Pittsburgh’s PNC Park for the cozy confines of Camden Yards in Baltimore. Over the last three seasons, PNC Park finished 20th in park factor for LHB home runs, while Camden Yards was 1st in that category. Thinking about dropping him because he had a poor first week of the season? Stop it. Stop it right now. If he’s on the wire, grab him and enjoy the free 30 bombs. TREASURE.
