The Three Stooges are awesome. Unquestionably one of the greatest comedic acts of all time. If you’ve seen the Sean Hayes/Will Sasso Stooges film from a few years ago, well, I’m sorry about that. Hollywood has a special knack for ruining things these days, doesn’t it? Go check out Disorder in the Court, A Plumbing We Will Go, Brideless Groom, or any of the many other classic short films from this talented trio to get that sour taste out of your mouth. One of their early shorts, Whoops, I’m an Indian!, tends to get lost in the shuffle. The Stooges are caught cheating while gambling and are forced to run from the angry victims. Curly ends up marrying one of the pursuers when dressed as an Indian squaw (because his disguise is sooo convincing) and all is well until his wig slips off and the jig is up. It’s probably not their best work, but it never seems to be mentioned much anymore. A bit of an underrated gem, in my opinion. This week’s top add, Cleveland Indians third baseman/outfielder Jose Ramirez (51.4% owned; +25.8% over the past week), is another diamond in the rough much like that Stooges short. He’s gotten off to an impressive start this season (.305/.381/.447 with 22 runs, 3 homers, 19 RBI, and 4 steals in 161 plate appearances) thanks in large part to his incredible plate discipline. Ramirez has been excellent at pitch recognition (22.2% O-Swing% is 26th lowest among qualified players), and when he does swing at pitches outside of the strike zone, he makes contact at an elite rate (86.1% O-Contact% leads MLB). This has allowed him to strikeout at the third lowest rate (9.3%) among 181 qualifiers, and be one of only eight players with more walks than strikeouts (Zobrist, Span, Harper, Rizzo, Santana, Altuve, and Bautista are the others). Ramirez possesses 25 steal speed (though 15-18 is more realistic), and appears to have a shot to crack double digits in homers this season as well. He’s been moved up to the 5th spot in the lineup recently, and should qualify at 2B and SS in addition to the 3B/OF eligibility that was mentioned earlier. Terrific plate discipline, plus speed, developing power (23 years old), and eligible just about everywhere. Giddy up. Grab him if he’s still lingering on the wire.
Here are a couple of other interesting adds in fantasy baseball over the past week:
Michael Fulmer: 16.2% owned; +9.6%
Fulmer was the main piece that the Tigers acquired from the Mets in the Cespedes deal last season, and he’s showing why Detroit insisted on him being included as part of that package. Fulmer’s mid-90s fastball (94.6 mph avg FBv) and wipeout slider (.234 OPS against) have resulted in over a strikeout-per-inning (9.53 K/9) for the 23 year old righty. In addition to the swings and misses (10.7 SwStr%), Fulmer’s been able to keep the ball on the ground as well, as his 51.0% GB% can attest. In fact, he’s one of only ten starting pitchers (min. 30 IP) who has managed a 50% GB% combined with a 10% SwStr% this season: Kershaw, Syndergaard, Nola, Arrieta, Salazar, Kluber, Tanaka, Hamels, and Liriano are the others. Pretty good company. Fulmer is likely to only have about 100 or so innings left on his arm this season, so be aware of a potential missed start or two later this year, but there’s lots of upside here. TREASURE.
Nick Tropeano: 21.3% owned; +13.2%
Since I’m looking to highlight the players who are available in at least half of all ESPN leagues and the players under that threshold on the most dropped list this week are either injured or shouldn’t be owned in shallow leagues, Tropeano completes the clean sweep on the added side. Why is he in such demand recently? The Ks, of course. Tropeano struck out just over a batter per inning last season (9.08 K/9) and is just under that mark this year (8.78 K/9). His current 3.25 ERA will play just fine in any format as well. On the flip side, his lack of control (4.55 BB/9) and flyball tendencies (46.5%) mean lots of baserunners (1.55 WHIP) and a healthy amount of homers allowed. His 4.61 FIP and 4.83 xFIP reflect these concerns as well as the fact that his healthy strand rate (88.4% LOB%) is likely to come crashing down in the near future. Use as a matchup play only. TRASH.
