Baseball season eh? Are they going to play any? Am I right? It’s not all bad, they still have to make up the games so it should lead to more full slates and double headers. Hopefully more full slates, I’m not a big fan of the double header. Who likes to see 1-8 with a run scored next to a player for the day? Life is full of disappointments elsewhere, leave baseball alone. Like we did in the first two weeks, we are going to look at the player rater and find some gold that your league mates might be under appreciating more than you under appreciate prestige television like The Americans.
Outfield
Corey Dickerson – Dickerson be hittin’. His current average sits at .358 and he is already in double digits in both runs and RBIs. The Pirates are scoring some runs, I guess the joke was on us when we laughed at the Pirates’ front office when they said that they weren’t tanking. It’s very early, but they remind me of the Milwaukee Brewers from last year but with a better rotation. Dickerson currently sits at #23 on the player rater.
Mitch Haniger – A week or so ago, I tweeted that Haniger is a cheat code for the month of April. This is one of my few tweets that holds any relevance more than an hour later. Just when it looks like Haniger may be cooling off, he hits two home runs and has 7 rbis over the weekend. The key for Haniger will be staying healthy and continuing to get at bats. Wait doesn’t everybody have to do that? Yes, but Haniger hasn’t yet. Quit interrupting. Haniger is currently just outside of the top 30 on the player rater.
Jose Pirela – Jose Pirela was a deep league sleeper for some of my analyst pals. They have hit the nail on the head so far with this guy. Pirela has 3 multi hit games in his last 5 and is already in double digits in both runs and rbis after collecting 3 of each on Sunday. If Pirela continues to hit in the lead off spot like he did the last two games, he could pay dividends for owners. Jose is only owned in 27% of leagues and sits at 32 on the player rater. Be sure to check your shallow-medium sized leagues, he might be there.
Second Base/Shortstop
Javier Baez – Javier may always be a streaky player. But so far this season, he has increased his walk rate which makes his poor average this season more digestible. He has great weeks where he swats four home runs and has timely base-clearing doubles. Speaking of his average, it should go up to his normal .270 range by seasons’ end. His power surge this past week makes me think that the 23 home runs that he hit last year could just be the beginning of what he is capable of. Throw in the double digit steals that he has piled up in consecutive seasons and you’ve got yourself a nice asset. Baez shot up to 34 on the player rater coming into Monday. After a miserable first week and a half, an ascent that far up the ladder is a good thing to see.
Utility
Hanley Ramirez – I’m usually pretty good at scooping up some value that other league mates don’t want at the end of drafts, but I missed out on Hanley everywhere and it’s weighing on me. Hanley should stay healthy as long as he quits getting hit in the wrist with pitches. He says that his shoulder feels much better than last season and he’s determined to steal more bases than someone his age should be allowed to. Boston will score a lot of runs and Hanley will be a main culprit. Ramirez is at #5 on the player rater so far.
Catcher
Yadier Molina – The top catcher on the player rater has already hit more home runs this year (5) than he did in all of 2015 in 530 plate appearances. He’s also just 3 shy of his 2016 total. Molina never has a problem hitting for average. If he can keep up great run production and have his first 20 HR season since 2012, he could very well end up being one of the steals of the draft season.
