You know who I’d really love to punch in the face? Justin Upton. When did he become B.J. Upton. I’m sorry, I mean the artist formerly known as B.J. Upton. Justin has more strikeouts than Chris Davis, George Springer and Miguel Sano. Heck, the only hitter with more strikeouts is Trevor Story. At least Story has 8 home runs. Upton has only one! Even Melvin has more homers. Seriously, WTF! Eight points? J-Up. More like J-Down.
And how about Prince. Mr. Fielder has just 23 points! I know it’s early, but that puts him safely outside the top 100 hitters. Can you believe that those 23 points are four more than Joey Votto’s total. Seriously, I’d like to take Upton, Votto and Fielder, put them in a little red Corvette and drive it off a cliff. As bad as these three have been it’s Khris Davis that takes the cake. Through 13 games and 49 plate appearances this pile of dung has amassed negative four points. That’s correct, you read that right. He has less than zero points on the season. Pathetic does not even come close to describing this sh*t show.
With all of this in mind it begs the question as to whether these players are good buy-low candidates. And if not, who is? The answer is yes for all of them, however I’m not having any part of Khris Davis in any points league. We’ve all heard of the regression fairies. Yes, they are a real thing. But they work in both ways. I call them bi-regression fairies, and they can use any bathroom they identify with. Over time, a player’s stats will gravitate towards the mean. Do you really think Mike Trout is going to end the season with 11 home runs and 242 points? I don’t think so. However, you’re never ever going to be able to buy low on Trout. It just doesn’t work like that. This is what happens when doves cry.
You will have much easier time buying low on Upton and Fielder. Here are some more players that are playing well below their abilities and I expect to rebound and start to put up their appropriate dosage of fantasy points.
Freddie Freeman – I considered included Freddie in my opening rant about players that I am extremely frustrated with, but he just missed the cut. Freeman has one homer, 4 runs batted in and 15 strikeouts. That comes to 18 points. The way I see it he’s playing at about half his abilities right now and I want to own him when he plays at twice his abilities to even the score.
Miguel Cabrera – Miggy is one of the best players in baseball regardless of what his current stats look like. He’s got one home run. He hasn’t hit less than 25 in full season in his career.
Maikel Franco – His track record is far from established, but I am certain he is a more productive hitter than we are currently seeing.
Erick Aybar – On his career Aybar has scored 0.50 points per plate appearance. I projected him to score 0.51 this season. He currently has a PPPA of 0.11. That number is going to come up.
Edwin Encarnacion – He’s better than this.
Here are some other players that I expect to eventually player better. Carlos Gomez, C.J. Cron, Alex Gordon, Troy Tulowitzki, Jason Heyward, Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Abreu, Albert Pujols, Kevin Pillar, Andrew McCutchen and Hanley Ramirez.
Now how about some players who’s stock is not likely to get any higher than its current value. Mark Trumbo, Dexter Fowler, Trevor Story, Ian Kinsler, Jay Bruce, Angel Pagan , Kolten Wong and Colby Rasmus.
Last week I said I would focus a bit more on pitchers in the coming weeks. I reiterate that statement. There really isn’t enough to give a fair evaluation. But if I don’t write something I run the risk of alienating at least three of my seven readers. So here goes it. If I had to rank them based solely on their brief 2016 MLB performances, here are my top ten pitchers in order.
Jake Arrieta
Chris Sale
Clayton Kershaw
Noah Syndergaard
Stephen Strasburg
Mat Latos
Vincent Velasquez
Rick Porcello
Jordan Zimmerman
Johnny Cueto/Carlos Martinez
I actually expect the pitchers in the top five here to remain in the top ten. The other five would surprise me if they were still here in two weeks.
Are you ready to party like it’s 1999? If so, can you tell me which batter led the league in fantasy points? That would be Jeff Bagwell, who scored 653 points based on standard points systems. After Bags it was Chipper Jones (641), Rafael Palmeiro (629), Mark McGwire (622), Manny Ramirez (618) and Ken Griffey Jr. (613). As for pitchers, it was Randy Johnson with 856 points leading the way ahead of Pedro Martinez (792) and Kevin Brown (662). However it was Pedro that had the edge in points per start with 27.3 as compared to Johnson’s 24.4
First Bowie, then Glen Frey and now Prince. Who’s next in the music world. Any chance it could be Kanye. Just wondering. I was never a huge fan, but certainly listened to some of his music. RIP Prince. For those interested in a little bit of useless trivia, Prince Fielder was indeed named after the late musician.
Please note that stats used for this post were taken as of Thursday morning. However I did update my top ten pitchers after Arrieta’s no hitter.
