Avisail Garcia – Sell, sell, and sell. I’m sure it’s been used before, but for the purposes of this post his name should be Avisell Garcia. Even if we buy into to his breakout, he’s producing at a level too high to sustain. He’s so high he’s in Tim Lincecum territory. Last year he had a points per plate appearance of 0.428 and over the last three seasons it’s 0.422. This year, however, it’s 0.78. That’s a significant jump. Last year Mike Trout finished the season with a 0.797. Do you really believe that Garcia can put up Trout-like numbers over the course of a full season? Like I said, Avi-SELL.
Speaking of Mike Trout, let’s take a look at his current production. As I just mentioned, he had a 0.797 PPPA last year. Over the last three years it’s been 0.737. This year he’s making last year’s Mike Trout look like this year’s Corey Dickerson. His current PPPA is 1.028. He leads all hitters in points and is doing his best to earn his first points league title. In all of his years in baseball he has yet to lead the league in points.
Corey Dickerson – I’m buying into his production increase. I realize I should probably write more on this, but there isn’t much more to say than I anticipate his PPPA to relatively stay the course. I think you’re going to find him on a lot of first place rosters come season’s end.
If you can somehow buy Manny Machado for 90 cents on the dollar, do it. In fact, take him at any discount you can get. He’s underperforming right now and that’s not going to continue all season.
Giancarlo Stanton is exactly who he is. And that’s not a stud in points leagues. He just a big dude that can hit the ball a mile when he gets a hold of one, but is really only going to earn you about 0.630 points per plate appearance. Last year both Melky Cabrera and Trevor Story finished with a 0.63 PPPA. Besides, Aaron Judge is the new Giancarlo Stanton. That sounds like a Netflix show! How great would it be if they had a show about Aaron Judge and made Stanton play Judge! Meanwhile Judge had run Stanton out of town.
I think I’m buying low on Xander Bogaerts. Somehow he has a 0.822 OPS yet he doesn’t have a single home run. He’s going to hit at least ten home runs this season.
I’m taking both Francisco Lindor and Corey Seager over Carlos Correa. And I’m doing it for the next three years. We’ll re-evaluate the situation then.
I wish Aaron Hicks was an every day starter. When he plays, I want him in my lineup. He currently has a 0.873 PPPA. So does Judge, Michael Conforto and Paul Goldschmidt.
The window, if there even was one, to buy low on Edwin Encarnacion is closing quickly. He now has four home runs in his last seven games.
Here are two more buy low candidates. Jackie Bradley Jr. and Odubel Herrera. Or you could just grab Odubel Bradley Jr and confuse the sh!t out of your league mates.
Follow malamoney on Twitter at @malamoney.
