The Moment of Zen:
Recently, I had the opportunity to guide a simple group meditation. When given that chance, I like to have the group focus on just being as aware as possible of all of the little sounds that are around us – those background noises that we mostly just tune out. So I asked the group at different times to listen for the breathing of the person next to them, the sound of the air conditioner running in the background, the sound of traffic outside.
All of those requests seemed to be received well enough, but it was when I asked them to hear the silence in the corner of the room where a couple of folks in the group struggled. That’s actually my favorite part of the meditation – the act of trying to hear the emptiness in the corner, the lack of sound waves bouncing around. The feeling in the ear at those times is different, like something is missing. But for me, it’s a freeing feeling. Just trying to hear what isn’t there at the moment.
Part of the Zen approach is being present in the moment. Not obsessing over what has happened in the past, whether good or bad. Not creating expectations of what might happen in the future, which we especially are good at when it comes to creating potential obstacles for situations that haven’t even happened yet. We don’t actually know what might happen, yet we seem quite certain of the potential catastrophe headed our way as we plan and worry.
Quieting the noise of what is around us so that we can focus in on what we want to appreciate is a difficult skill to learn, but it is a skill that in fact can be learned. And when we learn how to do it, we might even find that we can better notice what isn’t there at the moment – like the lack of sound around us, or even the lack of catastrophe that we dreamed up along the way. But the key is this: we will notice. Instead of ignoring. That skill translates to all aspects of life.
How in the world does this apply to fantasy baseball?
With the length of a baseball season, there are tons of highs and lows for virtually any player. For players we trust, we tend to overlook the low points because we feel sure that these guys will bounce back sooner rather than later. If you’re like me, you barely pay attention to the day-to-day streaks of your stalwart players – you know that, in the end, they’ll produce. And when we look at the season-long stat lines for those guys, the numbers more often than not look pretty much like what we expected they would look.
For more borderline players, however, if you’re anything like me, you probably watch those guys closely. When they are on hot streaks, you love them. And when they go through slumps, it feels like they are single-handedly destroying your team. Feeling the feels is probably fine, but if you’re like me, you probably tend to react, not just feel. If a borderline player is slumping, at the very least, he’s going to be benched. Quite possibly, he’s going to end up on waivers – our faith in those guys is only so big, and our patience with them is often virtually non-existent.
But what happens when the guys bounce back? Because skilled players, even if they’re not star-level players, almost always bounce back. For those of us who lose faith in borderline players, it’s easy to cut them and never look back. But there are plenty of times when, if we could take a moment to parse through the various “noise” of the long season, we might find that those borderline players who so upset us might be producing very strong numbers. Unfortunately, we don’t notice because we’ve cut them and moved on.
Here are two players that I recently woke up to: Their starts weren’t what I wanted, but right now, these guys are valuable for just about any league size.
Bryce Eldridge, 1B, SFG
The biggest reason for giving up on Bryce Eldridge early in the season was simply the fact that he was in the minors. Though he clearly was one of the, if not the, top prospects in the Giants’ organization, San Francisco found themselves fairly well-stocked at 1B and DH coming into the season. And, oh yeah, service time manipulation is a thing that exists in major league baseball. So, Eldridge sat at AAA for all of March / April while the Giants got off to an unimpressive 13-18 start in which they played poorly in all facets of the game.
Finally, at the beginning of May, Eldridge made his way up to a crowded 1B / DH situation and was given the strong side of a platoon. As a result, he proceeded to get only 67 plate appearances for the month and didn’t do a ton with those PAs, hitting just .241 with 2 HR and 4 RBI. Lost in the slow start, Eldridge also hit 6 doubles, allowing him to finish the month with a .448 SLG% and a .777 OPS (though he gained 155 OPS points on the very last day of May). If you were watching his performance for most of May, he was an easy drop.
If you never looked back, however, you’ve lost out on a heck of a player because, almost immediately after the end of May, Eldridge became more of an everyday player. And he started producing. How do these numbers since June 1st sound? In 336 PAs, he’s hit .266 with 13 HR, 14 doubles, 37 R, and 41 RBI. Extrapolated to season-long numbers, his pace since June 1st would put him on a trajectory for 25 HR, 27 doubles, 72 R, and 79 RBI. Those numbers are solid, but when you add his ability to get on base, the numbers start looking downright good. Since June 1st, Eldridge has 46 BB, allowing him to put together a .366 OBP, a 13.7% BB%, and a 27.1% K-rate that is high but not overwhelming. Oh yeah, his HH% is 51.6%, which I hear might be good.
Not only is Eldridge coming into his power stroke, but he knows how to control the strike zone. He’s an absolute no-brainer to be playing in points leagues, and there’s plenty of value to be had in roto. Yet despite the high stakes players noticing (he’s at 100% rostership in NFBC, 80% rostership in Fantrax), his rostership percentage in leagues like ESPN (11%) and Yahoo (21%) is surprisingly low. Time to go get him.
Nico Hoerner, 2B/SS, CHC
Another player who has woken up is Nico Hoerner. Heading into the All-Star Break, his season was at its low point: he had a .233 BA with 4 HR, 37 R, 38 RBI, and 14 SB in 420 PAs. For the most part, the R, RBI, and SB numbers weren’t killing you (a season-long pace of 57 R, 59 RBI, and 22 SB – so except for the SB line, they weren’t helping you for sure), but the BA was 60-70 points below normal Hoerner territory. And based on the eye test, he looked terrible (despite contributing 23 doubles).
After the ASB, he has been a different player – starting immediately. He came out of the break on a 5-game hit streak, going 11 of 23 in those games. And that was that. He’s basically been good ever since. Starting with the July 17th game, Hoerner has put together 192 PA in which he has hit .335 with 4 HR, 19 R, 26 RBI, and 8 SB (getting his season-long paces up to 64 R, 88 RBI, and 27 SB). Interestingly, Hoerner has cut way down on walks (down nearly 6% since his pace at the ASB) and has started striking out more often (up 3% from ASB pace), suggesting he’s decided to be more aggressive at the plate. It’s working.
If Hoerner is off your radar, you might be missing out on a helpful MI contributor, especially in deep leagues.
When we force ourselves to quiet the noise around us, we can notice what previously may have been standing right in front of us. In life, this can do wonders for us. In fantasy baseball, it may help us find those players to give our teams the final boost in the season’s closing weeks. Good luck.
Until next week. –ADHamley
Thanks again for another great column!!