All-Star Break Decisions – NL Hitters

It’s the All-Star break, and its about that time that you realize if your fantasy team is a winner, a loser, or a contender.  This is your time to make a move.  Whether it be for the future in a keeper or franchise league.   Or for the now if you are going for that coveted championship.  This three day baseball break could be the time to evaluate your team’s season.

To help you out I am going to discuss some players that are either hot, not or just having odd seasons, and what I think you should do going forward.

Milton Bradley has been a mess since coming to Chicago.  He has been booed, he has been ejected, he has been hurt, he has done cartwheels.

He has done just about everything, except hit.  He has 6 HR’s, a .243 avg and only 21 RBI’s.  This was not expected from the man who led the AL in OPS last year and entering the NL’s highest scoring team from 2008.  The OBP is still there at .379, but nothing else seems to be.  Milton says “He’s back”, and hopefully he is.  He has been better of late, but still needs days off.

I would try to move Milton.  To me he doesn’t play enough to be a fantasy guy.  He is always hurt, and needs lots of days off.  Plus he hasn’t had a big injury yet.

Jimmy Rollins is an odd one.  Just two years removed from winning the MVP, is looking more like a journey man SS than an MVP caliber player.  His speed seems to be down.  His SB% is way down from last year, he only has one triple on the year compared to 9 all of last year.  He is hitting more HR’s than last year, but still no where near where he was in 2006-2007.  His BABIP is a bit low, but that could be in part because of the loss of speed.

If it were me I would be looking to shop Rollins for a better SS, or at least one having a better year.

David Wright is having some year.  Only 5 HR’s thus far for a guy with 4 straight years of 26 or more is never good for your fantasy team.  Wright does go into the break with a .324 avg, so he isn’t killing your fantasy team.  The main question is though will the power come around?  He has one HR since June 10, and even his avg is way down sitting at only .285 during that time frame.

David Wright is way too young to be “done”.  Nothing is going right for the Met’s right now.  He is sitting at a .430 BABIP which is artificially inflating his .avg and that’s going to regress.  The last person to have a season of over 300 AB’s with a .400 plus BABIP was Jose Hernandez back in 2002 and he had a .405.

If you are in a keeper league I would hold onto Wright unless you get a massive offer.  If you are in a regular league I would move him for someone who will give you production now.  Wright’s power might come back in the second half, but nothing thus far is pointing to it being a good year for Wright.

Alfonso Soriano does not like to hit anything but a FB.  As a Cub fan I know this first hand.  Its horrible to watch him.  How it took MLB this long to catch up to Soriano I will never know, but they finally have.  For his career Soriano only has positive production against fastball’s, and cutter’s.  For sliders and curve balls he has been bad, especially with the slider.  Finally though pitchers are picking up on this.  Soriano is one of only two full time players who are seeing less than 50% fastball’s (the other is Ryan Howard).  Soriano has now gone from being one of the better bats in baseball, to being actually below average.  All because he isn’t getting as many fastballs.

I would look to move Soriano.  If this keeps up, he won’t be worth hardly anything.  Unless Soriano fixes something or learns how to hit a slider his days as a superstar could be numbered.

Chris Young likes to swing the bat real hard.  He likes to hit home runs, and has amassed quite a few over the past two years, but this year the power numbers are down… way down.  When I think Chris Young, I think of Corey Patterson.  Yes Chris does know what a ball looks like but outside of that they seem to be very similar.  Swing for the fences, play solid D, strike out a ton.  If Young is the C-Patt version 2.0 it might be time to move him.  Young like Soriano cannot hit a slider, and this year cannot hit a fastball either.

I have never been a fan of Young.  I always felt he was just waiting for the league to figure him out.  Maybe they have.  He will never hit for a high average, and doesn’t run a lot either.  I would get what you can for him and move on.

Russell Martin used to hit extra base hits.  Now it seems as though he is comfortable just staying at first.  Russell only has 12 extra base hits on the season.  His IsoP is sitting at a .057, which means that Juan Pierre is hitting for more power than Martin.  At least he is getting on base, he isn’t killing you in the K department, and still taking plenty of walks, so the eye is still there.  I don’t know about that power though.

Both of Martin’s home runs have come in the last month, but even so he only has one double since the beginning of June.  I would hold onto Martin just because you will be selling low.  You might try to buy low on him as well, but it would be a risk.  His power has gone down the last three years, but it has never been at Juan Pierre like levels.  I wouldn’t consider him an elite catcher anymore, but I also wouldn’t call him a bust just yet.  Be patient, but be cautious.  I would pick up another catcher if I were you.