Who’s Hot and Who’s Not – 05/26/15 Edition

Kicking off a new feature here at Your Fantasy Lifeline.  I will be looking at the hottest players in fantasy baseball and maybe uncover for you a few gems that you can pick up on your waiver wire.  As for Who’s Not, maybe you see somebody that you can buy in on at the bargain basement price or maybe you read this and decide maybe it’s time to throw back one of the guys you took a chance on that just isn’t getting it done right now.  However, keep them on your watch list if you do because you took a chance on that player for a reason and you never know when they might find their way from the Not column to the Hot column.

Who’s Hot

#1 – Pedro Alvarez – 1B, 3B – Pirates – Everybody knows about Pedro Alvarez’s power.  However, everybody also knows about his low batting average tendencies.  As a result, he is owned in only 61% of Yahoo leagues.  However, he has hit safely in 5 of the Pirates last 6 games with 3 HR and 6 RBI.  He also has 3 multi-hit games during that span and has an attractive .368 Batting Average in the past week.  That average is something he’s obviously proven that he’s not gonna maintain, but he’s a guy you can ride while he’s hot.

#2 – Nori Aoki – OF – Giants – At the start of the season, lots of experts thought Aoki would be struggling to get playing time in a crowded Giants OF.  However, as we close in on the end of May, he has made his way to the top of the Giants depth chart in LF and he’s coming off a 4-hit game yesterday against his former team, the Brewers, including a Home Run, 2 RBI, 2 Runs scored and a Stolen Base.  That’s what we call filling up the stat sheet.  Aoki is only owned in 41% of yahoo leagues and batted .455 this past week.  He’s also up to 11 Stolen Bases on the year and this time of year a lot of people start to realize that they need to find more Steals from somewhere to compete in their fantasy leagues.

#3 – Nick Hundley – C – Rockies – Having supplanted Wilin Rosario as the Rockies everyday catcher, Hundley now gets to enjoy a starting spot on a team that plays half their games in Coors Field.  If you are lacking a catcher or a backup catcher, Hundley would make an excellent pick-up for your squad.  He’s only owned in 29% of yahoo leagues.  He’s batting .308 for the season with 4 HR and 15 RBI.  What other catchers have put up better numbers than that to start the season?  There aren’t many that you can point to and those that you can like Buster Posey or Stephen Vogt are undoubtedly not available on your waiver wire.  Hundley probably is.  Pick him up if you need a Catcher.

Who’s Not

#1 – Jose Bautista – OF, 1B – Blue Jays – Under no circumstances should you be dropping Jose Bautista.  Let’s clarify that right now.  However, he is 1-for-15 in his last 5 games and has sat out the last two games after receiving a cortisone injection for his sore shoulder.  Shoulder soreness in his throwing arm has relegated him to DH-ing only and he’s been too sore of late to even do that.  If you have a viable alternative, you should strongly consider sitting him on the bench until he’s feeling better.  He can break lose at any time, so for me personally, I’m probably going to have him in my starting lineup on the leagues where I have him as long as he’s playing, but his .215 batting average for the season has been hard to take.  I’m guessing some of his owners might be getting sick of it and you can maybe convince them to take a trade and get Bautista on your squad for a bargain.

#2) – Robinson Cano – 2B – Mariners – Again, under no circumstances am I advocating dropping a proven fantasy baseball commodity like Robinson Cano, but 7 weeks into the season and he has only produced one Home Run and a .253 Batting Average on the season.  And for the last two weeks, that average has been down at the .208 mark and he hasn’t homered since April 14.  A large part of Cano’s value comes from being among the top two or three performers at his position for most of the past decade.  However, he is only the 38th ranked 2nd Base eligible player on yahoo thus far this season.

#3) – Stephen Strasburg – SP – Nationals – Strasburg has been a phenom since making his MLB debut back in 2010.  However, thus far in 2015, his ERA of 6.50 on the season is more than double that of his career ERA (Earned Run Average) mark with an ugly 1.69 WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched) to go along with it.  Again, do not drop Strasburg from your roster.  But also, weigh your options and consider not starting him every time he takes the mound until he turns things around.  We should all be confident that he will turn things around this year, but if you can sit him out, maybe do so for his next turn or two through the rotation and be patient.  I personally just executed a trade for Strasburg this weekend, so I obviously think he is a solid buy low candidate and will turn things around sooner than later, but we shall have to wait and see.