You know an article is going to be really, really good when there are two colons in the title. Don’t you wish you had two colons? Imagine how productive you’d be? Live every day like it’s Fiber Friday, friends. No really — apparently fiber lowers your cholesterol. You want to stick it to big pharma? Then coat that steak in Benefiber. Your cookout friends will never know!
Now, this double-coloned article is part of a series that’s kind of new. I basically made up the idea on the spot when Razzeditor Truss was like, “Sell me the next Die Hard or we’re trading you to RotoWire for an AI bot named Frankie FastFingers.” And although that decision to keep me instead of the AI bot will likely lead to the economic collapse of Razzball, I’d like to say that my advice hasn’t been all that awful. Let’s recap some of our favorite add/drops and see how I’m doing in my new role. Also, Marmos has been killing it as the new Top 100 Starters writer — that man has passion and eventually he’ll have Photoshop skills as well.
That’s What I Like All-Stars
Ben Brown (CHC, P, 55% Rostered): I sounded the Roleless Rob alarm as loud as I could when B^2 was whiffing around 14 batters per inning. That’s not a typo. The man blazed fastballs by batters at a rate that made him seem like he was AI churning out copies of Drake’s hits. What happened? Like all players who fly too close to the sun, Brown got “burned,” as long as we’re clear that by “burned,” it means he injured his neck. Imagine if the story of Icarus ended with our winged boi never flying toward the sun because he got a stiff neck and had to sit with an ice pack on the couch for a while. Legend! B^2 is still doing bullpen work and hasn’t faced live batting as of the last public injury update. My prognosis? Injured players aren’t doing you any good. Roleless Robs who can’t run out there at a moment’s notice aren’t that useful to your team, so, unless B^2 comes back fully healthy — and I’m talking like closing out a game followed by starting the next game (stop drooling RCLers!) — he’s OK to drop.
Heliot Ramos (SF, OF, 99% Rostered): Clearly 1 league out there on Fantrax is abandoned because Ramos is basically the next coming of Ryan Braun. No, something greater — Prince Fielder. Wait. [clouds clear] Jayson Werth. I think that progression actually got worse. Ramos is still on fire, batting .274 with 3 dingers and 8 RBI over the last 20 games or so. He was 19% rostered when I featured him on the weekly series and soared to near-immediate full rostership as y’all dropped injured kings like like Ronald Acuna Jr. The future for Ramos looks pretty good — he’s maintaining some walks, reigning in his strikeouts, and still batting at the top of the order. It seems he’s becoming comfortable in the three hole, crushing to the tune of .364 / .405 / .606 with a 184 wRC+ since he moved there a bit over a week ago. Loyal readers, Ramos was a hit with me, and hopefully he’s hitting for you.
Jake Irvin (WSH, SP, 100% Rostered): When I featured Jake Irvin, he was 8% rostered. Since then, he’s climbed to 53rd overall on the Player Rater while going 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA. He’s been a legend for quality starts leagues this year, with 8 of his last 9 outings resulting in a quality start. That’s like, prime Gerrit Cole level of production. And this dude was sitting free on the waiver wire, like one of those really good beers from a no-name brewery that hasn’t hired a marketer yet. The rest of the year looks great for Irvin from a stats-standpoint, but from an endurance standpoint we should be worried — he’s never topped 130 IP in his career (which spans mostly the minor leagues). All those quality starts have him at 106 IP at the time of writing. With “having done it before” being the key marker in IP volume in the second half, we do have the warning sign, which is ignominiously titled, “he hasn’t done it before.” White knuckle with Irvin through the rest of the season — he’s a bit too old to get the “innings cap” tag, but he’s inexperienced enough to run out of steam sometime in August.
David Fry (CLE, C/OF, 97% Rostered): On the plus side and the downside, he’s got a .423 BABIP over the past 2 weeks. That mitigates his 31% K rate over the same period. Eek. He’s still C10 on the year, which — believe it or not — is worthy of getting ranked 150th on the Player Rater. CAGNOF! Fry has lost some shine since getting featured, when he was soaring up to C5 on the year while being completely free off the wire in most leagues. He hasn’t hit a homer since the end of May, but he’s also got a 30+% line drive rate. Fry’s also added 1B eligibility in Yahoo leagues since then, which makes him an interesting roster-filler to finish out the year. Despite being in a “slump”, he still has a 107 wRC+ over the past two weeks, meaning that he’s better than league average. ACKSHUALLY, he’s still OF38 on the year, which means that even if he had no catcher eligibility, he’d still be starting as UTIL or OF3 in your 12 team league. Offense sucks this year, bro. Fry has some nice potential in the second half — his swinging strike rate isn’t terrible (10%) and that line drive rate is intriguing, and the Guardians put him in the middle of the lineup whenever he plays, so you could continue to get better-than-average production out of your freebie C.
Francisco Lindor (NYM, SS, 100% Rostered): People freak out early in the year when their all-stars underperform. [insert chunk of text reminding people that Barry Bonds spent 1/3 of his record-breaking HR season batting .210 and hitting 3 dingers]. Lindor came out of the gate looking like he was cooked, and people wanted to trade him or drop him straight up. Where’s Lindor now? 34rd overall on the Player Rater, which is basically right where he should be according to draft value. “Peak” Lindor has passed us, but fantasy players are probably settling in for another couple years of 20/20 work with passable batting averages and reasonable R/RBI production. Sometimes the best thing to do for your fantasy team is to cut underperforming players. Sometimes the best thing for your fantasy team is to wait out the slumps. Had you traded or dropped Lindor in April, you would have missed out on a top 30 player. You’re welcome, folx!
