The fantasy baseball season is a very long season. At this point hopefully you have put yourself in a reasonable position to win your league. Quite frankly the season starts now. Many of my leagues I have won because of moves I have made that set me up for the stretch run. This is also a difficult time for some because, if one plays fantasy football as well as fantasy baseball, they may easily lose their focus and start looking towards their fantasy football draft when it is the most crucial time of their baseball season. I tend to see guys get really stoked on the draft for their league but then lose focus when it comes time to win their league. I love draft season and draft day is like Christmas for adults but now is the time to put in the effort and focus on making the moves that can impact your team for a championship win. With that being said, I have a handful of guys that I really like going forward for the rest of the season. These can be guys that you pick up in daily leagues, make a trade for or pick up off of the waiver wire. These are guys that always have a better second half than first half of the season or maybe I have just noticed them playing better and think it will continue.
- Brian Dozier 2B- He has always been a slow starter and then came around. He plays second base, which is one of the worst positions if fantasy. Yes he is on the older side and he isn’t the player he used to be, but I still think he has a good second half left in him with some good power numbers from 2B.
- Yasiel Puig OF- Puig has already started to finally come around after a slow start in his first season with the Reds. Puig is looking comfortable, he plays in a small park where the ball flies when it is hot and the Reds lineup is actually pretty good when everyone is healthy.
- Paul DeJong SS- DeJong was one of my breakout predictions at the start of the year. He got off to a great start but then got into a slump that he couldn’t shake. He recently got moved down in the order and he seems to have taken it in stride. I think he will big a big power contributor form the SS position the rest of the way. In the last 7 days he has 2 HR’s and 7 RBI’s.
- Matt Olson 1B- This guy has tons of power and I think he will put a lot of balls in the seats down the stretch. He broke his hamate bone early in the season and was out for a while but he has still looked good and had plenty of power since his return. I would bet on it only getting better and better for MR. Olson.
- Micheal Pineda SP- His last start was a dud, with an uncharacteristic 5 walks, but he has been very good in every way as of late. He has been often injured but has been healthy this season. He offers everything you want from a SP. He has been consistently going 5 or 6 innings, which is pretty good these days, he has averaged 7 k’s per start over his last four starts, not bad, and he has showed stellar command in the games that I have watched him pitch. The bonus is he plays in a division with the worst hitting teams.
In my next blog I will be looking back on my breakout predictions for this year and giving a glimpse into my breakout picks for next year.