If you haven’t guessed by now, overreactions are a natural part of the start of every fantasy baseball season. All the training, all the prep work, all the articles written, all the times we’ve reminded you that it’s a marathon, not a sprint seem to have been forgotten as we near the end of April. We still have a little more than five months to go in the season which means roughly 140 games (500-plus at-bats) per player. There is still plenty of time for these slow starts to turn around.
I get it. No one likes to be sitting in the bottom half of the standings. You feel like you’ve put in the work and you want immediate gratification. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work like that and you need to dismiss that “snowflake, everyone gets a trophy” mentality. This game is a grind and while it may not appear that way for some right now, in a month’s time when four of their players are on the DL and their bats have gone quiet, they’ll be forced to as well. When we say to be patient, we don’t mean give it a month and dump the guys who are disappointing you.
Last year, at this time, we were complaining about Madison Bumgarner, Chris Archer, Justin Turner, Adam Jones, Justin Upton, Jonathan Lucroy and even Brian Dozier. Not everyone went on to post breakout numbers, but all of them had serious upswings the rest of the way. Even a guy like Kyle Seager who had five home runs in the month of April, was hitting below the Mendoza line and people were freaking out. I’d say he had himself a pretty good season, no?
I’m not saying it isn’t okay to be frustrated, but crapping on guys like Seager, Matt Carpenter, Dexter Fowler, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, Carlos Gonzalez and a slew of other guys under-performing here in April is going to ultimately hurt you in the end. I just answered a question in the forums where a guy was looking to deal Seager for Eugenio Suarez and while I like Suarez a lot, he doesn’t have nearly the track record Seager has. And when you look back at years past, you’ll see that Seager has a history of rough Aprils.
I’m not saying that you don’t try to maneuver to make your team better. I’m just saying you need to be careful about which players you’re gearing up to move. When someone approaches you with a trade, be skeptical. Ask why they’re making you this offer. I had a guy call in to yesterday’s show asking if he should trade his Jose Altuve for the other guy’s Trea Turner, a deal offered by the Turner owner. Given the hype Turner has received and given the level of production we’ve witnessed over the five or six games he’s played since coming off the disabled list, why is this owner suddenly looking to dump him off in exchange for a struggling, partially-concussed Altuve?
Maybe because Altuve has a multi-year track record and an upward trajectory for his power numbers? Maybe because Turner hasn’t done squat in comparison, sample size notwithstanding? There’s a reason Altuve was considered a top-five overall pick and Turner was a questionable late first-rounder and one strong week after a DL stint doesn’t balance things out. Be smarter than that. Understand the numbers and the time frame and stop overreacting to every little thing that doesn’t go your way.
In other news…
Speaking of overreactions, did everyone enjoy Cody Bellinger’s 0-for-5 with three strikeouts from the leadoff spot yesterday? Pretty sure I relayed this info yesterday, but in case you missed it, no…I’m am not all-in on this kid. The Dodgers didn’t want to bring him up just yet but were forced to with the injuries and the fact that Trayce Thompson was not eligible to be brought back up that quickly. You should expect to see some struggles and you should probably expect him to head back down once Joc Pederson comes off the DL, if not a little sooner. Yes, the power is there. Yes, he’s got a strong skill set, but no, he is not ready just yet. If your league deals with weekly FAAB/waiver claims, I would not waste a single dollar or priority on him unless I absolutely needed a replacement corner infielder. Remember, if you’re looking for outfield help, Bellinger is not yet eligible and you’ll have to check your league rules as to how many games he needs to play there before he receives eligibility. For all you know he could be back down in the minors before he even reaches that mark.
The injury bug was in full force yesterday, biting more fantasy teams in the ass than we thought even possible. You have a number of injuries to monitor right now from Eric Thames’ hamstring to Jose Abreu’s hip to Mitch Haniger’s oblique. You also have some potentially longer-term ones to watch such as Felix Hernandez’ shoulder, Shelby Miller’s elbow and, apparently, Adrian Beltre’s calf. While you’re at it, you Josh Donaldson owners better be looking into his progress as well. If Beltre is having this much difficulty recovering, Donaldson could be struggling as well. And let’s not forget this new bout of biceps tendinitis for Noah Syndergaard. Yeesh!
You can check out the latest edition of the Bullpen Report from Justin Vreeland, but I think what scares me the most about the closers right now is that Bud Norris has made three appearances as a closer, thrown three scoreless innings with four strikeouts and recorded three saves. What kind of a world would we be living in if Cam Bedrosian came back healthy and Mike Scioscia decided to keep Norris as his ninth inning specialist? I’m not really sure I want to even play fantasy baseball in a world like that.
First pitch comes at 1:05pm ET today, so make sure those lineups are set!