You can reach Ray Flowers on Twitter (@baseballguys).

In a points league, Corey Seager for Taijuan Walker and Brandon Crawford, which side to you want?
@Tognation


Seager has been a massive disappointment given the preseason hype. Still, we’re barely a sixth of the way through the season. You gotta give talent time to breath. I don’t think anyone that foolishly reach for him is happy to hear that given his .248 average, two homers, one steals and .692 OPS, but that is the truth. We’re still talking about a youngers with a .838 OPS over 53 career games which is impressive.

Would I deal him for the duo? Absolutely I would. Crawford is not more talented than Seager but he’s a proven big league hitter would could a top-10 shortstop the rest of the way. “Could be” being the key phrase. He’s not repeating last season, but he plays daily and has as much pop as Seager at the moment. Walker has been great through five outings with a 1.80 ERA and 1.03 WHIP. He’s also punched out 29 batters in 30 innings while walking a mere three batters. Looks like he has indeed started to take the next step in his second full season.

Walker for Seager is fair. If you’re also getting Crawford you have to take the offer.

Being offered Troy Tulowitzki for Elvis Andrus in a h2h points league. Thoughts?
@LionsTherapy

A guy like Andrus usually doesn’t stand out in a points league. He never hits for power and never drives in runs either. He is a much more valuable play in roto leagues where his steals and runs scored help.

You obviously want Tulo. The strikeouts are hurting him in a points league, he has a massive 33 in 27 games, but things have to get better, don’t they? Tulo has never had a K-rate over 21.3 percent for a season, and I just can’t fathom that he will hold on to the 29.5 percent mark he is currently sporting. He’s also the owner of a .610 OPS right now and that mark is .871 for his career. His BABIP has been at least .331 the past three seasons and is now currently at .186. Unless he is hurt, and there has been no mention of injury, things will improve. He’s always been effective when on the field and he should be yet again, and soon.

Ray, do I go get off my free agency, Chris Carter, ASAP?
@TestySpice

I have no idea who you drop or what your setup is?

That said, of course you add Carter who should have been rostered since the preseason in all leagues.

Carter is what he is though, so don’t think that something grand is happening here. It ain’t. He’s 8th in the bigs in homers the last three seasons, and another 30 big flies is totally doable for the Brewer who has five homers in 10 games and four in four. That said, there is no chance on Earth, like literally zero percent (not even 0.1 percent), that he will hit .284 this season. A career .221 batter, Carter has never hit .240 in a big league season. That means he’s likely to hit .220 the rest of the way, but the power and RBI production will be there.

He is what he is despite the hot start.

Sonny Gray completely broken? Guy looks awful this year.
@MattManSports

Gray has had a bad start to the season. No doubt about that. He also allowed seven runs last night in seven innings of work causing widespread panic. Still, the first seven innings were promising as he allowed just three runs in that time before he was foolishly run out there to get beat in the 8th inning. The walks are a big key, and they are elevated to the extreme with a 4.08 mark per nine. For a guy who is under 2.9 for his career that’s not good. Still, here are the positives. (1) His 2.07 GB/FB ratio is an elite mark and better than his career average of 1.94 thanks to what would be a career best 56.9 percent ground ball rate. (2) Batters have a mere 15.7 percent line drive rate that would be a career best. (3) It’s extremely likely, bad pitches and all, that his homer to fly ball ratio will recede quickly. For three seasons Gray bettered the league average HR/FB ratio at under 9.5 percent each year, and a guy like that doesn’t suddenly turn into a 17.9 percent kinda guy. The result this year is a 1.27 HR/9 mark after three years in a row under 0.75. The homers will decrease.

Gray should be perfectly fine moving forward. Just give things some time to normalize.

Do you think David Price will fix the flaws and be money this year?
@Scottelands36

What is really wrong with Price?

Price has a 1.31 GB/FB ratio.
His career mark is 1.24.

Price has a 12.03 K/9 mark.
His career mark is 8.65.

Price has a 2.21 BB/9 mark.
His career mark is 2.31.

Price has a 0.98 HR/9 rate.
His career mark is 0.81.

Are you seeing anything that makes you nervous there? I’m not, at all.

Price has a .362 BABIP. Make a bad pitch it gets hit, I get it, but his career mark is just .288 and only once in his entire career has the mark been over .298 (his career worst is .306). There’s no way the number stays as high as it is.

His real issue has been out of the stretch. Compare his work this season to his career levels with runners on base.

 

AVG

OBP

SLG

wOBA

2016

.273

.361

.532

.380

Career

.235

.296

.366

.291


Look at those numbers. His OBP this season with runners on base is nearly a match for his career SLG. Clearly he needs to work on things out of the stretch. There’s no reason to think he won’t make the necessary adjustments. He always has.

Price is a prime buying option and a certain hold if you currently own him.

Which player: Michael Saunders, Derek Dietrich, Jackie Bradley Jr. or Odubel Herrera?
@shaman103

Saunders has four steals his last 109 games. He just doesn’t run anymore. He’s also played a mere 87 games the last two seasons, has never appeared in 140 games before, and there is no way his current .925 OPS, more than .200 points above his career .693, will continue.

Dietrich, well, I gave my thoughts on him in this Big 3 Video.

Bradley started slowly, but he’s picked things up of late. Still, he doesn’t steal bases, has just 15 home runs in 263 career games, and has a mere .334 OBP since the start of last season.

The obvious player you want is Herrera. Not only is Herrera best bet to produce in batting average with a career mark of .299 over 174 games, but there is more. He’s the best option of the group to steal bases with 20 thefts thus far. He’s the best option to play every single day (his team desperately needs him). He’s shown tremendous improvement in his ability to get on base. Last season he had a solid .344 OBP, a good mark for a rookie. He walked a mere 28 times on the year though. However, he committed this offseason to getting on base and he has carried that plan on with immense success as he’s already walked 24 times leading to a .452 OBP. He won’t continue along at that pace in either measure, but his newfound plate discipline is a huge plus.

You want Herrera, simple as that.

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU.

Don’t let Martin Perez fool you with his ERA. It’s not doom and gloom with Shawn TollesonJeff Samardzija continues to go deep in games for the Giants. See the Big 3 Video that tells the story.

Billy Burns is back to stealing a ton of bases. Lorenzo Cain has been racking up the hits. Kyle Seager is defiantly someone you can trust at the hot corner. See this Big 3 VIdeo.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 6 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).