T.G.I.F. right? One of the best days of the week! And yes, it’s only partly because it is Category Impact day here at Fantasy Alarm. Hopefully your team is doing well after the first week of the season and that the second week is much of the same. Not only can some of these guys help you in Week 3, but they can help you here in the latter parts of Week 2. Don’t let a pesky category slip away. They are too darn valuable! Address your concerns, get your win and follow me on Twitter @colbyrconway. There you go, the trifecta!

Home Runs and RBI

Ryon Healy, 3B OAK – Healy was a popular late-round draft pick this season, but an impatient owner likely dropped him after his slow start. However, it is those impatient individuals that we thrive on in fantasy leagues. His home park doesn’t do him any justice, but his power can play anywhere. His fly-ball percentage is up at 62.5 percent and he makes soft contact just 16.7 percent of the time. Even though his batting average is a bit low for one’s liking, there’s a lot of optimism for Healy moving forward. Since last year’s All-Star break, Healy is slugging .493 on low non-fastballs, which places him 4th of 206 full-time hitters. The league average is .312. All offspeed is intended to be thrown low in the zone, which plays right into Healy’s strengths. If he can improve upon his -1.5 wFB moving forward, he makes for an extremely tough out.

Aaron Judge OF NYY – Much like Healy, some of the hype way have evaporated from Judge, prompting impatient owners to quickly send him to free agency. One man’s garbage is another man’s gold. While he’s generating medium or hard contact 85 percent of the time, his BABIP of .294 seems rather low for that sort of consistent contact. Could he possibly be making hard contact and being unlucky? If that’s the case, good for him and good for his fantasy owners, because that doesn’t tend to be the case for long. He’s going to strikeout a fair amount, so you’ll have to deal with that. However, the walk rate above 10 percent is quality and we all know the mammoth power he possesses. Judge has struggled against southpaws, which is rather odd for a right-handed hitter. However, he’s mashing righties well enough that we’ll just overlook that minor flaw.

Runs Scored and OBP

Mitch Haniger, OF SEA – Haniger’s recent week and a half has been nothing short of brilliant. He’s currently riding a six-game hit streak, not to mention the fact that he’s reached base safely in his last 13 games. He’s one game behind Mitch Moreland and Yasmany Tomas more consecutive games with at least one extra-base hit and he doesn’t look overmatched at the plate. His BABIP of .292 is a bit deflated due to a rocky start, but it will continue to increase as the season goes on. Haniger will continue to hit near the top of the order and the only real big knock on him right now is that he’s hitting just .143 with runners in scoring position on the season. However, he should be able to score plenty of runs in this lineup, especially since he hits in front of Nelson Cruz, Robinson Cano and Kyle Seager. Get him.

Asdrubal Cabrera, SS NYM – Cabrera isn’t a sexy addition, but he’s a reliable veteran who is finding his groove. He’s recorded a hit in every game but one this season and he’s peppering the ball all over the place. He has a line drive rate of 37.9 percent this season, which is almost double the league average in the early parts of the 2017 campaign. Being the savvy veteran he is, he’s extremely hard to put away late in the count. He’s slugging .453 with two strikes since last year’s All-Star break and his strikeout percentage is just under four percentage points below his career average. Also, in case you weren’t aware, shortstop isn’t the deepest position in fantasy formats, and Cabrera is owned in just 40.9 percent of fantasy formats. That’s just too low.

Saves

Jeremy Jeffress, RP TEX – Let me address the elephant in the room immediately. Jeffress hasn’t been good this season, I get it. However, he’s been better than Sam Dyson! Matt Bush would likely get the next crack at saves, but he has a chance at a DL stint. Let’s take a look at Jeffress and Dyson.

 

W-L

IP

ERA

WHIP

K/9

Dyson

0-2

3.0

33.00

4.67

6.00

Jeffress

0-1

4.0

4.50

1.25

6.75


Again, Jeffress hasn’t been the greatest either, but right now, he’s the best, healthiest option they have to close. Dyson has not gotten the job done and it’s a matter of days, likely, that he’s removed from the role. Jeffress’ curveball has been his go to pitch when he’s looking to put batters away. Since the start of 2015, he’s recorded over half of his strikeouts (57-of-110) with his curveball. On the other hand, Jeffress has really struggled to limit lefties to soft contact. Again, since the start of the 2015 season, lefties have a line drive rate of 31 percent, which is 10 percentages points higher than the league average. Also, that’s the second worst mark among 145 qualified relief pitchers. Yikes. There’s time to turn some of those negatives around and the positive thing for Jeffress is that he does have prior success in the closing role. His time is coming, ladies and gents.

Strikeouts and K/9

Amir Garrett, SP CIN – Garrett has been exceptional this season, to the tune of a 2-0 record with a 1.42 ERA and 0.71 WHIP in 12.2 innings. He’s walked just two batters, compared to striking out nine, and the opposition has struggled with anything he’s thrown that isn’t a fastball. At the same time, they aren’t doing that well (.233) against his fastball either. He’s allowed an OPS of just .473 this season, which is 10th best in all of baseball. Cincinnati has a good enough offense to give him the run support he needs, and a much improved bullpen, at least in the early going of 2017, should be able to hold the lead when he exits the game. He’s going to hit some bumps here in the early going of his career, but there’s no reason Garrett should be available in any dynasty league out there. He’s young, he’s talented and he’s producing. Snatch him up.