It’s not too late to fly with the Orioles
One of many largest tales throughout MLB recently is how the Baltimore Orioles — who’ve lengthy been the laughingstock of an in any other case extraordinarily powerful AL East — have been red-hot since July began, successful 10 straight and transferring above .500. They’ve gained sequence towards the Rangers, Angels and Cubs within the course of. Recall, the Orioles solely gained 52 video games whole in 2021; they now have 45 as of this writing.
[Play in one of Yahoo’s MLB DFS contests]
Issues are altering in Baltimore. So, how can fantasy baseball managers take benefit?
Orioles to think about off the waiver wire and within the commerce market
Effectively, the Orioles sport one of the crucial attention-grabbing groups in MLB — attention-grabbing in that, there isn’t any clear star main them on both aspect of the ball. Cedric Mullins is their highest rostered participant in fantasy, and he simply has a .714 OPS, however he is offering the class juice with 18 stolen bases and 7 residence runs. That speed-power mix makes it exhausting to pry Mullins from one other fantasy supervisor in your league, however there’s some expertise hitting below him that is out there on the market.
-Anthony Santander (42 % rostered) has some stable anticipated numbers in line with Statcast and his .181 ISO is playable any day of the week; he is even been a bit unfortunate, so there’s an opportunity he places up the best residence run whole of his profession this season. He is additionally an awesome possibility if looking for energy when the Orioles are away from their newly pitcher-friendly residence park.
-Jorge Mateo (24%) might be the one stolen-base savant this extremely out there in leagues. After all, he is such a drain in all the opposite classes that it isn’t exhausting to see why he is on the waiver. However should you’re doing effectively in batting common and lagging in SBs, Mateo ought to be in your crew. In any case, he’ll seemingly finish the 12 months with one thing like 15 residence runs and 30 stolen bases, well being allowing.
Trey Mancini and Ryan Mountcastle are additionally Baltimore hitters whom fantasy managers ought to think about buying and selling for; should you have a look at their respective Statcast pages, you may begin drooling over all of the crimson.
On the pitching aspect, the Orioles sport an intriguing younger group of arms to think about:
-Spenser Watkins (13%), Tyler Wells (46%) and Dean Kremer (22%) have all been using excessive throughout this win streak, decreasing their season ratios and selecting up victories within the course of. None of them have the elite strikeout abilities we normally search for in our fantasy pitchers, however they’re all formally stream-worthy in the fitting matchups. Kremer may be the very best of the bunch, the most probably to be a season-long possibility within the second half.
-We all know the Orioles lengthy thought-about Jorge Lopez to be their nearer, and his rostered share in fantasy displays that. However do not sleep on Felix Bautista (10%). Bautista has been simply nearly as good, if not higher, than Lopez by way of his ratios and uncooked means. He is price, on the very least, an addition to your watch listing, particularly if the Orioles give him extra save possibilities — or in the event that they determine to commerce Lopez earlier than the deadline.
Is Juan Soto turning into the following nice (and affected person) slugger?
Sooner or later up to now 10 or so years, there was a shift in MLB amongst the hitting panorama. Immediately, it wasn’t such a giant deal for batters to strike out so long as they made up for it with residence runs. A few of it may be blamed on the evolution of pitching, and the way it’s grow to be so troublesome to hit a few of these (as Scott Pianowski likes to name them) fire-breathing dragons.
However within the days of superior analytics, of ISO and OPS and the like, strikeouts matter much less should you’re delivering in different departments. An emphasis on batting common has been significantly diminished, each in fantasy and actuality.
After all, most of us keep in mind the sluggers of the (comparatively latest) previous who not solely delivered elite energy numbers however who additionally knew the worth of taking a stroll — of NOT placing out. Names like Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, Gary Sheffield, and Frank Thomas come to thoughts as home-run hitters who made a dwelling taking a free go to first base, and who not often struck out greater than 80 occasions in a season, not to mention reaching the frequent triple digits we see in the present day.
Juan Soto seems to be the newest in that elite class of slugger.
After all, you would make the case that Soto has already been that uncommon, affected person slugger; he does have a 34-home run season to his title, however he struck out greater than he walked that 12 months.
For the final three seasons, nevertheless (together with this one), Soto has had a better base-on-balls share than a strikeout one. These veteran superstars in that group above additionally match that invoice throughout their prime years.
Soto hit two residence runs on Wednesday; coincidentally, each got here within the ninth inning of Washington’s doubleheader towards Seattle. He is now as much as 19 on the 12 months, tied for seventh within the Nationwide League.
This acquired me considering: May it’s that Soto is swapping one affected person strategy for one more? May it’s that he is sacrificing batting common (his present mark stands at lower than .250, low by his requirements) in favor of OPS (the two-homer sport Wednesday raised his season OPS to .886)? Fantasy managers have been frightened about Soto this season after a gradual begin, but it surely might simply be that he is much less focused on singles and extra focused on residence runs (he hit 106 singles in 654 plate appearances final 12 months; he has simply 38 in 367 this season).
And with him nonetheless strolling greater than he is placing out, it is exhausting to be too upset with this hypothetical new strategy on the plate. Who would not be pleased with extra energy? And on this period of MLB, a .280 or greater batting common is a luxurious, not the norm.
Just some weeks in the past, a window opened wherein Soto was somebody you would really commerce for in fantasy leagues with out giving up a king’s ransom within the course of. That window may need simply slammed shut on Wednesday.
