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Fantasy Baseball Thoughts: Takeaways form Week 20

By Matt Schindler

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Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Even if you are completely out of challenging for your league title, you can still be using what happens in these last few weeks of fantasy baseball as a way to help guide your draft boards for next year (see last bullet in this week’s fantasy baseball thoughts). For those of you entering your head to head playoffs, may you get the breaks you need to advance to the next round, and if not…hey the Octoberfest beers are now on the shelf!

Batters:

  • Fine, add Lucas Duda if you need pop and can withstand a .250 AVG.
  • Hey, if you need pop and Evan Gattis is still available, he should be your backstop.
  • Martin Prado has not had a great season, but because of his position flexibility and decent production, he is a great guy to add for your head-to-head playoffs.
  • Ditto for Danny Santana, he plays for the Twins. I like you Betty. It’s Danny, sir.
  • Effective immediately and valid through next season sans injury, Nolan Arenado is easily a Top-10 3B.
  • Meanwhile, you may want to cross Manny Machado off next year’s draft board.
  • Carl Crawford lives! Apparently he can still steal bases too. If you need a thief on your team, add him.
  • There is a lot of all or nothing going in Javier Baez swing. At a middle infield, that still works for me in some formats.
  • Starling Marte needs to be in your starting lineup until further notice., huge 2nd half so far.
  • Miguel Cabrera will not win the MVP this year, but his teammate Victor Martinez might.
  • Don’t look now, but here comes Josh Hamilton!

Pitchers:

  • Gotta feel bad for Garrett Richards and his owners. His value will drop in next year’s drafts, which could make him a nice value depending on how far he drops.
  • If you are a Richards owner, look towards his teammate Matt Shoemaker for a stop gap, he is the guy in the picture.  I promise you he is not Brian Wilson.
  • Sean Doolittle was placed on the DL with a strained muscle in his torso. Luke Gregorson seems to be the popular guess of who will see the most save opportunities with A’s until Doolittle comes back.
  • Mike Fiers remains on fier. Eat it spell check.
  • Mike Minor has been quality three starts in a row. I am not ready to forgive him yet, but maybe you are.
  • On the other hand, if you have still not forgiven Chris Tillman for his rough first half, you need to get over it. His 2.14 ERA in the second half, with a 7.7 K/9 in that same stretch deserves to be owned in more leagues.
  • Opposite of Chris Tillman, Adam Wainwright faded a little bit in the 2nd half last year, but this year he has been far from ace like in the 2nd half. A 4.70 ERA with a uncharacteristic 3.48 BB/9 since the break has his owners praying for better days down the stretch, unless his owners are Brewers fans.
  • Tsuyoshi Wada is worth a look at streaming right now. He is not going deep into games, but his results have been useful in most formats. Think Tim Hudson, with better K potential.
  • Rick Porcello quietly having another excellent season.
  • Michael Pineda has gone two effective starts now without getting caught with a foreign substance or hurting himself. He probably needs your immediate attention until history repeats itself.
  • Speaking of under owned Yankees, Brandon McCarthy deserves a little more love.
  • He is not going to help you this year, but if what he is doing out of the bullpen right now is any indication of his stuff, and it is, Aaron Sanchez should be creeping up your draft boards for next year.
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