Billy Butler: What to Make of His Late Surge?

In terms of excelling in the fantasy playoffs, it’s paramount to find possible additions that are on hot stretches or current tears, so you can insert them into your lineup to supplant other players that have either plateaued or who are struggling.

With the waiver wire being practically barren with any ideal additions, owners have to look past early season struggles to uncover potential candidates. The one guy I had in mind is someone all fantasy owners should be familiar with.

Billy Butler has carved himself out a nice career as a solid average, high OBP producer across his nine-year tenure. He had huge success in Kansas City, but as the Royals shifted to a more defensive and speed oriented team, Butler wasn’t retained in the winter.

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Even though he has the build of a pure power hitter, it seems as though his swing plays more as gap to gap ability. But, I for one was curious to see if Butler could latch on with a team that played their home games in more of a hitter’s park, with the hope that he could be a sneaky bet to get back close to the 20 HR mark that he hit in 2012.

Butler wound up signing with Oakland, very early in the offseason, and as well know moving to Oakland served as no help for him bouncing back. It seemed as though the A’s were willing to slot Butler into their everyday DH spot, and allow him to hopefully drive in runs.

Unfortunately, Butler has seemed to take another step back offensively, as both the average and power have been nearly nonexistent. He started the season off pretty well hitting .287/3 HR/12 RBI over both April and March. The following fourth months of the season though, May-August, were not too kind. He failed to hit above .242 over any of those months and was completely shut out in the homer column in August.

His season line, .254/10 HR/51 RBI, speaks to his struggles this year and why he finds himself on the waiver wire. But, there have been some signs that Butler may be finishing the year on a high note.

Since September has started, Butler has been on an absolute tear. He is currently on a nine game hit streak, and is batting a cool .520 for the month. He also has homered and drove in three runs as well, hopefully a sign of Butler coming back into fantasy relevance.

Butler’s .566 OBP and 1.276 OPS, are also amongst the tops in the league, leading me to feel as though Butler is in a groove and seeing the ball great. I wouldn’t expect a power spike or anything like that out of Butler over the rest of the season, but owners should still take notice and look closely at adding him.

Butler will qualify at your 1B, CI, Util. spots, and he has always lacked the power you seek out from your corner spots, but because of his recent surge I think he could be a value at your CI or Util. spot. I know for me, I have added him during this hot stretch, so he could help mask some of my AVG and OBP woes. Hopefully adding this type of help will allow owners to prevent giving away categories in the playoffs.

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