It’s Thursday. You know what that means.
Each and every week during the fantasy baseball season, we’ll be doing a stock report, looking at the players who are improving their value on a week-to-week basis.
If there are players you want me to dive into, feel free to tag me on Twitter @MichaelWaterloo.
Now, without any further ado, let’s get to it.
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Stock Up
Kyle Schwarber (OF – PHI)
As the weather warms up, so does Schwarber. At least, that’s been the trend over the last three years.
Take a look at what Schwarber has done in June during the last three years:
- 2021: .280/.362/.760, 16 HR
- 2022: .272/.385/.680, 12 HR
- 2023: .264/.376/.611, 7 HR
When Schwarber is off, he’s off and can be a drain on your average. But he’s the one guy you should be patient with during a slow start, as it’s now a pattern – not a coincidence – that he is going to turn it on as the weather warms.
He’s still hitting below .200 for the season, but the .264 mark in June is a big adjustment from the .115 mark in May.
Stock Down
Nolan Gorman (2B – STL)
Gorman, meanwhile, has been brutal in the month of June. The masher is hitting just .107 with two home runs and a 45.9K% during the month. That strikeout rate is the worst mark in baseball in June.
Yikes.
The early-season hot streak seemed like it may have been Gorman making some leaps with his plate discipline, but we have a long track record of Gorman having a high strikeout rate and a low walk rate. I don’t want to put all of the stock into his June and ignore his May and April, but when June looks closer to his career norms, I tend to side with that.
Stock Up
Tommy Pham (OF – NYM)
Not a lot has gone right for the Mets this year. It’s been disappointing in just about every single way. One of the bright spots, though, has been Pham. Yes, the 35-year-old Pham, who spent most of the offseason without a team.
Calling him a god-send of late would be exaggerating, but he does have a .321/.339/.660 line with five home runs in June.
What’s more, it’s the second straight month with a high wRC+: 122 in May and 169 in June.
I’m expecting Pham to be a streamer hitter this year, and he’s someone I’m fine using as an OF5 while he’s hot.
Stock Down
Sandy Alcantara (SP – MIA)
In 2022, Alcantara allowed 58 earned runs in 228.2 innings pitched. This year, in 88.2 innings, he’s allowed 49 earned runs.
Not great, Bob!
The fact that the Marlins are doing what they are doing with Alcantara having this much regression – even if we expected a little bit of regression – is unreal. Sandy has allowed four earned runs or more in three of his last four outings.
You aren’t dropping him, of course, but he’s on the bench until further notice. It’s been a brutal year for pitching. Absolutely brutal.
Stock Up
Triston Casas (1B – BOS)
Casas has been one of my favorite players to trade for, and you can still get him for pretty cheap, given the less-than-great season-long numbers. He has put the dreadful .133 April average behind him, hitting .262 since then. What’s more, he cut the Whiff rate down to 21.9 percent in June, and the hard-hit rate is up to 50 percent this month.
What’s more, we are seeing an improvement from Casas against offspeed pitching, as he’s hitting .357 against the offerings this month, with a career-low 22.9 Whiff% against the pitches.
Growth isn’t always linear.
Stock Down
Aaron Nola (SP – PHI)
Here we go with the every-other-year good and bad Nola performances.
Nola’s 24.4K% is the lowest it’s been since his rookie year, and his 30.5 CSW% is also the lowest since 2015 – down nearly two percent from last year. We’re seeing Nola generate fewer swings out of the zone than in years past, and his sinker is living in the heart of the zone.
Overall, the numbers aren’t too bad, as he has a 3.65 ERA. However, Nola has allowed at least four earned runs in four of his last five outings – including five runs against Atlanta and six against the Dodgers.
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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.
