It’s Thursday. You know what that means.
Each and every week during the fantasy baseball season, we’ll be doing a stock report and 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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Fantasy Baseball Stock Report
Stock Up
There’s hot, and then there’s whatever level of hot that Robert has been. Over the last two weeks, Robert is the No. 3 ranked player in fantasy behind only Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson.
During that stretch, he’s hit .356 with seven home runs and four steals, and he’s looking like the player that was a trendy preseason MVP pick heading into last season.
His 25 homers this season matches his 2021 and 2022 combined total. The K% (28.3%) is still too high, but La Pantera is contributing across all five categories at such a high level that we can excuse it.
Stock Down
J.Lo told us to not be fooled by the rocks that she got. Y.Di should tell us not to be fooled by the homers that he’s got.
It looked like a changed profile in early April and May, but Diaz has now gone without a home run since May 26. What’s more is that during that same stretch, his groundball rate has continued to climb, while his launch angle has continued to trend downward.
He still hits the ball insanely hard, so hopefully he can tap into whatever changes he made early in the season for a big second half.
Stock Up
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1B – TOR)
If you look at Guerrero’s profile, it really doesn’t make sense for why he isn’t having a monster season. He has just one home run playing at home, but there’s really no tangible reason for the lackluster output so far aside from a higher-than-desired groundball rate.
But Guerrero’s fortunes are turning around, as he’s heading into the All-Star Break on a hot streak. He’s hitting .297 with four home runs over the last two weeks, and the Home Run Derby may be what he needs to get him going in the second half.
Stock Down
I genuinely feel sad watching Wainwright pitch. Uncle Charlie has been so good over his career that it hurts seeing him struggle. With each outing, I wonder if it’ll be his last one.
He’s only allowed fewer than three earned runs once this season – against the Dodgers, of all teams – and has gone over the six-inning mark just once for his only quality start of the season.
That start, which came on June 17 against the Mets, was his last start that was passable. He has eight innings combined in his last three starts and allowed 20 combined earned runs.
In fantasy, you’re not rostering him. In real life, you just hope that it gets better for the person.
Stock Up
Steele is doing what we hoped Hayden Wesneski would do this season. Right team, just different player.
On the season, Steele is a top-30 player – not just pitcher – and while he’s rostered in 91% of Yahoo leagues, it still feels like he’s underlooked.
A lot of it has to do with the low strikeout rate, but he also has an elite walk rate and suppresses hard contact at the plate, which is the biggest driver for his success.
We mentioned that Diaz hasn’t hit a home run since May 26. Well that’s the last date that Steele allowed more than three earned runs in a start.
Stock Down
A second music reference? Yeah, what about it? The Clipse had a song in the early 2000s called “What Happened to that Boy?” That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Bryant. It’s not that he’s in Colorado, it’s that he’s not in Chicago anymore.
Since going to the Rockies, his ability to make quality contact has just stopped. He has 11 combined home runs over the last two years while playing half of his games in Coors Field, and he’s essentially switched his profile from being a hard-hitting power hitter to a quality contact line-drive hitter with a good strikeout rate.
We saw some changes as his career progressed in Chicago, but I don’t think any of us saw this happening.
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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.
