6 Fantasy Baseball Players Trending Up & Down (Week 8)

It’s Thursday. You know what that means.

Every week during the fantasy baseball season, we do a stock report looking at players whose value is rising or declining. If there are specific players you want me to dive into, feel free to tag me on Twitter.

Now, without any further ado, let’s get to it. Here are a few fantasy baseball players trending up and others on the way down.

Fantasy Baseball Stock Report (Week 8)

Stock Up

Brent Rooker (OF – OAK)

Brent Rooker surprised people last season when he hit 30 homers for the Athletics and earned his first All-Star selection. He came out of the gate on fire, batting .358 in April. So far this season he has shown that this wasn’t just a fluke. Over the last two weeks, the 29-year-old has the third-highest ISO (.314), and sixth-highest wOBA (.418) He’s up to 10 homers on the season, which puts him tied for third place in the American League.

He continues to strike out at one of the highest rates in the league. He sits at a 30.6% mark on the year, which is on par with his career average of 32.3%. His RBI opportunities may be more scarce in Oakland compared to other teams, but Rooker has shown himself to be one of the better fantasy producers in the league once again this year.

Chris Sale (SP – ATL)

Chris Sale keeps getting better and better with each start. Through his first four starts, he gave up 12 earned runs but over his last four, he has given up just two. He has also thrown at least nine strikeouts in each of his last three games.

He is now ranked third in xFIP (2.42) and seventh in K% (31.3%) on the season. He’s been an outstanding pickup for the Braves this year and he’s silencing all the critics who thought father time may have crept up to the 35-year-old. His numbers won’t keep improving to infinity with each start, but I expect him to keep being dominant over his next two projected starts against San Diego and Pittsburgh.

Kyle Tucker (OF – HOU)

Kyle Tucker now has sole possession of the league lead in homers with 13. In my opinion, he might be the most underrated player in baseball. He’s hit 30, 30 and 29 homers over the last three seasons, and is now on pace to best that mark.

In addition to his incredible power numbers, Tucker has also excelled across the board. He has the highest walk rate in the league (17.1%), the second-highest ISO (.318), fourth-highest wOBA (.430) and he strikes out just 16.6% of the time. He also has sneaky speed. He has six steals this year after recording 30 last year and 25 the year before. Perhaps if he had a flashy nickname people would be paying more attention.

Stock Down

Cedric Mullins (OF – BAL)

Cedric Mullins has been ice-cold over the last couple of weeks. Over his last 10 games, he has recorded just two hits over 30 plate appearances. Since May 1, his strikeout rate has been a highly concerning 41.9%, second in the majors behind only Tyler O’Neill‘s 47.2% mark.

His wOBA on the season sits at .257, significantly lower than his .321 career average. He’s not an everyday player for Baltimore as they will sit him against left-handed starting pitchers. However, Mullins’ playing time could continue to drop if he continues to play like this, especially with all the young talent they have coming up the pipeline.

Carlos Carrasco (SP – CLE)

Carlos Carrasco has been playing baseball for a long time. The 37-year-old started his first game for Cleveland back in 2009. Now that he is back in Cleveland after a short stint with the Mets, things haven’t been so steady for the right-hander.

On the season, Carrasco has the fourth-highest xFIP (4.55), the sixth-highest HR/9 (1.59) and the ninth-lowest K% (17.2%). He also has a high walk rate (9.1%) and allows the second-lowest amount of soft contact in the league (10.5%). There isn’t all that much to be excited about in his profile and he’s not someone that should be on anyone’s radar in fantasy.

Javier Baez (SS – DET)

Javier Baez gets ridiculed a lot for underperforming year over year with Detroit after having signed a $140 million contract. Last year he was statistically one of the worst hitters in baseball and so far this year he’s been more or less the same.

His ISO sits at just .056 on the year, the fourth-lowest among qualified hitters. The most shocking thing in Baez’s profile is his wRC+ of just 18. This is 27 points lower than Andrew Benintendi, who is second-to-last. He’s not generating runs and continues to be a sinkhole for this Tigers team that otherwise has some talented young prospects.