It’s Thursday and 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.
Without any further ado, let’s get to it. Here are a few fantasy baseball players trending up and others on the way down.
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Fantasy Baseball Stock Report (Week 11)
Stock Up
Nolan Gorman (2B, 3B, DH – STL)
Only Aaron Judge has been hotter than Nolan Gorman over the last two weeks. Over that span, Gorman has a .575 ISO, .575 wOBA and a 284 wRC+. He has been cranking out homers over his last two series versus Philly and Houston and is already up to 14 long balls on the year.
For the season, he is ranked eighth in ISO (.273) ahead of Shohei Ohtani and Jose Ramirez. His 35% strikeout rate is concerning but it isn’t too far off his career average of 32.9%. He’s been a lone bright spot for a Cardinals offense that has been a disappointment over the last couple of seasons. He currently leads St. Louis in almost every offensive category across the board.
Max Fried is coming off a career-high 13 strikeouts against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. With a career K/9 of 8.77, the left-hander has never been much of a strikeout guy. Instead, Fried has always found success with a massive ground ball rate and minimal hard contact.
This season, Fried is ranked second in the league in ground ball percentage (61.2%), ninth in HR/9 (0.61) and 12th in xFIP (3.06). He is also second to teammate Chris Sale in hard contact allowed (22.8%).
Over his last three starts, he has pitched 24 innings, struck out 28 and surrendered just three runs. It’s hard to be hotter than Fried right now.
Concerns were warranted for Yordan Alvarez as he started the year cold. Those concerns have subsided, however, as the left-handed slugger has been on a tear over the last couple of weeks.
During that time frame Alvarez is eighth in wRC+ (220) and ninth in wOBA (.482). The power numbers haven’t popped off the page during the recent hot streak. That said, Alvarez is still just 26 years old and has a career ISO of .282, so we can expect his .204 mark this year to balloon to a number closer to his career average.
Stock Down
Jo Adell has a big strikeout problem. On the season, he has a 30.7% strikeout rate. Over the past two weeks, he has a 48.7% mark. This is 10% higher than the next highest batter, Seth Brown.
When Adell makes contact the ball goes a long way. He has a .252 ISO, which ranks within the top 30 in the league. He already has 11 homers on the year. Unfortunately, his numbers have fallen off a cliff over the last couple of weeks, resulting in a -20 wRC+ and .136 wOBA since May 21.
Bailey Ober’s last four starts have not gone according to plan. He gave up 15 runs over just 19 innings of work. This has ballooned his ERA to the eighth-worst mark in the majors (4.94). His HR/9 rate (1.60) is tied with Michael King and Aaron Civale for the fifth-highest mark in MLB, and he has just a 28.7% ground ball rate, which is dead last.
The positive signs for Ober are that his K/9 of 8.71 is decent and he’s shown upside already this season. Right before his cold streak, he struck out 10 Blue Jays while allowing zero to cross the plate. The upside can be there for Ober in the right scenario. Unfortunately, weak ground ball numbers mean his downside can be extreme.
Cal Raleigh is in the midst of a major league slump. He’s always been a guy who won’t hit for much average but will offset that with some decent power numbers, however, the power numbers have been absent for him over the last couple of weeks.
Over those two weeks, Raleigh is striking out at the seventh-highest rate (36.4%) and hitting for a paltry .154 batting average. He is walking just 4.5% of the time over that span and has hit just one home run.
Hopefully, his current slump is temporary because he has been a great source of power for Seattle behind the dish. Over the last two seasons, he has hit 27 and 30 homers, respectively.
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