Corey Pieper | Mon, Sep 16th 2024, 10:57am EDT

10 Burning Questions: Steven Kwan, Frankie Montas, Jacob deGrom (2024 Fantasy Baseball)

There are many fantasy baseball leagues where this should be championship week. May all the breaks fall in your favor, but if not, congratulations on even making it to the championship. Making it to a championship takes skill and determination. Unfortunately, winning a championship involves a lot of luck over one week.

Unless you have a Jobu figurine like Pedro Cerrano in the movie Major League, there isn’t much you can do to improve your luck. Reading the 10 Burning Questions won’t improve your luck, but it will give you insights on players as we wind down the season.

Fantasy Baseball 10 Burning Questions

What happened to Steven Kwan‘s average?

Steven Kwan was batting .352 at the All-Star break. Considering he also had nine home runs, there was hope he had found a way to optimize his contact ability with more power. Since the All-Star break, though, the power and average have fallen off.

Kwan’s power production since the All-Star break is four home runs and 16 RBI. That is still a better pace than what we’ve come to expect from him in those statistics. However, that comes with an abysmal .201 batting average. Some of that is bad luck with a .212 batting average on balls in play (BABIP), but he is also hitting flyballs at a 44.6% rate. That’s easily a new career high for him. More flyballs can help with power but at the expense of batting average. That’s what it seems is happening with Kwan.

Did we overestimate Francisco Alvarez‘s home run potential?

Fantasy managers expect progression to happen in a linear manner. In other words, younger players continue to improve until they reach their age peak before declining until retirement. Francisco Alvarez is an example that shows that isn’t always the case.

In 2023, as a 21-year-old rookie, Alvarez hit 25 home runs. It came with a poor .209 batting average, but that could be tolerated from a 30-home run threat at catcher. The problem is that his age-22 season has gone differently than his rookie season. He has eight home runs and 37 RBI this season but with a .234 batting average.

His change is the opposite of Steven Kwan’s above in that he has dropped his flyball percentage from 31.9% to only 19.9%. Just like Kwan, hopefully, he can find a happy medium to maximize his average and power next season.

What did the Brewers do to fix Frankie Montas?

When the Brewers acquired Frankie Montas at the trade deadline, he was unusable in fantasy baseball. His ERA and WHIP were at 5.01 and 1.44, respectively, with less than a strikeout per inning. Since joining the Brewers, though, he looks revitalized.

With the Brewers, Montas’ ERA and WHIP are 3.40 and 1.13. He is at 50 strikeouts in 43 innings, his best rate since 2021 with Oakland. It could be that it’s a small sample of only eight starts and he’ll regress to the mediocre pitcher we’ve seen the past few seasons. However, there is a tangible change in his pitch selection with the Brewers. He has lessened his splitter usage in favor of the harder-thrown sinker. So far it’s working for him.

Which of the Rangers ‘new’ pitchers can we have more faith in down the stretch?

Other than injury history, Kumar Rocker and Jacob deGrom couldn’t be more different. The latter is a two-time Cy Young Award Winner, who, if he could stay healthy, would be a Hall of Famer someday. Rocker made his career debut having thrown a mere 64.2 innings in the Minors. They each made their season debuts last week with immediate success.

Rocker made his career debut on Thursday. He struck out seven over four innings while allowing only one earned run on a solo home run by Justin Turner. The veteran DeGrom followed on Friday by going three and two-thirds innings without allowing an earned run, but only with four strikeouts.

Considering the Rangers’ position in the postseason race, it would be surprising to see either option go five innings the rest of this season. Even in shortened starts, they can be assets in both ratio statistics and strikeouts, so they should be on a fantasy baseball roster.

Has Wyatt Langford figured out Major League pitching?

2024 may be remembered as the year of the rookie. The National League has three stars emerge in Jackson Chourio, Jackson Merrill and Paul Skenes. It may have taken him a bit longer than the others, but Wyatt Langford is seemingly joining the group.

Over the last month, the Rangers have played 27 games. Langford has started all of them. He has delivered 20 runs, five home runs, 20 RBI, four stolen bases and a .300 batting average. That’s the type of production fantasy managers had hoped for all season from the young outfielder.

We saw how it took Chourio a bit of time to figure out the top level of baseball as well. Langford missed about a month earlier in the season with a hamstring injury, so he is roughly on the same timeframe as Chourio in getting acclimated to the best pitchers in the world. Langford is one player whose value will be interesting to track throughout the offseason.

Should we be adding Joey Cantillo after his hot stretch?

Struggles on his first try at the Majors led to Joey Cantillo being demoted at the end of August. An injury to Alex Cobb saw Cantillo recalled two weeks after his demotion. He has delivered the best two starts of his MLB career since being recalled.

In Cantillo’s first start back, he struck out 10 batters in seven innings and allowed only one earned run while earning his first career victory. The second start wasn’t quite as good but no one will complain about six strikeouts over five innings without allowing an earned run.

You could look at those starts and project a must-add pitcher for the stretch run. The concern is that his two starts have come against the White Sox and the Rays. Those are two of the three lowest-scoring offenses in baseball. Wait and see how he performs in his next start against Minnesota.

What about adding Keider Montero?

If there was a pitcher who had a better week than Joey Cantillo, it was Keider Montero. Montero made two starts last week and didn’t allow an earned run over 14 innings. Not to sound like a broken record, but similar to Cantillo, this is still a wait-and-see approach.

First, Montero pitched a complete game against Colorado on the road. He did follow that up with five shutout innings against Baltimore. He isn’t getting enough strikeouts for this to keep happening, though. In his 14 innings, he only struck out six batters. With that many balls being put into play, hits and runs will start to come.

Was the demise of Matt Olson exaggerated?

Barring a massive next two weeks, Matt Olson’s streak of 30 home runs and 100 RBI seasons will come to an end at three. He is at 25 home runs and 86 RBI. It may seem like a disappointment, but he’s largely been the slugger we drafted since the All-Star break — 12 home runs, 42 RBI and a .254 average.

While the seasonal hard-hit and barrel rates are a bit lower than what we’ve come to expect from him, they’ve rebounded in the second half. As we arrive in mid-September, it’s natural to start looking forward to next season. The Braves lineup has to stay healthier next year, which should help Olson with his counting statistics. If that comes at a draft discount, be ready to pounce.

Is Tommy Edman a power hitter with the Dodgers?

It was a very late start to the season for Tommy Edman as he recovered from his wrist injury. While he was injured, he was traded to the Dodgers. It’s been less than a month, but he looks like a different player with Los Angeles.

Edman’s usual calling card has been his stolen base prowess. He is still providing those with five already. The difference is the power. Over a full season, Edman’s career-high in home runs was 13. In only 91 plate appearances with the Dodgers, he has four. Again, it could be small sample fluctuations, but he does have career highs in hard-hit, fly-ball and pull rates. That’s a good combination if you want to hit for power.

What do we do with Francisco Lindor this week?

Francisco Lindor is on a lot of championship-level fantasy baseball teams. He is pacing to match his 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases from last season. The question is whether or not an injured list (IL) stint is in his immediate future.

Lindor was removed from Sunday’s game after the first inning. After the game, we learned a back issue had bothered him for a few weeks. It reached a point on Sunday where playing through the pain was no longer worth it. We know he is going for an MRI today. While the potential return is top-notch, you don’t want to take a zero in your championship week. The safe play is to sit Lindor.

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