I understand that first base is a deep position but I’m still perplexed that Mitch Moreland is less than 50 percent owned in Yahoo! leagues. What more does the guy need to do?
For major league first basemen with a minimum of 230 plate appearances, Moreland is ninth in WAR (1.9), tied for ninth in home runs (15), third in slugging (.563) and 10th in RBIs (43). And it’s worth noting that Moreland is putting up these numbers after having missed three weeks earlier in the year to correct some elbow issues. Moreland is raking, having just finished up a month of June with nine dingers and 25 RBI.
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There’s a lot going for Moreland at the moment. He’s healthy and he’s hitting lefties much better than he has in his career. Moreland is a career .235 hitter versus southpaws but here’s what he’s done against lefties this season in 66 at-bats: .409 slugging percentage, 29.8 percent line-drive rate (10 percent above his career number) and a 34 percent groundball rate (nearly 10percent lower than his career average).
The improved success against southpaws is allowing manager Jeff Banister to throw Moreland into the lineup more frequently, as he attempts to set a new season-high for home runs, after hitting 23 back in 2013.
Among the first basemen I’d drop to get Moreland include Kendrys Morales, Adam Lind and Brandon Belt. All three are currently more owned than the Texas Rangers slugger.
Cesar Hernandez, 2B/3B/SS (17 percent owned)
Introducing the Philadelphia Phillies number two hitter for the rest of the season. Well, probably, unless Chase Utley somehow gets a look when he returns from injury. But with Utley on the shelf, Cesar Hernandez has been a nice spark plug atop Pete Mackanin’s lineup, swiping nine bases in 177 plate appearances to go along with an 11.3 percent walk rate.
Hernandez showed absolutely zero power in the minors but he did swipe 44 bases in 174 games while playing for the Phillies triple-A system. And as bad as the Phillies are, they’re 12th in the majors in stolen bases and with Maikel Franco hitting behind Hernandez in the lineup, Hernandez has the chance to put up some nice numbers for your fantasy team.
Mike Montgomery, SP (30 percent owned)
Plus change-up, mid-90’s fastball, he’s just 25-years-old and he’s a lefty. Mike Montgomery is such an intriguing deep-league option. Traded by the Tampa Bay Rays to the Seattle Mariners, Montgomery had to wait until the M’s were dealt with injuries to James Paxton and Hisashi Iwakuma before getting a shot in the rotation. On Tuesday Montgomery went the distance in blanking the San Diego Padres in a complete game one-hitter (his second straight complete game shutout), lowering his ERA to 1.62 and his WHIP to 0.90 on the season in seven starts.
As we said, he’s got a filthy change-up. Montgomery has thrown the pitch 172 times this season and batters are hitting .125 with 24 strikeouts. He’s not a high strikeout guy but frankly, most pitchers with high K rates aren’t even on the waiver wire anymore. Montgomery remains a stream option for now, but I’m trying to expose matchups against teams who struggle against change-ups.
Erasmo Ramirez, SP (14 percent owned)
Erasmo Ramirez, who was traded for Montgomery earlier in the year, is holding a 4.01 ERA through 11 starts this season but if you can look past that, you’ll notice that we’re dealing with a pitcher who’s inducing more groundballs and is missing more bats. Ramirez is boasting a swinging strike percentage of 13.2 percent and his curve, change-up, and slider are all garnering at least 18 percent whiffs, suggesting his overall strike rate of 20.9 percent could be due for an increase.
Ramirez has been homer prone in his career but he’s keeping the ball on the ground and even with Matt Moore on the way back from injury, Ramirez looks to be keeping a spot in the Rays rotation with Alex Colome the odd-man out. Ramirez should be owned in AL-only leagues and provides an option in 14-teamers or deeper. He’s a nice source of wins, strikeouts and should get that ERA down with a little more luck.
Chris Young, OF (22 percent owned)
I’m not sure you’ll find more of a streaky hitter then Chris Young, who just saw a 10-game hitting streak snapped on Sunday where he batted .459 with three home runs, 11 runs, 10 RBI and two stolen bases. The strikeout rate is still sitting above 20 percent on the season but he struck out just nine times in the month of June, showing a much more improved approach at the plate. Young doesn’t take many walks but his decent source of power gives you one option if you’ve lost Giancarlo Stanton to the broken hamate bone. The fact that Young is finding consistent playing time in the New York Yankees outfield makes him viable in deeper formats.
