Fantasy Baseball: News and Notes Week 9

Miguel Sano is a flat out star. I’ve been saying for a while now that his average won’t keep up, but it looks like I might be wrong. Right when he enters into a mini-slump, he busts out of it for a week of hot production. He is a must-own and a top 50 player rest of season.

Bryce Harper set the world on fire in May by breaking the record for most runs scored with 32 and hitting for tons of power. In May, he wasn’t terrible, but he wasn’t

the star performer he was in April. There was some expected regression coming for Harper as he has a .390 batting average but it has fallen all the way to the .320 range. People should never have expected him to bat .330 like he did his MVP season so I would expect him to be around .280-.300, still very respectable. In addition, the counting stats by season’s end will be similar to 2015 except the homers won’t be 42 and with the injury of Trout, he is the #1 player in fantasy for the rest of the season.

Devon Travis injured yet again. This one hurts because he was just starting to get his bat back into shape and was one of the leading doubles hitters in all of baseball. From this point on in drafts, I would stay away because he just can’t be trusted to stay healthy for an entire season.

Scooter Gennett…holy crap. He is one of 17 people to have ever hit 4 homers in a single game. But, for fantasy, you want to stay as far away as you possibly can. I think it is well known that Gennett is terrible as evidence when the Brewers released him. Congrats to him but this is simply just a fluke.

I think it’s time we consider Charlie Blackmon a legit fantasy force. He was being taken at the end of the first round or early second in most drafts but people always hesitated when they took him. They never think of Blackmon as in the same tier with Harper, Trout, or Betts. He is putting together another monster offensive season with 47 rbi and a .331 batting average. For those who took him, sit back and enjoy.

I thought that Ryan Zimmerman wasn’t going to continue his outstanding campaign but he has proved me wrong. He homered off of Clayton Kershaw Wednesday and has 49 rbi with a .365 batting average. Hitting in the heart of Nationals offense can only increase his run producing opportunities.

Trea Turner has let down a lot of fantasy owners this year but it appears as though he is starting to get his game going. The steals are slowly coming along and the batting average is rising. I would buy low in all formats.

I have given up on Kevin Gausman, and you should too. In every league I owned him in, I dropped him as it appears he isn’t getting any better. Teams are going through routine batting practice when he takes the mound and his walks are not helping his cause. He stinks, no way around it.

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