July 27, 2012

Value Picks

Outfield for 7/27/12

by Paul Singman

With the trade deadline a mere four days away, it certainly is an exciting time in the baseball season.  Every year there are a few surprise moves that no one sees coming (Ichiro, anyone?), so it can pay off to make a few longshot bets on players who might benefit from one of those surprises. Maybe in one league you want to add Rex Brothers or Matt Belisle for a few days in case Rafael Betancourt gets shipped out of Colorado. Or maybe Peter Bourjos in case he gets flipped to a place where he’ll receive regular at-bats. If you’ve got the roster space, these are the type of low-risk moves that can payoff big and make you look like a genius.

Departures
Lorenzo Cain (Yahoo! 27%, ESPN 41%, CBS 54%) had himself a nice week, batting .280 with a homer, nine RBI, and a steal. His ownership rates jumped double-digits across the board, and it’s safe to say he’s likely owned in most competitive leagues at this point. If you were able to scoop him up last week, good for you; you should have a productive third outfielder for the rest of the season.

Casper Wells’ (Yahoo! 5%, ESPN 14%, CBS 18%) production has vanished into thin air… or, more appropriately, into the webbing of the catcher’s mitt; the Seattle outfielder whiffed 11 times in 29 at-bats this week. He managed a mere four hits (.138 AVG) and should continue to struggle to get on base given his contact woes (65 percent contact rate). The Ichiro trade all but guaranteed Wells playing time even when Franklin Gutierrez returns, but I still want no part of this guy outside of AL-only leagues.

With Tyler Colvin’s bat cooling off in July, last week’s NL-only VP Andrew Brown (Yahoo! 0%, ESPN 0%, CBS 0%) got a few starts in the Rockies’ outfield this past week. The only problem is that his bat was an even colder 0-for-11. Unless you're in a deep NL-only league, it’s probably best to look elsewhere.

Another guy with a hitless week, Andres Torres (Yahoo! 1%, ESPN 1%, CBS 6%) is doing his part to sabotage the Mets’ season and crush the now fleeting dreams of Mets fans everywhere. Torres should continue to receive at-bats given that possible replacement Kirk Nieuwenhuis hasn’t looked any better lately. Still, until he starts producing again, I think it’s better to leave Torres out of this column.

Hanging Around
Alexi Amarista (Yahoo! 18%, ESPN 24%, CBS 24%) offered a few uneventful nights at the plate before being forced out of action on Tuesday with a sore thumb. Hopefully he can avoid a DL stint and continue his sneakily productive ways over the final months of the season.

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