It’s time to look at trading a few of those players who have helped fantasy baseball teams navigate through the first three months of the season.
These two players are ripe for the open market.
A.J. Burnett
Fantasy baseball owners may have missed the boat on getting a top-notch position player for Burnett after his last outing. The Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher allowed a season-worst 14 hits en route to a loss against Washington on June 19.
That is one of only a few blemishes on what has been a sterling start to the 2015 season for Burnett. Overall, he’s 6-3 with a 2.05 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 81 strikeouts. He ranks sixth in Major League Baseball in ERA and 37th in WHIP. His strikeout numbers are respectable at 36th and he’s 28th in wins.
It’s been a good ride for fantasy baseball owners, but Burnett’s past just doesn’t give much reliability that this will continue. His ERA has to go up, considering he has a career ERA of 3.97 over 17 seasons. That’s a quality sample size to show that Burnett cannot continue this trend of limiting earned runs.
His WHIP also is better than his career average of 1.319. One of his biggest keys has been limiting homers. He is at a career-best of 0.3 home runs per nine innings so far this season. His career average is 0.9 per nine innings.
If Burnett cannot keep his ERA at the same level, his fantasy baseball value is far less than in years past because his strikeout numbers have gone down. His career average is 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings, better than his 7.9 strikeouts per nine innings this year.
If you’ve waited this long, go ahead and wait until his next start is finished before shopping him. Hopefully for fantasy baseball owners, his June 25 start against Cincinnati will be better than his last.
Josh Reddick
Oakland A’s outfielder Josh Reddick is putting up numbers similar to his breakout year in 2012. He’s batting .288, with 33 runs, 10 homers, 42 RBIs and a .350 on-base percentage. He ranks in the top-20 among outfielders in all fantasy baseball statistical categories except runs.
Those numbers are on pace to rival his 32 home runs, 85 RBIs, 85 runs and his .305 on-base percentage in 2012. With that knowledge, fantasy baseball owners should start shopping him to other interested in bolstering their outfield.
Reddick has been injury prone, playing in 109 and 114 games in each of the last two years. He also has a career .250 batting average and has only hit more than 60 RBIs only once in his seven-year career.
His batting average will likely dip, and he can’t be trusted to stay on the field. Outfield is a position where players can be found, so it’s safe to shop him around for a quality position player in the infield.
