HOT
Chris Coghlan
Chicago Cubs outfielder Chris Coghlan doesn’t have the fanfare of some of his teammates. Lately, though, his bat has done just as much, if not more, talking than the rest of the Cubs batters.
During the last month, Coghlan leads the team in batting average at .329 and on-base percentage at .439. He also ranks fourth on the team in runs with 12.
His biggest issue in his career has been playing time. During his rookie campaign, he played 128 games and netted 84 runs with a .321 batting average and .390 on-base percentage. Since that season in 2009, he’s only played in more than 100 games once. This season, he’s logged 73 games already.
He isn’t going to contribute in the RBIs, stolen bases and home runs categories (although he does have eight homers this season, which is the second-most in a season in his career). However, he can score runs and has shown the ability to hit for average and get on base in the past. He is barely owned in fantasy baseball leagues and could be filler if fantasy baseball owners are in need of an outfielder.
NOT
Addison Russell
This hasn’t been a good month for Chicago Cubs second baseman Addison Russell. He’s batting a team-worst .229 (for qualifiers) in the last month and has struck out 25 times.
He also only has seven RBIs in the last 30 days, ranking him sixth on the team, and has seven runs, good enough for sixth on the team. He doesn’t have any stolen bases in the last month.
Basically, Russell hasn’t contributed much in the last 30 days. That goes along with his season, where he ranks 22nd in runs, 24th in RBIs, 36th in batting average and 32nd in on-base percentage among second basemen in Major League Baseball.
Those aren’t numbers to justify keeping Russell for this season. He’s still young, with this being his first Major League Baseball season. However, unless in a keeper format, there’s no reason to stay with him.
