Milton Bradley, OF - Cubs

For most players, the long haul of the baseball season may lead to prolonged hot and cold stretches. As the season comes into its sixth fantasy week, some players have tried their owner’s patience enough to have warranted having been dropped.  This is where the good teams can become great.  

 

If a player is playing below the standard he has set in recent years, it stands to reason that by the end of the year said player will be up to those marks.  If their stats are at lows for the season, then there is nowhere to go but up.  With those numbers on the rise, that player’s pace of production will likely be accelerated, helping your team that much more. 

 

Without any further ado, here are a few guys that can produce like that for you with a long-term prospect for you keeper league owners.

 

 

Milton Bradley – RF – Chicago Cubs (65.9% ESPN, 41% Y!, 53% Y! Plus)

I cannot imagine a scenario that does not include either injury or suspension (both of which are admittedly more likely with Bradley than perhaps any other player in baseball) in which the board game magnate’s stock could sink any lower.  Thus far, the mercurial Milton Bradley is sporting a .179/.321/.328/.649 split with three home runs to go with his eight runs and six RBIs.  If one were to attempt to succinctly summarize those numbers, the words used would rhyme with “mudder fit”.

 

Sure, making it through the rest of the season without a trip to the DL would be miraculous, but his career numbers bear out that this slump will not last.  Getting the rough stretch out of the way before he is even on your team cannot do anything but help, and when Milton Bradley gets hot it can be scary for opposing fantasy owners.

 

 

Pat Burrell – LF – Tampa Bay Devil Rays (74.2% ESPN, 49% Y!, 58% Y! Plus)

Through 29 games, Pat “The Bat” Burrell finds himself sitting at a whopping one home run and four doubles.  While his average is within ten points of his career mark, his slugging percentage currently resides at .317 after four straight years above .500.  His ISO is a disturbingly low .067 following four straight seasons of .222 or better.  His ground ball, fly ball, and line drive percentages are all within career norms as well.

 

Burrell is a notoriously streaky player.  Granted, he is beginning the downswing of his career as he is two-and-a-half years to the wrong side of 30, but the power is not likely to drop off this precipitously without the intervention of a major injury.  Coming off of a four-year stretch in which his lowest home run total was 29 in a season, patient owners nabbing Burrell while his stock is at a low can realistically expect 25+ home runs from here on out despite the slow start to the season.  The extra base hits will come, as will the return to the standard production that owners have grown accustomed to. 

 

 

Brett Cecil – SP – Toronto Blue Jays (1.8% ESPN, 8% Y!, 31% Y! Plus)

Drafted in 2007, Cecil made it to Double-A in his first full pro season last year.  The young lefty is a converted college reliever who made a case for inclusion on the Jays’ 25-man roster during spring training.  Upon getting sent down to Triple-A, he put up a 8.31 ERA in 17.1 IP.  The thing is his BABIP was .356, and his FIP was a mere 3.72 indicating luck was not working in his favor.  Not to be deterred by his spotty showing at Las Vegas, the Blue Jays called him up as yet another injury struck their rotation. 

 

In two starts this past week, Cecil totaled 14 IP with one earned run allowed (he also gave up an unearned run in his first start) while collecting 12 Ks to two walks allowed.  His 11 hits allowed when combined the pair of free passes means the whipper-snapper is sporting a WHIP under 1.00 through his first two starts in the bigs.  Now, if given the chance to start for the whole season –Cecil could certainly get sent down once Ricky Romero comes back off the DL—he surely will not maintain these numbers, but he has shown an aptitude for maintaining a high K/BB ratio at all levels.  Lack of control is one of the key symptoms of struggling young pitchers, so Cecil could well be equipped to avoid some of the more damaging starts that other young hurlers tend to put up more often than owners would like. 

 

 

Juan Cruz – RP – Kansas City Royals (2.5% ESPN, 13% Y!, 45% Y! Plus)

Coming off two straight seasons featuring a K/9 rate of over 12.37, Cruz’s K-rate has dropped to 6.75 this season.  This is likely the byproduct of small statistical sample size, which will likely correct itself as more innings are pitched.  While his BB/9 figures have always been a bit worrisome, he did lead the Majors in most swing-and-misses last season, which obviously cuts down a bit on how damaging those walks can be.

 

The reason all of this is pertinent is that the widely available set-up man for the (tied for) first place Royals is the de facto closer in Kansas City with All-Star Joakim Soria making his way to the DL with tightness in his shoulder on Sunday.  Despite his slight drop in strikeouts thus far, he has compiled an ERA of 1.88 and a WHIP of 1.12.  When given the opportunity to pick up the save on April 30^th, he didn’t allow a baserunner.  His ‘blown save’* was as much the result of shoddy glove work by Miguel Olivo, whose work behind the dish saw a sequence play out in which Michael Cuddyer advanced from first to second to third on a wild pitch then a passed ball after having been walked.

 

Josh Duggan welcomes your comments at mister.josh.duggan@gmail.com.  If you are going to heave insults in his direction, at least be funny and creative.  He is also the author of a Kansas City Royals blog, Royalscentricity, and a pop culture blog, Inconsiderate Prick.