Chris Young, Arizona

I’m going to be honest with you.  I was not ready for football season to start.  Perhaps it was because there was absolutely no reason to get excited for another Chiefs season.  New crew running the show or not, this is still a team largely lacking in the talent department, and a four-win season would seem to be their realistic ceiling. 

 

So with little personal excitement brewing over the football season, I was unhappy to realize that I had spent almost my entire Sunday watching football—I was lucky enough to see that ridiculous Roger Federer shot live. 

 

Perhaps if I had been playing fantasy baseball this past week, I would have been glued to StatTracker watching results, but that is the curse of having a first-round bye (or having been eliminated).

 

So while you may be finding your sports loyalties divided as football season is now under way, you mustn’t forget that it is getting down to the most important part of the fantasy baseball season. 

 

Without any further ado…

 

 

Casey McGehee – 2B, 3B – Milwaukee Brewers (39% Y! Plus, 16% Y!, 17.0% ESPN)

After spending the first couple of months of the season struggling to put it all together, things started to gel for Casey McGehee in the middle of June.  Hitting just .269/.355/.346/.701 on June 10^th, McGehee has hit .314/.370/.561/.931 since.  As of June 10^th, McGehee had collected a mere four extra-base hits—all doubles.  From June 11^th on, McGehee has flexed a lot more power, ripping 15 home runs, 12 doubles, and a triple.  His BB:K has been a respectable 22:41 in his 262 plate appearances over that time.  He has also thrown in 42 R and 51 RBI for good measure.  Over those three months, the 26-year-old rookie has earned 57 starts in 72 games played.  While his BABIP of .330 may be just a bit high, he is riding three whole months of very solid play.  Certainly a long enough stretch of time to think about adding him with his dual-position eligibility.

 

 

Seth Smith – LF, CF, RF – Colorado Rockies (49% Y! Plus, 23% Y!, 23.0% ESPN)

If you need an outfielder for this coming week, Smith may just be your man.  In his past 15 games (13 of which have been starts), Smith has been on a tear, hitting .365/.424/.750/1.174 while hitting four home runs, scoring 12 times and driving in 17.  Obviously if you can get that kind of production from anywhere on your team over the course of two weeks, you will take it.  His play has been such that it warrants a long, hard look.

 

The only hitch here is in the currently overcrowded state of the Rockies’ outfield.  While Dexter Fowler’s trip to the DL opened the door for Smith in the first place, Fowler is back now.  Granted, Fowler has only garnered six at bats in his five games back from the DL, and Smith has yet to be adversely affected.  Unfortunately for Smith, Carlos Gonzalez has been playing so well lately that there is little chance he won’t play nearly full-time, and Brad Hawpe is pretty firmly entrenched in right.  Since Gonzalez’s speed can play all right in center, that has meant that Smith’s hot bat has temporarily penciled his name into the starting line-up in left.  However, with Fowler’s skill set, it would be unjustifiably presumptuous to assume that Smith’s current responsibilities are held with anything less than a tenuous grip.  Use Smith while you can.

 

 

Robinson Tejeda – RP – Kansas City Royals (11% Y! Plus, 3% Y!, 1.3% ESPN)

With all of the injuries to the Royals starting rotation (it is understandable if you are not paying any attention, but Gil Meche and Brian Bannister have both had their names included in the same sentences as the phrase “being shut down for the season), the Royals wild middle reliever has been given two spot starts.  This is significant because since July 31^st, Tejeda has only allowed one earned run, good for a 0.33 ERA over that stretch.  Furthermore, in those 27.2 IP he has struck out 35 while cutting his walks down to eight and only allowing nine hits. 

 

On the season, Tejeda’s BB/9 is an alarming 5.74, which should generally scare fantasy owners away.  Oddly though, he has allowed two fewer hits on the season than bases on balls (32 to 34).  The place to find more solace is in his K-rates.  His K/9 on the season is 11.64, which is enough to bring his K/BB down to 2.03.  Further alleviating some of the pressure that should come along with such a high walk-rate is the fact that he has the ninth-lowest Contact Rate in baseball (min. 50 IP) at 69.2%.  Regardless, his last month is reason enough to contemplate his addition, and the Royals have decided to play well again this September ensuring themselves no shot at Bryce Harper in next year’s draft. 

 

 

Chris Young – CF – Arizona Diamondbacks (28% Y! Plus, 30% Y!, 59.4% ESPN)

Having been single-handedly knocked out of the playoffs by this guy last Sunday in one of my less important fantasy leagues, it is not without some pain that I recommend this addition.  Granted, I made my bed when I had my worst draft in years, but in a close final regular season week heading into the playoffs Chris Young hit three seemingly inexplicable home runs last Sunday. 

 

In the past week, Young’s home run total has been five.  In that time, he’s hitting at a  .381/.458/1.142/1.601 clip with six runs scored and another seven driven in.  It would seem that his 20-day vacation in August maybe did him some good, as he has come back hitting at least a semi-respectable .261/.346/.609/.955.  That may seem paltry, but his ratios on the season are sitting at a disgusting .202/.303/.391/.693. 

 

The thing to remember is that at the age of 23 Chris Young hit 32 homers to go with 27 steals, and those numbers were reason enough to justify standing by as the youngster’s underwhelming ratios of .237/.295/.467/.763 dragged on your fantasy lineup.  Clearly there is a track record of varied success.  If you can afford the hit to your team’s AVG, there may be payoff in other areas.  I know he sunk me for a fantasy opponent.

 

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 (which is also syndicated at Bleacher Report, where he is a featured Royals columnist), and a pop culture blog, Inconsiderate Prick, and is a dues paying member of the FSWA.