I remember growing up and going to Kmart and hearing their infamous announcement, “Attention Kmart Shoppers, Blue Light Special on ….” Invariably, the announcement was for something that sounded good, but after review weren’t special at all, such as a Faux Cubic Zirconium ring, or a Genuine Imitation Leather Handbag.
In honor of Kmart and their Blue Light Specials, today I bring you three players who look a whole lot better than they are, and players you should deal if you have them, or stay away from if you don’t.
Let’s start with Tyler Mahle. Mahle took a perfect game into his start last Tuesday, before giving up three runs in the 7th inning. Sunday, Mahle mowed down the Twins, giving up one run and four hits in 6 1/3 innings. Over his past three starts, Mahle has thrown 17 1/3 innings, given up just 14 hits, and has an ERA of 3.12. Sounds great.
But wait, look a bit deeper. Mahle has a batting average against of .185 for the first and second times through the lineup. After players have seen him a couple of times, his batting average against is a whopping .609. That’s not a misprint. The second time around the league may be significantly more challenging for Mahle. He’s faced six different teams this year. He’s running out of virgin opponents. Add to that the fact that Mahle has never thrown more than 165 innings in a season, and the Reds are going nowhere, so a September shut down is likely.
Ozzie Albies is a tremendous young baseball player. The 21 year old may very well mature into a perennial all star. However, he won’t be nearly as good the rest of the year as he looks right now. For those in non-dynasty leagues, there couldn’t be a better time to deal Albies.
In 1,555 minor league at bats, Albies hit 16 home runs. This season, in 116 at bats through Sunday, he has nine round trippers. Albies is 6th in the major league in Slugging Percentage at .647, and 12th in OPS at .988. Albies’ best slugging percentage in the minors was .467 and his top OPS was just .858. He’s good, just not nearly this good, at least not yet.
Many are pointing to Didi Gregorius coming down to earth soon, me included. I expect that Albies will come falling much faster.
Lance McCullers, Jr. is off to the best start of his young career. He’s earned four wins, has a WHIP of 1.21 and his ERA of 3.71 won’t kill you. I actually expect that he will continue or improve those numbers for as long as he pitches this season. That’s the key. McCullers cannot stay healthy, and as a result, he hasn’t thrown more than 125 innings as a professional in any season since signing in 2012. The Astros have a solid stable, and certainly won’t push McCullers past the 145 innings pitched mark. So, McCullers has just over 100 innings pitched, maximum, left before the Astros shut him down, and even less if he gets injured, as he does every year.
Now, to a non-baseball related topic. I took my 14-year old son, Brandon, to see Avengers- Infinity Wars (long, but good) Thursday. Prior to the previews, we were shown two clips of Matthew Berry pimping the new Fantasy Movie League. No, I am not kidding. Well, if there’s a fantasy movie league, then certainly, there ought to be a Fantasy Ultimate Disc League. There’s actually a professional league, the American Ultimate Disc League (AULD), with 23 teams, including franchises in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta. Dallas took the title in 2016, and San Francisco won it all in 2017. The AUDL has been around since 2012, so it’s high time we have an AUDL fantasy league.
Getting ahead of the curve, I’m featuring a rookie this week you should target if you’re playing in an AUDL dynasty league. Former UCSB Black Tide superstar Marcel Osborne has taken his talents to the San Diego Growlers. The 21-year old Osborne, a 6’1” 165 pound defender, just finished four successful seasons with the Black Tide and is on the short list of 2017-2018 All-American candidates. While he is presently playing defense for the Growlers, it’s only a matter of time until he moves into a handler position where he will rack up dozens of assists and goals. Now that his college career has come to a close, Osborne will be able to focus his attention on the Growlers. Unknown to most, Osborne is this week’s AUDL must add.
Best of luck,
Buster
Follow me @BusterH_Esq.
