We're nearly a month into the 2019 Fantasy baseball season and owners everywhere are taking stock of their rosters and doing whatever they can to address any holes. Working the Fantasy baseball waiver wire and trade market are key, as they're the only ways to improve your team for a deep run. Now is the perfect time to take advantage of owners reacting to the first month of the season by buying low on under-performing talent and selling high on players with unsustainable production.Knowing how to value players whose numbers might be skewed one way or another by a streaking or slumping start can be a challenge. Was Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar's 35-homer season a fluke or is his .439 OPS to start the year just bad luck? And what should you do with players like Chris Sale, who's 0-4 with an 8.50 ERA? Those are the kinds of questions that the 2019 Fantasy baseball rankings and trade evaluator from Ariel Cohen are designed to answer. So before you make any trades, consult this 2019 Fantasy baseball trade chart to make sure you're not getting the short end of the stick.
Cohen is the creator of the ATC (Average Total Cost) Projection System. He was a finalist for two FSWA Awards in 2018 -- Baseball Article of the Year and Baseball Writer of the Year. Cohen and his Fantasy partner, Reuven Guy, have used the ATC system projections to finish in the money in several NFBC, RTSports, Tout Wars and other national leagues, racking up several division titles.
This trade evaluator tool is extremely user-friendly. You simply download an Excel file and input the players you are giving away and receiving. The tool will then give you a value. "C" is an even deal; anything above is a win for you, and anything below is a loss. You can only access this must-have tool at SportsLine.
In this week's 2019 Fantasy baseball rankings and trade chart, we can tell you that Cohen's projections are extremely high on Brewers catcher Yasmani Grandal. The switch-hitting backstop has a 1.107 OPS, buoyed by a strong hard-hit contact rate of 67.4 percent. That means that two out of every three times he's putting the ball in play, it's with an exit velocity that typically results in a base hit.
In that regard, he's almost unlucky to have a BABIP of .421 despite the fact that .300 is around the league average. Grandal is seeing the ball as well as he ever has, which provides an opportunity to take advantage of anybody selling because they think he's just getting lucky. Grandal is batting .338 this season with five home runs and 10 RBIs. He had a slow Easter weekend, but showed his versatility by swiping a base during Sunday's game against the Dodgers.
A player the trade chart is fading in its Fantasy baseball rankings: Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon. After a pretty steep dropoff from 2017 to 2018, Blackmon has fallen off a cliff in the early going.
He's fallen from No. 95 to No. 130 in the head-to-head trade Fantasy baseball rankings in the span of a week because his soft-hit contact rate is a staggering 25.0 percent. That's the highest it's been since his 104 plate-appearance MLB debut in 2011.
Blackmon is having a hard time staying on the ball, evidenced by his 17.4 percent infield fly-ball rate, but even if he gets the benefit of luck to raise his BABIP from .267 to above .300, his offensive profile might not recover if he's not driving the ball at Coors Field. He may struggle to raise his OPS from .567 to back over .800 where we all assume it belongs.
The 2019 Fantasy baseball trade chart is also extremely high on a pitcher who had exploded out of the gates in 2019 to become a top-10 value after opening the season outside the top 50. Additionally, it has updated the value of players on the injured list like Blake Snell (toes), Francisco Lindor (ankle) and Luis Severino (shoulder). Getting the right value for players like these could be the difference between winning a title or going home with nothing.
What are the Fantasy baseball trade values for every MLB player in head-to-head and Rotisserie leagues? And which surprising pitcher is now a top-10 value? Visit SportsLine now to see the Fantasy baseball trade evaluator and chart, all based off the projections of one of the top Fantasy baseball analysts in the nation.