With April in the books, the time has come to look at some of the surprising leaders in the hitting categories. My fantasy instinct told me to label these guys as Sell High players, but something else told me to leave that negatively-connantated phrase out and just call them "surprises". Is there any reason to believe that any of these players are just flukes or not amongst those who have permanently made it to the land of valuable fantasy commodities?
While some of the numbers give unreasonable full-season projections - 42 HRs for Nate McLouth or 192 RBIs for Josh Hamilton, there isn't any reason to believe these players' value relative to other players at their positions can't hold. As an example, Geovanny Soto could very well be in the upper echelon of fantasy catchers right now. Diamondbacks 3B Mark Reynolds may not go 40/140, but he could very well be a top slugging 3B, no?
| Hitter | AVG | Hitter | HR | Hitter | RBI | Hitter | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conor Jackson | 0.348 | Edwin Encarnacion | 7 | Josh Hamilton | 32 | Michael Bourn | 13 |
| Casey Kotchman | 0.344 | Mike Jacobs | 7 | Conor Jackson | 25 | Carlos Gomez | 11 |
| Nate McLouth | 0.342 | Nate McLouth | 7 | Nate McLouth | 25 | Jacoby Ellsbury | 8 |
| Josh Willingham | 0.341 | Carlos Quentin | 7 | Mark Reynolds | 24 | Alex Rios | 6 |
| Fred Lewis | 0.337 | Mark Reynolds | 7 | ||||
| Geovany Soto | 0.333 | Casey Kotchman | 6 | ||||
| Josh Hamilton | 0.33 | Mike Napoli | 6 | ||||
| Justin Upton | 0.327 | Josh Willingham | 6 | ||||