May: Fantasy Forecast

On the first of each month I will post a list of 50 things that you as a fantasy baseball owner should be aware of and things you should look for in the upcoming month. Some will be good, some will be bad and some will have absolutely nothing to do with anyone on your fantasy team. In fact, there may be a few in here that have nothing to do with fantasy sports at all. Guess you will have to read through them all to find out if there is any life changing advice or knowledge being dished out through this keyboard of mine.

Here we go....

- You can count on at least one injury to a fantasy player on your team this month so be prepared by building your depth. It’s easy to find, you just have to know where to look.

- On that note, there will be diamonds in the rough hanging out in free agency. Don’t be lazy go find them.

- Every league has that one owner who panics during every cold streak and over reacts to every hot streak. Take advantage of this guy by buying his players low and selling him your players high. Buy him a beer at the end of the season and thank him for helping you win another fantasy baseball title.

- Speaking of hot streaks you might want to sell high on Charlie Blackmon if you can. He is still number 1 on the player rater. But he won’t finish anywhere close to the top 100.

- Speaking of cold streaks you should look into buying low on is George Springer. He is going to be great and he will finish the season as a top 75 overall player.

- Clayton Kershaw will be back soon and will regain his status as the best pitcher in baseball.

- Aroldis Chapman will also be back in a week and will leap frog Craig Kimbrel for baseball’s best closer

- Jason Kipnis may miss all of May

- Bryce Harper will miss all of May

- Dee Gordon led all of baseball in steals this past month with 13, he will do it again May.

- Four pitchers are on pace to strike out 300 batter this season. (Jose Fernandez, Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, Johnny Cueto). That hasn’t happened since 2002.

- Two of them will do it, so if you need strikeouts I suggest you snag them.

- The two that will do it are probably not the two you thought. Stephen Strasburg and Johnny Cueto will both strike out 300 this

- Jose Abreu led all of baseball in home runs (10) and rbis (32) in April. At the end of May these numbers won’t be that much higher.

- Justin Upton had another fast start to the season, and once again he will have a terrible month of May.

- So will Miguel Cabrera. He looks injured to me.

- Edwin Encarnacion will NOT have a terrible May as he will pull his best Jose Abreu impression and lead baseball in HR and RBIs this month.

- If you don’t own Mike Trout in a keeper league you probably never will.

- Same goes for Dan Uggla.

- Hisashi Iwakuma is making his season debut this weekend. He should be owned in all leagues.

- Alcohol is considered a performance enhancing drug in shooting competitions.

- Francisco Rodriguez leads baseball with 13 saves. Yes... K-Rod... He could save 50 games this year or lose his job tomorrow. I gave up long ago trying to figure out closers.

- Gregory Polanco is still in the minors and he probably should be.

- Trevor Bauer is still in the minors and he probably shouldn’t be. He is probably getting the call up very soon and is a must add in all formats.

- Same goes with Marcus Stroman. He is probably up next week and is also worth a speculative add in all formats.

- Archie Bradley is not as he just went on the minor league DL and may be out a while.

- BJ Upton has now decided that the prescription glasses he is required to wear while driving at night might be a good idea to wear while trying to hit at night. At this point it can’t possibly hurt to try can it?

- Chris Colabello is still over rated

- Matt Kemp is still under rated

- And if we are re-drafting our leagues right now I am taking Troy Tulowitzki number 1 overall. Yeah, I said it. What do you think about that Mike Trout?

- Manny Machado is back and should be a good option going forward. If you can buy low in keeper leagues I suggest you do it right now because after this year you won’t be able to.

- Jason Heyward is hitting .302 over his last 10 games and will have a monster month of May.

- The Braves pitchers will finally come back down to earth and they will be looking for trade options come this summer.

- Robinson Cano continues to struggle but that can only last for so long. Buy low if you can. He is still fantasy baseball’s best second baseman.

- If you can’t get him, go get Emilio Bonafacio, he is owned in less than 100% of leagues, has 2B eligibility and will steal 50 bases this year. Look the guy isn’t that bad, he always produces for fantasy owners when given at bats and he will continue to get them in Chicago. 120 stolen bases in his last 1500 at bats.

- Always be on the lookout for sleeper saves and next in line closers.

- Dellin Betances is one (23 strikeouts in 13 innings) and should be owned in all fantasy leagues, especially by David Robertson owners. Another injury to Robertson should see him get save chances.

- Wade Davis is another (23 strikeouts in 12 innings) and should also be owned by all Greg Holland owners and will also be a great closer option down the line should anything happen to Greg Holland

- Go ahead and pick up Danny Farquhar now as he will finish the season with more saves than current closer Fernando Rodney who never should have been the closer to begin with.

- Mike Minor will be making his first start of the season this weekend and is solid value for all owners going forward.

- Josh Hamilton is hurt again and won’t play at all this month

- Chris Sale finally got hurt as expected and I suspect this will be the start of a long run of injuries for him.

- Michael Pineda got caught cheating, and then he got hurt. This isn’t going to end well.

- Albert Pujols is finally healthy and playing like, well, Albert Pujols. Expect a similar like bounce back season for Miguel Cabrera next year if he can finally shake off the injury bug.

- In every single episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

- Billy Hamilton is the most over rated player in baseball. He is also the most under rated.

- W.A.R. is an imaginary stat that involves a lot of human guess work. Don’t pay attention to it.

- Don’t bench your best players just because they have a tough match up, you didn’t draft Shin-Soo Choo in the 5^th round just to bench him against lefties. (Btw he is hitting .417 against lefties this year)

- Starling Marte has 1 home run, he will finish the year with 20. He will also steal 40 bases.

- Struggling players will turn it around and players playing out of their minds will come back down to earth. It’s a long season, players you were high on a month ago you should still be high on today. Never fall in love with players, always look to improve. Buy low, sell high.. You know the deal.