Buy/Sell: Paul DeJong, Chris Taylor and More Hitting Surprises in the Month of July

I will start off by saying it sure feels good to be back. I have not posted in some time because my friend and I took a road trip to see his cousin, Michael Fulmer, pitch against the Yankees and my friend play on his collegiate summer league team. Sadly they both pitched on the same day, so we chose to watch Michael pitch against the Baby Bombers. Which I would like to give a big thanks to Michael and his family for helping make that New York trip happen. It was a great time, but now it is time to get right back into posting.

There have been a lot of players whose bats have caught on fire in the month of July. This includes Jose Altuve hitting nearly .500 and Giancarlo Stanton just hitting bombs over the left field wall in Miami. Obviously those players will most likely continue to produce at the All-Star level. There have however been some players who have surprised many this past month, and those will be the players we will look at in this post. We have also been talking about doing a daily 10-15 minute video in which I go over fantasy baseball news for the day. This would likely start off with some of my favorite DFS picks on the day, then go onto to regular fantasy news and then end with my prospect watch for the day. I will put a poll down below to see what you guys think about the idea about having a short daily fantasy baseball video.

Josh Bell, 1B, Pittsburgh Pirates

Bell may not be the best defensive option in the league, but he sure has been great offensively in the month of July. Last month Bell hit .290/.347/.527 with 4 home runs in just 101 plate appearances. The question is will his strong July continue on into August? The answer is yes. When Bell was at AAA last season many people questioned his ability to hit for power, and he has answered those critics by putting up 19 home runs in 403 plate appearances in 2017. He was only hitting .233 before the month of July, but after his outstanding month of July that batting average has now jumped up to .273. Now with that being said, Bell is at a position in which has a lot of strong power hitters who are putting up tremendous power numbers in 2017. Bell’s 19 home runs is tied for 21st most out of all the first base eligible players in fantasy leagues this season. It is also worth noting that Freddie Freeman, Lucas Duda, Matt Adams and Chris Davis have put up similar power numbers, but have about 100 at bats less than the Pirates’ first baseman. In conclusion Josh Bell makes for a great option in stats like AVG, OBP, ISO and even HR, but since he plays at a position that is loaded with a lot of power bats he may not see that much playing time in fantasy leagues in 2017.

Chris Taylor, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers

Last month Taylor put his name on many fantasy baseball maps by hitting .394/.412/.660. This strong July helped raise his batting average to .313 this season, but I have my concerns around this 26 year old breakout star. First I will start with his high BABIP in 2017. His .416 BABIP is extremely high, and will most likely come back down to earth in the month of August. Another concern of mine is his power output. This season he has put up an impressive 13 home runs over 354 plate appearances. That is a lot better than the 1 home run he put up over the rest of his career 318 plate appearances. Maybe having players like Justin Turner and Corey Seager in the lineup has helped the Dodgers’ left fielder offensively, but there are too many question marks around this breakout star for me to confidently tell fantasy players to click that add button. With that being said I am not completely writing off the former shortstop. I know he has the potential to hit for a high batting average, but I will be paying close attention to his power output in August.

Paul DeJong, 3B, St. Louis Cardinals

Dejong has been killing it in the month of July as he earned Rookie of the Month honors. Over that time span he hit .298/.347/.638 with 8 home runs. I have been a big believer in DeJong since the season started and even had him in my second post with Fake Teams talking about the top 10 players to watch outside the top 100. He has been an underrated prospect for the past two years, and is now showing his full potential at the big league level. With that being said his 3.8 BB% is very worrisome to someone that plays in a league that accumulates points for walks, but if he continues to hit the way he has been then that will not really matter that much. In conclusion I am buying into DeJong’s strong 2017 campaign, but those playing in leagues that count for walks or OBP should be aware of his low walk rate.

Eduardo Nunez, 3B, Boston Red Sox

Nunez is now on a different team, and a team that was in big need for a quality third baseman. Now he is not going to produce like Travis Shaw has been for the Milwaukee Brewers, but he is a perfect fit for the Red Sox. Let me explain, the Red Sox have a lot of guys that make consistent contact that are not full time power hitters. The Red Sox may not be putting up great power numbers, but they sure know how to run the base paths. With guys like Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi, the Sox are known to be one of the best teams at running the base paths. Nunez will be walking into a team that will give him the green light, and he should also have more RBI and R chances than he did with the Giants. If you play in a standard 5x5 league then Nunez’s value has just skyrocketed, but I will be leaving him on the waiver wire since my league counts more towards power than stolen bases.