Fantasy Baseball Buy and Sell: Michael Chavis, Willie Calhoun, Tommy Pham, and more!

It’s time for some fantasy baseball buy or sell chatter!

Buy

1B/2B/OF Michael Chavis, Boston Red Sox (3% rostered)

Once a highly touted prospect, Chavis lost favor after a number of demotions back to the minors, coupled with a 2020 season when he had a .212 batting average and a 31.6% strikeout rate. That said, his first taste of the majors yielded a .254 average and a 2:1 Run and RBI per-game pace (small sample size but would average out to 324 runs and RBI). He’s in a good headspace fighting for a spot on the team, and his recent play is on the upswing. Grab him while you can before he emerges.

OF Willie Calhoun, Texas Rangers (19% rostered)

You need to be getting Calhoun NOW. It took a while, but he’s in full stride with a current .309 average, as well as four home runs, 10 RBI and 11 runs across 22 games. The Rangers have trusted him to leadoff and he’s rewarding them with a strong bat. Year over year, his strikeout rate is down, his walk rate is up, ISO is up, hard hit rate is up and so is his spray chart to opposite field—creating struggles for any shift that is imposed.

Temporary Buy:

C,1B,2B,3B,SS Kyle Farmer, Cincinnati Reds (3% rostered)

This is more of a speculative buy as I need to see more proof, but what I’ve seen over the last week has me optimistic. This is a player who has had two seasons batting above .250 with a promising 2019 that saw nine homers, 22 runs and 27 RBI in about half a season’s worth of games played. Across the last two weeks he has four runs, one RBI and one stolen base, with a .333 batting average across just five games started. It’s not the best, but he’s getting more playing time with Joey Votto out and I think even as a utility backup there is a spot for him on your team considering how many positions he is eligible at. Once he has fewer than two starts in a week, though, I’m cutting him loose.

Sell

3B/DH Miguel Sano, Minnesota Twins (39% rostered)

Over the last three seasons Miguel’s average has gone from .240 to .204 to .121. He’s not alone in struggling with batting average, but the area where he typically thrives (power) is also coming up woefully short. He has two homers across 20 games and is currently striking out 38% of the time. Sadly, that’s an improvement from the 43% K-rate he had last season.

OF Tommy Pham, San Diego Padres (86% rostered)

I was once a big Tommy Pham fan, but this year he is proving to be a shell of what he was during the 2017-2019 seasons. Currently batting .191, Pham was dropped to 6^th/7^th in the lineup until he had a brief hitting streak—and then they brought him back up to bat cleanup, only to have him go 0-for-6. His power seems to be completely gone from where it was just two seasons ago, and his sole redeeming quality this season has been stolen bases (3). If you can trade him, fantastic. But I flat out dropped him in two leagues.

Who are you buying or selling on your fake teams?