Fantasy Baseball Trade Advice Week 17: Players To Buy Low & Sell High
When you’re starting to look at making some trades, it can often be hard to figure out where to start. Who do you sell high on? Who do you buy low on? Which struggling players just aren’t worth buying at all? Besides me spending too much time looking at this stuff (more on that below), we have some great resources available to us.
As you may or may not know, we have a fantastic Trade Analyzer Chart here on the site that you can use to gauge players’ current values. You’ll notice a few outliers in there that the algorithm will catch up to as we go, but this tool is an absolutely fantastic way to look at sell-high and buy-low players.
I’ll let you explore the chart (and an amazing Trade Analyzer Tool if you’re a premium member) on your own in a minute, but if you’re short on time, here are some players who are sticking out to me as of July 26.
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Top Fantasy Baseball Buy Low Candidates
Bautista has been the best closer in baseball this season, so why are we selling? Well, I’m not saying you HAVE to sell, but closers only pitch one inning every couple of days so their value is a little bit capped. Bautista helps in the strikeout category (96 strikeouts in 49.0 innings) and brings a low ERA and WHIP to the table (0.92 ERA and 0.86 WHIP), so there’s a lot to sell your fellow leaguemates on – and you should be asking for a HIGH return. If you’re doing ok with saves and closers, Bautista can be an expendable asset if you’re able to extract the right return.
Max Muncy, 2B/3B, Los Angeles Dodgers
To start, Muncy is hitting just .199 on the season so that might scare off any potential buyers. However, he’s been mashing lately and is hitting .333 with four home runs and 13 RBI over the past week. He also has 25 home runs on the year. A .227 career hitter, Muncy doesn’t have a ton of upside average-wise, but it’s worth dangling him to your leaguemates in search of a power bat to see if they might bite based on the 32-year-old’s recent hot streak. He’s a limited fantasy asset, but he can probably bring a return of a category-specific player (steals, saves) that might help you in a rotisserie league.
Pete Alonso, 1B, New York Mets
Sticking on the home run hitter with a low average theme, Alonso is hitting just .218 on the year but has 28 home runs to show for it. A boom-or-bust player, Alonso is a .255 career hitter so he has some room to go up average-wise if you want to try to sell a leaguemate on that potential. He’s hitting .409 over the past week so selling conditions aren’t going to get any better. Like Muncy, you can probably get a category-specific player (maybe a high strikeout pitcher?) that can help boost you in rotisserie league categories where you need a bit of a lift in order to move up the standings.
Top Fantasy Baseball Buy Low Candidates
George Springer, OF, Toronto Blue Jays
Springer has been extremely streaky this season, but has nice season-long numbers with a .257 average, 56 runs, 13 home runs, 41 RBI, and 14 steals. He’s hitting just .236 in July (and even worse, .074 over the past week) so the buy-low conditions are ripe. He hit .190 in April before being over .280 in both May and June so things should even out soon. See if you can catch Springer’s owner in a moment of frustration and buy low on the 33-year-old. Better times are (likely) around the corner.
Logan Webb, P, San Francisco Giants
Webb is coming off his worst start of the season (six earned runs allowed in 1.1 innings against the lowly Nationals) so anyone who has him on their fantasy roster is likely frustrated. That said, he’s a good pitcher who plays in a pitcher’s park and still has a 3.48 ERA and 1.12 WHIP with 136 strikeouts in 134.1 innings. He also hadn’t allowed more than two earned runs in his three previous starts (including a 10-strikeout game), so better things are going to come. See if you can dangle a hot hitter or closer and get Webb on the cheap. You’d literally be buying at his low point right now.
Shane McClanahan, P, Tampa Bay Rays
McClanahan has been one of the better fantasy pitchers this season, but he’s had a couple of rough starts lately. He’s coming off a four-inning start during which he allowed five earned runs against the Orioles and had a three-inning start during which he allowed four earned runs against the Mariners three starts ago. That said, he still has a 2.89 ERA and 1.16 WHIP to go along with 112 strikeouts in 106.0 innings and 11 wins. Dangle a hot hitter or closer for the 26-year-old and you could very well buy low on a difference-maker down the stretch.
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