Three rather important and relevant Cincinnati Reds are featured on ESPN's Most Dropped list, and perhaps we should not be surprised. The beleaguered, embarrassing Reds are 3-19 so far and with nary a player among the top 200 on the ESPN Player Rater. None! So it is that young right-hander Hunter Greene nearly leads the most dropped list over the past week, frustrated veteran 1B Joey Votto is not far behind and RHP Tyler Mahle joins him. Most Reds are being dropped in fantasy baseball leagues.
While I did adjust down several Reds in my latest end-of-season redraft, roto rankings, including this trio of players, I do think it is a mistake to simply give up on pending relevant statistics. Take Votto, for example. Do you really think someone with a .938 OPS and 36 home runs last season simply forgot how to hit? His .122 batting average is obviously going to rise. He still draws walks. There will be more than one base hit per month. Mahle will not have a 6.45 ERA for long; his FIP is an encouraging 2.41. He misses plenty of bats.
Greene, the 22-year-old fire-baller who routinely hits triple digits with his fastball is an entirely different matter, because