Fantasy baseball managers who missed out on what Boston Red Sox OF Adam Duvall achieved last week should not feel too bad. I don't. After all, Duvall was hardly thriving before he torched Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers pitching for a silly 14 hits in 29 at-bats, with five home runs and 12 RBIs. Entering the week, Duvall had hit .201 (.653 OPS) since early June over 53 games and 194 PAs, with seven home runs. How did a sudden breakout against top pitching staffs make any sense?
Well, it did not, and the streaky Duvall is just as likely to hit .201 from here on out, so good luck to fantasy managers aiming to capitalize. The point is this is a proven, veteran hitter who hit .455 with four homers and 14 RBIs in the first eight games of this season before breaking his wrist, but fantasy managers had predictably and understandably tired of him because of several months of disappointing play. Then without notice Duvall is the player of the week because yeah, that's baseball.
I think more than a few of us wrestle more about which players to drop from our teams -- especially in the new, shallow formats -- than whom to add. The adds are generally obvious, right? Go ahead, add Duvall today and hope he mashes Astros and Kansas City Royals pitching this week. Based on how he hit last week, everyone would want Duvall. Whom would they drop? Would they cut another proven, veteran hitter with unappealing numbers over the past few weeks or months? That's how we ignored Duvall, isn't it? None of this makes sense.
Regardless, my hand is raised as someone who stuck with Duvall for months and then, because the batting average was suddenly too toxic to one of my roto categories teams, moved on. Then, of course, Duvall goes off. Happens to all of us, right? Duvall faced New York Yankees and Washington Nationals pitching the week prior to last, and he managed three singles in 20 at-bats, with nary a walk. He hit .201 over nearly three months! Moving on was responsible ... ah, whatever, we all feel like decent fantasy managers until we make a move that backfires like this one did. There will be more.
Duvall was 20% rostered in ESPN standard leagues one week ago. Now he is at 30%. Good luck guessing his investment percentage next week. He's streaky, a .233 career hitter who hit .213 for the Atlanta Braves last season. Duvall was hitting .242 for this season entering last Monday. Now he is hitting .271. Shrug emoji.
Here are five other hitters we should consider dumping for someone not struggling as much. Will they go on an offensive rampage as soon as we move on? Yeah, probably, he types angrily.
Matt Chapman, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays: Chapman hit .384 with five homers and 21 RBIs in April, along with 15 doubles and 17 runs. What a month! Since then, Chapman hasn't hit five home runs or batted in double-digit RBIs in any month. He hit .202 in May, .200 in June, .247 in July and is at .197 in August. He injured the middle finger on his right hand a few weeks back and then hurt it again Sunday. It is clearly a factor, but he's likely to play through this. Should we play through this? This is nearly four months of below-average production. Move on!