Every Monday I will be bringing you the Top 3 hot and cold baseball players from around MLB. The twist, I’ll also be providing a buy or sell recommendation on the cold players to help you decide if this is a guy to target in a trade offer or someone you should cut if they’re clogging a bench spot. I’ll also give advice on those playing well, if you should sell high or buy the continued dominance.
For the last week, here are your Hot & Cold recommendations—
HOT
Last 7 games: .393 Avg, 5 R, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 0 SB
Call: Sell
Konerko will get you around 30 home runs and 100 RBI, but if an owner in your league is seeing over 40 homers and a .300+ batting average, sell high.
Matt Kemp
Last 7 games: .407 Avg, 4 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 5 SB
Call: Buy
Kemp’s average will cool off, closer to his career .290, but he’s on a mission this year and you can expect the stats to keep piling up for his lucky owner.
Jaime Garcia
Last 2 games: 1-0, 0.60 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, 18 K
Call: Sell
Garcia looked good last year, so a strong start is no fluke. However, these numbers aren’t sustainable. But if someone in your league thinks they are, sell!
COLD
Vernon Wells
Last 7 games: .094 Avg, 2 R, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 0 SB
Call: Buy
With the move to a less hitter friendly ballpark, you should expect lower numbers than last season, but he won’t hit .100 all year. Buy with the expectation of home runs in the low 20’s and an average in the .270 range.
Derek Jeter
Last 7 games: .179 Avg, 1 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB
Call: Sell
Jeter has become a ground ball specialist as he’s aged. The trends say he’s declining. Sure, he won’t hit below .200 for the season, but if he’s your starting shortstop for the year you may be in trouble. Especially when the Yankees make the inevitable move to drop him down in the lineup.
Phil Hughes
Last 2 games: 0-1, 16.50 ERA, 2.67 WHIP, 1 K
Call: Sell
The drop in velocity has me concerned. You can’t expect opposing teams to hit .400 off him all year, but he doesn’t look like he’s going to be the same pitcher as last year unless something changes drastically.
Brian is a Senior Writer for 4thandHome.com where this, and other work, can be found. Additionally, he is co-host of the 4th and Home Radio show on Blog Talk Radio.
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