As so eloquently put by the foremost philosophers of the ‘90s, we’ve come to the end of the road. This will be the last regular installment of Buy and Sell for 2016. Stay tuned for a postmortem, in which we will analyze (read: laugh at) the results of my recommendations this year. Thanks for reading all season, and I hope it provided some small measure of help to you in your quest for fantasy dominance.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.
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Week 25 Buy Candidates
Corey Dickerson, OF, Tampa Bay Rays
As many expected, Dickerson’s move from Coors Field to Tropicana Field has taken a big bite out of his value. He’s finishing strong, however, hitting .370/.370/.759 with five homers and 18 R+RBI over the last two weeks. You probably noticed the identical batting average and OBP. Dickerson hasn’t taken a single walk during this hot streak and carries a .441 BABIP. If it were June, he’d be a prime regression candidate. Fortunately, with only a week and change left in the season, that doesn’t matter much. Dickerson’s back to hitting a ton of line drives and might finally be freeing himself of the noted Coors hangover.
Ricky Nolasco, SP, Los Angeles Angels
Nolasco has never really enjoyed the results we might have expected from someone with his solid peripherals. Every so often, though, he resembles a high-quality starting pitcher. He’s in the midst of one of those stretches right now. In his last five outings, Nolasco has pitched 35 innings with a 1.80 ERA and 0.80 WHIP, with 27 strikeouts against only six walks. He’s produced a quality start in four of those games and allowed no runs in three of them, including his last two turns. Those came against the Blue Jays and Astros, two high-powered lineups fighting for their playoff lives.
Week 25 Sell Candidates
Bryce Harper, OF, Washington Nationals
Harper hasn’t looked anything like the monster we saw in 2015, when he posted an absurd .330/.460/.649 line and won the National League MVP award. The hand-wringing over his performance was a bit overstated in the early going - he had an .891 OPS at the break, after all – but it’s justified now. Over the last two months, Harper is hitting just .222/.341/.368 with four home runs. News broke this week of a closed-door meeting between Harper, manager Dusty Baker, GM Mike Rizzo, and trainer Paul Lessard about whether Harper is playing through serious neck and shoulder discomfort. Whatever’s going on, it stands to reason that with the NL East essentially clinched, the Nationals will rest Harper down the stretch.
Cole Hamels, SP, Texas Rangers
Though you wouldn’t know it to look at his ERA and strikeout total, Hamels is having arguably the worst season of his career. The main culprit is a sharp rise in his typically stellar walk rate. In his last four starts, Hamels has issued 14 walks in just 18 innings of work. Even worse, he’s allowing an insane amount of hard contact. The end result: a 10.50 ERA and 2.17 WHIP during this stretch. His final two starts will come on the road tonight against the Athletics and at home against the Rays. Both teams are in the bottom third of the league in runs scored overall, but have been much better lately.
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