Projo Fantasy Sports Blog

By David Ferris

Persistence is rewarded in fantasy baseball, as it's usually the 26-week marathon men who get the spoils in the end. Your waiver-wire maneuvering generally becomes a lot easier as 75 percent of your league is focused on the gridiron these days. We're not throwing in the towel anywhere, and you shouldn't be either.

Batters

BUY

Joey Votto, 1B, Reds: Dusty Baker isn't known for his ability to handle younger players, but Votto has consistently improved, for whatever reason, as the season has gone along. He's on a .338 binge over the last month, with five homers and a couple of stolen bases, and down the road he projects to be a Derrek Lee-type of contributor (30 homers, 15 steals).

SELL

Brandon Phillips, 2B, Reds: The finger injury ends his season prematurely and gives a nice screen to what's truly been a disappointing year: Phillips dropped in every significant roto category this year, losing about 15 percent to 20 percent of what he gave us in 2007. Phillips doesn't have enough discipline at the plate to help fantasy owners in batting average, and he's almost to the age where a stolen-base dip is to be expected.

HOLD

Nate McLouth, OF, Pirates: His power has started to fade away in the second half, but don't miss the full story. He's hitting .300 over the last month with seven steals, and his walk rate got a healthy spike in 2008. He's the genuine article and a nice building piece for anyone in a keeper group.

Pitchers

BUY

Randy Wolf, SP, Astros: A lot of pundits ripped the Astros when they moved for Wolf, and I was in that camp as well, but credit where it's due: He's quickly adjusted to his new surroundings. I'm not ready to endorse Wolf on the road, but he's got four tidy starts in the book at Minute Maid Park (3-0, 2.16 ERA, 1.06 WHIP), so let's get behind that trend for the balance of the year.

SELL

Brian Wilson, RP, Giants: He's gotten a little tired down the stretch and isn't locating his fastball early in the count, and that's a problem. As live as Wilson's arm is, most of the league can sit on a 2-0 cookie and rake it when it comes in over the plate. If you've already accumulated enough saves over the balance of the first 24 weeks, Wilson's potential for rocky innings should be enough to scare you into a change.

Barry Zito, SP, Giants: He's shown signs of life with two decent turns (14 innings, four runs, 14 strikeouts), but the crooked numbers can strike at any time on Planet Zito. If you want to scout him and reopen the case for Zito in 2009, that's fine, but don't let a title run have anything to do with him over the next two weeks.

HOLD

Jonathan Broxton, RP, Dodgers: He's been throwing pellets for the last few weeks, and I can't imagine how Joe Torre will go to Takashi Saito as a full-time closer in a pennant race off elbow problems. Broxton still has shelf life for this year, even to redraft owners.

Dan Haren, SP, Diamondbacks: More of his mistakes are leaving the park these days, but his strikeout rate hasn't dropped - there's still dominant stuff coming from this power arm. Don't get cute and use a flavor-of-the-week over Haren down the stretch; there's no reason to think he can't turn things around quickly and give us two to three more helpful turns.

 Tags  Barry Zito baseball Brandon Phillips Brian Wilson Dan Haren David Ferris Joey Votto Jonathan Broxton Nate McLouth NL Stock Watch Randy Wolf

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