Fantasy Baseball

July is just around the corner and while baseball fans are gearing up for the All-Star game, fantasy owners are looking at who to buy and sell for the season's second half. Using Yahoo!'s rankings based on the last month's worth of numbers, let's look at June's hottest hitters and figure out who is for real.

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The term "Batting Average on Balls In Play" (BABIP) has become one of the most popular stats among fantasy managers in recent years. 

To put it simply, BABIP measures the number of batted balls that fall safely for a hit (excluding home runs).

According to The Hardball Times Glossary, the exact formula for BABIP is: (H-HR)/(AB-K-HR+SF).

The Mariners trade for Russell Branyan is a valuable lesson for all fantasy owners: when you are out of contention, don’t start trading your future for the present, no matter who it is. If you are out of the hunt, realize that and start planning for next year.

This article should be called Tulowitzki Two for obvious reasons. For starters, one of the top three second baseman just landed on the DL with a broken foot.

Second, this position, like shortstop, has very few elite players on top, and then a tremendous drop-off in talent and statistical production. It’s important to remember that replacing this kind of player for the long run is a difficult task.

So let’s approach this a little differently than we did with Tulo because it doesn’t sound like Pedroia will be out as long.

Zack Greinke is beginning to look like himself again.  Mike Pelfrey and Jered Weaver continue to excel in 2010.  Of course, the biggest story of the day, however, was Edwin Jackson’s 8 walk, no-hit performance.  Let’s look at these stories and all the rest from yesterday’s games:

Some reasonably available players to assist you in the Strikeouts category. Realize that some of these will come with high ERAs and WHIPs because if a pitcher has low numbers in those categories and a good K total, he's already spoken for.

R.A. Dickey, New York Mets

Stephen Strasburg continued his unbelievable start to his career.  Ubaldo Jimenez struggled for the first time in 2010.  Kerry Wood and Aaron Heilman could be on the cusp of losing their roles as closers.  Let’s look at these stories and all the rest from yesterday’s games:

Jimmy Rollins and Coco Crisp returned from the DL to slide back into the leadoff spot.  Jason Castro made his major league debut.   Matt Holliday may be the hottest player in baseball.  Let’s look at these stories and all the rest from yesterday’s games:

While Angels’ southpaw Scott Kazmir struggled with a 7.20 and 5.97 ERA in April and May respectively, the 26-year-old has seemingly salvaged his season with a deceiving June.

In 23 innings (four starts) this month, Kazmir is 4-0 with a 2.35 ERA. What most fail to see is his 1.35 WHIP and 13/15 K/BB ratio, both of which raise red flags.

We are a little more than halfway through June, so let’s take a look at the players who are mired in deep slumps based on BABIP for the month.

Is there anyone that an owner may be willing to jump ship on that’s worth buying? Let’s take a look.

1. Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays: .157