Kuzul

The effort to make baseball fun again took a violent turn on Sunday—one that will hurt fantasy managers nearly as much as Jose Bautista.

As a result of last season’s unforgettably chaotic playoff showdown, tensions between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers ran high before their weekend series. When Bautista slid late into second base, Rougned Odor responded with fists rather than flips.

This wasn’t a typical baseball fight, where everyone crowds around, barks at each other and maybe throws a half-hearted strike away from the target. Odor hit the Blue Jays outfielder square in the face, and MLB is likely to respond with a lengthy suspension.

His investors will miss the budding star, who is hitting .286 with seven home runs and five stolen bases this season. Fortunately, two potential second-base replacements remain available in a majority of Yahoo Sports leagues. 

This week’s list of top waiver-wire adds runs the gamut from a player maturing in the minors to a 37-year-old veteran who looked finished last year. There are also the typical hot hands, returning veterans and overlooked contributors ready to help fantasy squads.

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Had Stephen Strasburg waited another day, he would have topped the list of MLB‘s best players entering free agency this offseason.

The Washington Nationals ace had all the ingredients necessary to secure a massive payday. Since last year’s All-Star break, the former No. 1 overall pick boasts a 2.26 ERA and 150 strikeouts over 115.1 innings. This is the guy whose MLB arrival was more hyped than any baseball player in recent memory until Bryce Harper joined him in D.C.

Sweetening the pot, a bidding war would have spawned over the 27-year-old’s peak years in a free-agent class without any solid alternatives. Knowing agent Scott Boras’ ruthless reputation, he would have scratched and clawed for every dollar.

All these factors considered, it came as a surprise when CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman broke the news on Monday night: Strasburg and the Nationals agreed to a seven-year, $175 million extension. The premature signing made more sense when Heyman disclosed an opt-out clause after the third and fourth years, giving the righty long-term stability and the opportunity to earn another monster deal.

If that seems like a lot for someone who once underwent Tommy John surgery, this article was set to project seven years for $225 million. Even that felt like selling his potential earnings short.

Any team needing a rotation boost must test the trading market or wait until 2017-18’s monster free-agent class. As for this winter, a shallow crop led by power sluggers and relief pitchers stand to benefit from the downgraded competition.

Here are the biggest remaining upcoming free agents in line for big paydays.

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Feeling gloomy about an underachieving fantasy baseball squad buried down the standings? Hopefully Saturday night reminded everyone that miracles do happen.

Bartolo Colon—a 42-year-old pitcher whose at-bats have become public viewing for their comedic value—hit his first career home run. As SNY play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen joyfully shrieked, “The impossible has happened!”

If Bartolo Colon can go yard, what’s stopping a fantasy team from digging out of last place and chasing a championship? Like the veteran’s bat, some clubs simply need time to develop before hitting their stride.

The New York Mets hurler is also helping fantasy owners on the mound, where he has posted a 2.82 ERA while displaying his typical pinpoint command. If not for already discussing the jovial righty weeks ago, he’d frequent this week’s waiver-wire column as someone owned in 34 percent of Yahoo Sports leagues, below the 50 percent prerequisite.

The pitchers listed all throw harder than Colon, and the discussed hitters sure better hit with more efficacy. Then again, Colon has as many homers combined as two shortstops highlighted for other attributes.  

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One MLB midseason trade can make all the difference for a contender needing a push to the finish line. 

Just look at last year’s World Series representatives. The New York Mets fortified their lineup by acquiring Yoenis Cespedes, who has since hit 25 home runs in 78 regular-season games. While the Kansas City Royals weren’t as lucky to retain Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto, both rentals played instrumental roles in capturing the championship.

All three of those players entered free agency last offseason, a common trait for midseason trade candidates. When a team doesn’t see a realistic path to October, it moves players set to walk out the door in two months.

That’s not the case in all of the following scenarios. One popular option who has already built a second home on the rumor mill could finally get jettisoned with the added appeal of a 2017 club option.

Two more intriguing scenarios exist among former superstars enjoying rousing starts. These outfielders once battled in a contested MVP race, but their resurgences have gone for naught on otherwise deplete rosters. This could be the last chance either club has of moving its bloated contracts while netting a fair return.

Although the stove is on, the water hasn’t boiled yet. It’s too early to accurately identify every buyer and seller. Injuries, slumps and breakouts will also alter positional needs before July 31’s non-waiver trade deadline.

For now, it’s mostly all speculation on what could happen. But don’t worry, we’re not going to “Will the Tampa Bay Rays give up on Chris Archer?” or “What could the Los Angeles Angels get for Mike Trout?” levels of crazy. Staying in the realm of feasibility, let’s look at five possible moves that could rock the MLB landscape this summer.

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A wise fantasy baseball manager knows not to rock the boat too much in April, but will that patience extend into May?

Enough stats are accumulating to start fretting the ace with the ERA over 5.00 and the star hitter batting below the Mendoza Line. As gamers wait on their established picks to wake up, lesser players are delivering to nobody’s benefit on the waiver wire.

Don’t go dropping a trustworthy mainstay for any of these free agents—all of whom are available in more than half of Yahoo Sports leagues. This list predominantly features speculative adds or guys to temporarily enjoy during a hot streak. Few of them will make a long-term impact in standard mixed leagues, but some certainly boast the potential to break out.

Ready to dump that late-round flier falling flat on his face? Consider filling his roster spot with one of these free agents.

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First impressions are far from everything. No MLB rookie should start writing his Hall of Fame speech after one impressive month.

Patience, however, is a difficult virtue to master early in the season, when successes and failures stand out like giant pimples. Combine the tendency to overreact to April numbers with human instinct to judge someone immediately, and neophytes are especially susceptible to spawning overzealous reactions.

Some fresh faces will enjoy a productive season and career. Others may become a footnote by July if they can’t adapt to the opposition’s adjustments. It’s ultimately too early to know what will become of any first-year players. But since when has that stopped anyone from trying to figure it out?

To stay focused on the true newcomers, let’s look beyond Corey Seager and Steven Matz, who still have rookie eligibility despite debuting last season and participating in the postseason. And while the sample sizes are small for everyone, one start apiece isn’t enough to analyze premier pitching prospects Blake Snell and Jose Berrios.

The following rookies, a majority of whom hail from the National League, have defied all reasonable expectations by starting their MLB careers in outstanding fashion. Let’s dissect the top starts to determine who’s for real.

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Many of 2015’s quietly strong finishers have stayed hot this April, demanding attention from fantasy baseball managers.

A majority of this week’s top 10 free agents, available in over half of Yahoo Sports leagues, ran roughshod late last season. They also, however, either started poorly or in the minor leagues, burying their late progress as brief blips.

Now that they’re coming out of 2016 blazing, gamers must wonder if they have made distinct improvements to sustain their early success. These guys have all brandished better underlying numbers behind the standard stats. A batting average or ERA doesn’t tell too much in April, but strikeouts and walks can depict tangible change.

Let’s take a look at players to grab upon entering April’s final week. 

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Two weeks is too soon to panic. At least that’s what worried fantasy baseball managers tucked down the standings will try to remember before blowtorching their rosters.

It’s human nature to fret when things go poorly. When a lineup that seemed perfect before Opening Day can’t buy a hit, even an experienced player will get antsy. The savvy gamer, however, will ultimately stay calm and instead test his or her peers’ nerves.

Everyone inevitably jumps to faulty conclusions in April, when the sample sizes are smaller than a scaled-down Jose Altuve. We’ll look back and laugh at these premature conclusions, but the benefit of hindsight doesn’t exist yet. What does exist are players batting over .500 and pitchers with an ERA below 1.00.

For now, let’s assume the competition doesn’t consist of complete idiots. If someone is foolish enough to worry about Mike Trout, great. Nobody will fault an opportunistic owner for checking the pulse of whoever rosters the superstar, but it’d take a real novice to panic-trade him.

Let’s also give them enough credit not to offer Jeremy Hazelbaker for an All-Star. While the St. Louis Cardinals outfielder should be owned by now, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll fetch a strong return on the trade market. Also, anyone expecting a Trevor Story sell-high slide should click here first. 

Proactive managers looking to make early moves should target these guys as buy-low and sell-high candidates.

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Two weeks into 2016’s MLB season, fantasy baseball managers will struggle to resist adding players with deceivingly gaudy stat lines.

Eduardo Nunez won’t compete for a batting title, and Mat Latos won’t win every start with a sub-1.00 ERA. These sample sizes will quickly change with little notice, and it’s up to fantasy players to sniff out the fluky starts from the telling successes.

Enough time has passed for the surging sleepers to lose their free-agent status. Instead, the veterans are stirring on their lawns while the late bloomers blossom and the former top prospects seek redemption. Early injuries have also created opportunities for a couple of players showing up to the new season fashionably late.

Some of these players are only hot hands to exploit for a short window. Others have the potential to manifest into mixed-league impact players. All of them are available in at least 50 percent of Yahoo Sports leagues as of Sunday night.

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Sooner or later, the lights go out on every MLB superstar.

At the height of a player’s peak, fans can’t picture him ever falling from the throne. Yet the likes of Joe Mauer, Josh Hamilton, Tim Lincecum and CC Sabathia offer cruel reminders that the unforgiving Father Time transforms All-Stars into overpaid veterans who are trying to contribute however slightly.

MLB is enjoying an insurgence of young superstars who hopefully won’t go anywhere anytime soon. Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Carlos Correa, Manny Machado, Kris Bryant, Noah Syndergaard and Jose Fernandez will still all have difficulty renting a car. The game is in good hands, but there’s a finite amount of real estate at the top.

These All-Star veterans are not about to wither away into useless or even below-average players. Yet there’s enough writing on the wall to envision their fall from elite to adept. Don’t pen their farewells just yet but keep an eye on these guys showing signs of deterioration.

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