Kuzul

In the fantasy baseball world, it’s difficult to discern if a player will be scorching hot for a week, a month, or a season.

For example, owners who picked up Edwin Encarnacion in 2012 reaped the benefits for the whole season. Managers who added speedster Jordan Schafer last year bemoaned his awful for the second half.

Of the players who are currently hot pickups, the following will be legitimate contributors to a fantasy roster for the rest of the season. Count on them for production beyond their recent hot streak.

Kelly Johnson, TB 2B/OF (73.8 percent owned, 57.4 percent owned increase)

If you need a second baseman and Johnson is still available in your league, make sure you snatch him up before he’s universally owned.

Dating all the way back to his time as an Atlanta Brave, the two-position player has been a solid choice at second. As a Brave in 2008, he hit .287 with 12 homers, 69 RBIs, 86 runs and 11 SBs.

His best fantasy season was 2010, though, when Johnson clubbed 26 home runs and 71 RBIs. That was with a .284 clip, 93 runs and 13 SBs, too.

In 2012 with the Toronto Blue Jays, Johnson hit a meager .225. However, his 2009 season between the aforementioned seasons featured a similar .224 average. Expect him to continue at around the .275 rate he’s hitting this year, as he’s shown the ability to rebound and hit consistently.

On top of average, the Tampa Bay Ray will give you a little speed, runs and good power numbers at second base for the rest of 2013.

James Loney, TB 1B (34.1 percent owned, 24.1 percent owned increase)

Another Tampa Bay player made the short list of both hot and smart long-term pickups.

Loney was a top prospect for the Los Angeles Dodgers years ago. His career started fizzling a little in 2012, so the Dodgers traded him to the Boston Red Sox. In Boston, the first baseman hit a forgettable .230 with eight RBIs in 100 at bats.

The Tampa Bay Rays inked Loney to a low-risk deal, and he’s easily outperformed his pay so far. After Monday night, he’s hitting a major league-leading .376.

While the average will definitely drop, Loney is far from a fluke.

With the AAA Las Vegas 51s in 2006, he hit an incredible .380 for the season (according to baseball-reference.com). He has the capability to sustain a high batting average for a whole year, though he hasn’t hit over .300 for a full season in the majors before.

Adrian Beltre, now a career .279 hitter, hadn’t either when he hit a blistering .334 in 2004. It can happen in baseball.

Expect Loney to hit somewhere around .330 for the season, with power numbers on par with his 2008 and 2009 output (13 HRs, 90 RBIs both years).

Travis Wood, ChC SP (64.8 percent owned, 35 percent owned increase)

The lovable losers are in the middle of another terrible season, but their rotation (apart from Edwin Jackson) has been incredibly good.

Wood sports the best ERA of any Cubs starter so far this season, with a ridiculous 2.03 after his eighth straight quality start (via the Chicago Tribune).

The young hurler was once the third-best prospect for the Cincinnati Reds (according to BaseballAmerica.com). Wood was acquired by the Cubs in the Sean Marshall trade, and he flashed a lot of potential in a decent 2012 season.

It seems he’s finally lived up to that potential by using an arsenal of pitches.

According to FanGraphs, Wood mostly throws four pitches: a fastball, a slider, a changeup and a very effective cutter.

Wood isn’t a great source of strikeouts (36 Ks in 53.1 IP so far this season), but expect him to have a good ERA and WHIP to go with a decent win total for the Cubs at the end of 2013.

*All ownership statistics for ESPN fantasy leagues. Statistics courtesy of ESPN.com.

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Carlos Marmol’s 2011 campaign was a disaster. His 2012 season was equally awful.

Why would the Cubs stick with Marmol as their closer?

Marmol has one year left on his three-year contract ($9.8 million) with the Cubs. While fans may want him gone now, his trade value is virtually nonexistent. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Marmol thought he was already traded to the Angels last year. He would have worked in the bullpen rather than as the closer with the Angels, however.

If the Cubs want Marmol to have trade value as a closer, they need him to perform in 2013. If it seemed he wouldn’t produce, then they wouldn’t trot him out there again. All signs point to a better season though.

Manager Dale Sveum said Marmol is “throwing the ball way better than last spring training.” He also suggested that Marmol has developed better control with his fastball (via ESPN).

The Cubs need to hope so because Marmol’s 1.54 WHIP last year belies how awful his control was. Marmol’s great 2008 season was the only time his WHIP was under 1.10.

Sveum seems to have confidence Marmol will rebound. He isn’t playing Marmol because the Cubs lack an alternative.

Kyuji Fujikawa was brought to Chicago from Japan, where he had success as a closer for the Hanshin Tigers.

Fujikawa is only a few years older than Marmol, and he has the same overwhelming stuff. Their fastballs have similar velocity (around 94 MPH), and their career K/9 rates are similar (11.7 for Marmol, 12.4 for Fujikawa). The primary difference is in their off-speed repertoire and their fastball control. Fujikawa’s career WHIP is 0.86.

Shouldn’t that mean that Fujikawa is the obvious choice for closer?

The Cubs are in rebuilding mode, and they want to acquire the best prospects they can. If Marmol shows he can close early on, he becomes even more enticing trade bait.

Sveum could easily plug Fujikawa in after that, while easing him into American baseball with the setup role.

While Marmol blew a preposterous 10 saves in 2011, his 2007 and 2008 seasons showed his potential. If other teams see a renaissance they may be willing to deal a quality prospect for him at the deadline. Admittedly, his first 2013 spring training appearance was typical Marmol (1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 ER and 1 SO). It’s still early though.

Professional sports are a business, and Sveum knows that. He’s going with Marmol to build his trade value. It’s an obvious choice. The Cubs wouldn’t win the World Series this year with Marmol or Fujikawa or even a young Mariano Rivera. It’s irrelevant.

However, if Chicago keeps stockpiling prospects to combine with the young core in place, they could contend in years to come.

*All season & career stats came from Baseball-Reference.com

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