Roto Baseball Guru

Over the past week, two of the hottest hitting teams in baseball are the Toronto Blue Jays and the Chicago White Sox.  The Blue Jays, who have been starving for consistent productive offense all year, have been facing the AL East rivals Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees and have been laying an offensive smack down on their opponents.  With the blow out victories of 15-4 (BOS), 14-3 (NYY), 11-0 (BOS) the Jays’ bats were devastating their opponent’s pitching without mercy.  The White Sox have not been slouches either.  Their collective wins of 13-1 (OAK), 13-5 (SEA), 15-3 (SEA) over the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners respectively reminds us why the White Sox has one of the most feared lineups in the American League.

So what does this wealth of hitting translate to in fantasy terms?  Taking a look at the weekly top hitters of the past week, we see that Blue Jays and White Sox hitters take up five of the Top 10 spots.  In fact, if we expanded the rankings a couple of spots, we would have been able to add in Marco Scutaro (Tor - 2B,3B,SS,OF) to the number 12 spot.  Producing a hitting line of - 6 runs, 2 doubles,  2 HRs, 7 RBIs, .400 BA, .448 OBP, Scutaro just barely missed breaking the Top 10 for the week.

With both the Blue Jays and White Sox hitting so well, it is not surprising that their hitters dominated the weekly top hitter rankings for the past week.  Hitting is contagious and when a team gets on a roll the likes of what these two clubs have gone on, fantasy owners of players on these clubs cannot help but smile and enjoy the ride.  Let the good times roll!

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After making the unbelievable run last year to make it into the playoffs after the last game of the season, there were big expectations for the Colorado Rockies to make some noise this year.  Most of the team was returning such as stars Matt Holliday and Brad Hawpe as well as rookie sensation Troy Tulowitzki.  However, the Rockies season can be summed up in one word: disappointing.

That being said, from a fantasy perspective, there has been nothing disappointing about Matt Holliday and his consistent reliable production for his adoring fantasy managers.  Holliday has already been highlighted in a previous article regarding his ability to make a repeat appearance in the weekly top hitters list, a feat that was only matched by Milwaukee Brewers young slugger Ryan Braun.

As if that accomplishment wasn’t enough, Holliday continued to make the Weekly Top 10 Rankings in the following week, placing 3rd on the July 27th - August 2nd list.  So what does all of that production equate to from a fantasy production?  Here the line for Holliday’s numbers for the past 30 days:

Matt Holliday (Col - OF) - 35 runs, 10 doubles, 9 HRs, 21 RBIs, 6 stolen bases, .375 BA and .476 OBP

That’s good enough to rank him as the top fantasy player according to Yahoo stats for the past month.  Not too shabby for a guy that doesn’t have too much to play for on a team that has given up on the season and started thinking about next year.

Speaking of somebody who has been at the top of his game, Ty Wigginton of the Houston Astros have been on quite a tear this past week, earning him the top spot in the latest weekly rankings.  He’s somebody that you would want to pick up off the waiver wires if he’s still available.  Given that Carlos Lee is basically done for the season, there should be plenty of playing time available for Wigginton, especially if he can keep up any semblance of the torrid pace that he’s been on the past week.  That and the fact that he can qualify for up to four positions (OF, 1B, 2B, 3B) makes him an attractive pick up for the stretch run of your fantasy season.

For weekly new and archived top hitter stats, check out: www.rotobaseballguru.com/weekly-top-hitters-rankings.php

So the weekly hot hitter stats are up on the main site, and while updating those stats I was pleasantly surprised to see the Blue Jays own Alex Rios at the top of the list.  Alex has been tearing it up since the all-star break, hitting more home runs (a total of four) in the past week than he did in the entire first half.  It’s a bit sad if you think about it, but it’s really part and parcel with the pathetic Jays offense this year.  Viewing from a glass half full perspective, it’s good to see Alex starting to pick things up … it’s long overdue.  However I’m not holding my breath that he’ll keep this going.  I’m still kicking J.P. Ricciardi for the fact that he didn’t trade Rios for the current leading NL Cy Young candidate, Tim Lincecum.  Hindsight is 20/20 but that would have been a sweet trade … you can never have enough quality pitching!

On another note, when I was reviewing the weekly top hitters from the past month to look for any trends, it became apparent to me how quickly a player rotates in and out of a hot streak on a weekly basis.  Over the past 4 weeks, only 2 players were able to make it to the Top Ten list more than once.  Can you guess who they were?

If you guessed the usual suspects such as: Alex Rodriguez, Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols or even Josh Hamilton, you would be incorrect.  No, instead of these fantasy household names the two players that have earned this prestigious distinction are:

Ryan Braun (Mil - 3B,OF) - Ranked #2, Week of July 20-26 and Ranked #8, Week of July 6-12
Matt Holliday (Col - OF) - Ranked #3, Week of July 20-26 and Ranked #1, Week of June 29-July 5

What does that tell you?  One thing is that picking up the hottest player of the week doesn’t necessarily equate to that same player staying hot for the next week.  More often than not, that player will fall out of the Top 10 the following week.  The other is that baseball is a long season, and any metric at a specific point in time is not enough to make a good fantasy player evaluation decision.  It’s really a good mix following the latest news, as well as the weekly stats that will help you find that next hot fantasy gem.

Remember that you can always get the weekly top hitter stats for the fantasy baseball source: www.rotobaseballguru.com