Valenti: Fantasy Baseball Buy And Sell At The (ALMOST) Halfway Point

By: Mike Valenti

BUY

Paul Goldschmidt 1B-ARIZ.—Absolute superstar in the making. His numbers are no fluke and from here on out you can put him with the Top 5 1st-basemen in the game from a fantasy perspective. I don't think it's a mirage, he's THIS good. Its Votto production for wholesale pricing.

Hanley Ramirez SS/3rd—Price cannot be any lower and depending on league dual eligible. Ramirez has battled injuries all year and the guy you are trying to get him from is probably sick of waiting. Low risk, high upside and probably dirt cheap.

Hisashi Iwakuma SP-SEA.—Guy is as good as the numbers suggest. Pitches in a pitchers dreamland. Will his numbers regress some? Of course. But he is still a Top 20 Fantasy arm that you can get for Top 40-50 pricing. Trust me, I've tried.

Cole Hamels and Matt Cain—Despite early season struggles and some downright ugly numbers at times I want both of these guys on my team moving forward. Both have had some bad luck and their overall metrics suggest better days ahead. Again, frustrated owners make the best trade targets. Pounce if either is floated out there.

Dustin Pedroia, Andrew McCutchen and Jacoby Ellsbury— Three guys all hitting way below their power grade and who should get a nice correction for second half. Their owners are probably getting annoyed and you can benefit. Ellsbury and Cutch probably wont reach their previous 30+ HR totals but 22-25 still possible. Pedroia can get to 15. Means a lot of Homers in the stretch drive for you.

SELL

Will Myers, Jurickson Profar, Gerrit Cole (and any other rookie)—The 2nd half is where 99% of rookies go to die. All the hype, all the hope, and most often you end up a loser. Trading youth in keeper leagues to bolster your roster for playoffs is a must. Guys like Cole and Myers have huge hype but simply wont match with production. I'm a seller.

With the youth theme.

Julio Teheran SP ATL—Beachy coming back, team headed to playoffs and this kids innings cap somewhere below 170 all spell sell to me. A guy pitching in the pen doesn't help you win titles.

Matt Harvey SP NYM—Again, dominant first half but capped somewhere at 170 on an awful team who wont risk him getting hurt. You can get a boatload for him so do it.

Jean Segura SS MIL—Personal favorite of mine (I got him for $1 at our auction) but I'd send him packing of people are drooling. He's not hitting .330 all season and his power simply has to slow down. He will still steal 40+ bases and be very productive but selling now is ideal to someone who thinks he's hitting 30-bombs.

Waiving the white flag…..

R.A Dickey SP TOR.—I tried to be patient. Tried to be compassionate. His neck, the back, the adjustment to AL…to hell with it. Get rid of him. Dickey isn't throwing his knuckler anywhere close to 85-mph nor is he getting it over 81mph very often. I don't own him, tried to get him for weeks on end. I've given up all hope as a buyer and if you own him Id be visiting Les Gold.