This week we will talk about the break-outs I picked back in the pre-season.
Break-outs: Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant, Rougned Odor, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts
The break-outs are guys who will have big increases over previous years and the type that if you spend most of your time looking at the previous year, you might miss.
Jorge Soler – Not breaking out yet
In 2014, Soler got a call up in August and performed very well. He averaged 3.7 points/game. A full season of even close to that would be huge for a team. But so far he is averaging 2.7 points/game. Now that is not bad and I do expect his best months to be June, July and August, but I was still hoping for closer to 3.0 points/game from him this year.
Kris Bryant – All broken out and making plans for the All-Star Game
The hardest part about predicting Kris Bryant’s season was when he would get called up. I think the plan was late April to early May but after losing Mike Olt and Tommy La Stella to injury and Arismendy Alcantara to ineffectiveness, they brought up Bryant on the earliest day they could and still gain the extra year of control. The best part is he has been everything we hoped for and then some. Even good projections had him at 3.0 points/game and we all would have taken that for the Cubs and our fantasy teams, but he is averaging 4.0 points/game and that is even with taking a few weeks to toy with pitchers and just hit singles, doubles and triples. Bryant is going to be fantasy super star for a long time with his combination of power and great plate discipline.
Rougned Odor – Bust!!
I missed this one and big time. I really thought he would build on his 2.3 points/game last year and move that up closer to 3.0. But he was averaging only 1.6 points/game when they sent him back to Triple-A for more seasoning. I have no doubt he will be back and have a good major league career, but it is not happening this year.
Manny Machado – Breaking out!
Manny Machado started very slow and had some people worried. He did average 2.8 points/game last year and most were hoping for a healthy season and more of what we have been expecting from him. Well it is happening as he is averaging 3.3 points/game this year and at still just 22 years old, I would expect many great years of fantasy stats. But people will always be worried about the injury bug striking him and should make him fall in drafts most years more than he should.
Xander Bogaerts – Not breaking-out!
Xander Bogaerts had a great start to the season and was looking like the super star talent was going to bust out, and it did for like two weeks. He is down to just 2.3 points/game. He is also just 22 years old and does look to have great career ahead of him, but not sure it is going to happen this year.
So two are having good break-out seasons, two are still not happening and one that busted!
MLB Best of Last Week
Each week we will review the best performances of the week in all of MLB.
The top five has six this week with Brian McCann having his best week by far (right after I drop him in a weekly league in which I own Jonathan Lucroy and knew I only had one week more to get through and couldn’t take how bad McCann had been and lost the week with the difference between McCann and Yan Gomes that I picked up … not that I am rethinking that move at all!) and in most leagues picked up almost 50% of the points he had going into the week, in one week. But Josh Donaldson had the best week with six home runs and 11 runs and RBI. Cub killer Paul Goldschmidt had another great week even without facing the Cubs, he is pretty good.
Corey Kluber continues his turn around from a slow start with another big week with 58 points. Hopefully future Cub Cole Hamels put up two W’s and 53 total points on the week and two young stud arms in Trevor Bauer and Chris Sale had two good outings and Wade Miley rounds out the Top Five this week with two good outings where he picked up two W’s.
Chicago Cubs Batters
The offense was not that good this week again but the average did tick up a bit to .228. But not nearly enough runs were scored and just not enough base runners, even with just five games last week. Only four players were at 10 points or more and that is not good. Only five home runs is not enough to make up for that low of average and on base, but Kris Bryant did lead the way with two home runs. Let’s hope for better weeks ahead with warmer weather.
Chicago Cubs Pitchers
The pitching staff keeps going and this week had just a 2.30 ERA on the way to a 2-3 week. The rotation continues to have quality starts and is going deeper into games which sure help their fantasy points. Hector Rondon put up 17 points this week which is not a bad week for a closer, but you would prefer to see a couple of saves on the stat line.
CCO Fantasy Leagues
CCO League
A little separation happening after eight games as you always want to stay at least at 500 but at eight games if you fall one game short you are two under .500 and it will take winning three weeks in a row to get back to above .500. Playoffs should take around 13 wins, which is five games over .500 so those that are two under have an uphill battle moving forward. More than two under, well it is close to all in time and making a last ditch effort to save your season. The good news is that the eight-spot in the playoffs is still at .500 and a 4-4 record. The bad news is that six teams are 5-3 or better and that eight spot is seven teams for two spots.
CCO Fans League
In this league it will take over .500 to say you are in the playoffs and one team that is over .500 is on the outside looking in right now. So for the teams that are under .500, which is nine of the 20 teams, it is time to go on a winning streak or face be all but eliminated by the All-Star break.