Fantasy World: Substitute Bats

These sluggers are being overlooked by fantasy owners

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It's not an angel; its a pop-up.

A month and change into the baseball season, we can start to see a few patterns. Carl Crawford is really fast. Roy Halladay is a pretty good pitcher. Evan Longoria is, indeed, pretty good at hitting baseballs. But there's also plenty of not-so-good news we could glean from the first month. And yet, for whatever reason, people are going out of their way to ignore bad news!

You see, ESPN Fantasy has this thing called the Player Rater (PR), which tries to quantify a player's worth based on the standard five roto categories. This is, by no means, a perfect system, but it does give us a good sense of how a player stacks up against others. And even with that information available, there are plenty of players with substandard PR numbers yet high ownership percentages. So let's take a look, position-by-position, at some folks you'd be better off rostering than higher-profile players. This isn't a popularity contest, after all. If all of the other fantasy owners jumped off a bridge, would you?

Catcher:
Russell Martin: (98.7 percent owned) has a 1.15 PR.
Kurt Suzuki: (27.5 percent owned) has a 1.65 PR.

We all know about the struggles Martin has been having this year (0 HRs and a .272 average, thus far), but he's also been striking out an inordinate amount of time, 18 percent of his at-bats compared to only 13 percent of the time heading into this year. Not having Manny Ramirez around for 50 games will only exacerbate the problem. Suzuki, meanwhile, has been quietly putting up All-Star stats, hitting .325 and slugging .482, including a pair of home runs and a whopping 12 doubles. If a few more of those doubles start finding their way over the fence, you're looking at a high-average catcher who could put up 15 home runs.

First baseman:
Chris Davis: (93.7 percent owned) has a 2.33 PR.
Kendry Morales: (19.1 percent owned) has a 2.55 PR.

No doubt, Davis has power (9 HRs). But, my God, he strikes out more often than me at any club where drinks cost more than a foot-long Subway sandwich. With 50 Ks so far, Davis could easily challenge Mark Reynolds' record 204 embarrassments back in 2008. Currently, Davis is on pace for 253. As such, it's no surprise the slugger is only batting .231. Meanwhile, Morales has five home runs to go along with a very decent .272 batting average. Long thought a top prospect, maybe this is the year Morales finally makes the leap to being average! Which is more than you could say for Davis' season thus far.

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Callaspo even hits blurry pitches.

Second baseman:
Placido Polanco: (84.7 percent owned) has a minus-0.27 PR.
Alberto Callaspo: (20.1 percent owned) has a 2.41 PR.

Yes, that's a negative rating for Mr. Polanco. That'll happen when you hit .270 with less power than Gandhi. Well, at least he's stealing bases … oh, no steals either, huh? On the other hand, Callaspo has taken over the second base job in KC and run with it, hitting .340 while slugging an insane .544. Those numbers are sure to drop a bit over the long haul, but why not give him a shot instead of no-upside Polanco? Oh, by the way, Polanco's 33 years old, and Callaspo is 26.

Third baseman:
Adrian Beltre: (85.5 percent owned) has a 1.11 PR.
Casey Blake: (15.2 percent owned) has a 2.79 PR.

After averaging 23 home runs over the past four years, Beltre is currently on pace to hit five. Five. That's what noted powerhouse Marco Scutaro already has this season. No doubt Beltre's going to bring those numbers up eventually, but in the meantime Blake is just sitting there on the waiver wire, looking for a team that will allow him to put up his workmanlike stats (.260, six HRs and 18 RBIs so far).

Shortstop:
Alexei Ramirez: (93.6 percent owned) has a -0.18 PR.
Yunel Escobar: (34 percent owned) has a 2.96 PR.

Bad year for Ramirezes. You hate to think this is a "sophomore slump," but the Cuban Missile has looked lost at the plate all year, hitting .223 with only one home run so far. Not a good showing for a preseason top-five shortstop. If you drafted him, you're probably losing. It's time you took a page out of Ozzie Guillen's playbook and bench the kid for a bit -- while cussing as much as humanly possible, of course -- and giving a shot to someone like Escobar, who's currently hitting a robust .305.

Outfielders:
Matt Holliday: (100 percent owned) has a 0.65 PR.
Mark Teahen: (23.8 percent owned) has a 2.98 PR.

Obviously, I'm not going to recommend dropping Holliday for Teahen straight up, but it's time to stop thinking this problem will go away on its own. Everyone in the world predicted Holliday would be affected negatively after leaving the zero gravity of Colorado (like us, for instance), but no one expected a .226 batting average and zero stolen bases. Teahen (in his mythical age 27 season, by the way) had to shift from second base to third base a few weeks into the season, but since taking over the cornerstone he's hitting .315 with four home runs. Plus, he has some multi-positional eligibility.

Player on my team of the week: Nick Markakis, who put behind his early-season power drought by pounding three homers in a week in which he hit .333 with six RBIs.

How to heckle one of my players of the week: "Hey Phil Hughes, I think I've had my fill of your sub-standard performances!"

The awkward old-timey baseball recap of the week: This odd remnant uncovered by Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic, recapping a Labor Day ballgame from 1926 between the Hebrew All-Stars and the KKK. No word if the Klan had to run the base paths in their full robes.

Buy high: The kids of today. They get a bad rap, but if they can put together something like this great lip-synching performance of Devo's "Whip It," we're in good hands.

Sell low: Buying American, after the Japanese once again gave us a reason to shop overseas with their invention of a kneeling pad used to prevent urinal splash back.

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