Keepin' It Real

Fantasy MLB Tips
By Danny B Sports Betting

Every Tuesday, we examine three players you should consider targeting by trade in your fantasy league. Analysis based on standard 10-team, 5x5 formats.
Cries of "small sample size" grow more and more infrequent as we trudge farther into another season of fantasy baseball. There are, however, a bunch of widely-owned players worth trading for before performances completely stabilize.
Here are three players to consider making a deal for:

Edwin Encarnacion, 1B, Toronto Blue Jays

Fantasy owners disappointed with Encarnacion's performance through the first month of the season ought to be reminded that the 32-year-old is a notoriously slow starter whose career .770 OPS in April is his lowest mark of any month. Then again, those disillusioned with Encarnacion would make great trade partners, because the two-time All-Star has already started his May onslaught.
Through his first 10 games this month, Encarnacion has compiled a robust .314/.429/.514 line with a home run - and a stolen base, too - while drawing almost as many walks as strikeouts (0.78 BB/K). Only four first basemen have driven in more runs in May than Encarnacion, whose 26.9 percent line-drive rate represents a dramatic improvement from April.
Most encouragingly, though, Encarnacion continues to show improved discipline at the plate and is no longer chasing pitches outside the strike zone - especially elevated offerings - like he was last month. He also blasted his first home run of 2015 off a curveball Saturday at Rogers Centre and has already compiled more hits against breaking pitches in his first 10 games this month than he did throughout all of April.

A sore back limited Encarnacion to just a handful of games this spring, so the first month of the season was, for all intents and purposes, his warm-up period. Fantasy managers should look to take advantage of those owners who cooled on him while he was shaking off the rust.

Ubaldo Jimenez, SP, Baltimore Orioles

Jimenez appears to have reinvented himself after stumbling through a miserable first season in Baltimore, and the veteran's numbers through the first six weeks of the 2015 campaign have been overwhelmingly encouraging.
A season after being relegated to the bullpen, Jimenez owns a 2.41 ERA with a 1.01 WHIP across six starts, amid noticeable tactical changes on the mound.
Most obvious, perhaps, is the correlation between his reduced velocity and increased ability to locate his pitches. Jimenez's four-seam fastball has hovered around 91.5 miles per hour this season. That's a career-low, but it's helped the formerly erratic hurler pound the strike zone and get ahead of hitters with increased regularity.

Season	Four-seam velocity (MPH)	Zone%	F-Strike%	BB%
2014	92.27	42%	55.3%	13.9%
2015	91.5	46.8%	60.3%	9.20%

The changes Jimenez has made to his repertoire, however, may be even more significant. Using his sinker with unprecedented frequency, Jimenez boasts a career-high 57.6 percent ground-ball rate that has helped the former All-Star limit home runs (0.80 per nine) while also inducing double-plays more often than all but two other starters.

Often praised for his electric stuff, Jimenez finally seems at peace with the idea that locating consistently and keeping hitters off-balance may be a more tenable strategy than simply trying to overpower his opponents. With starts against the Los Angeles Angels and Miami Marlins looming, fantasy owners should hop on Jimenez immediately.

Ryan Zimmerman, 1B/3B/OF, Washington Nationals

After missing much of 2014 due to a severe hamstring strain and suffering a rough first month at the plate in 2015, Zimmerman is finally starting to rediscover his stroke.
"You miss most of last year and it’s not like it’s riding a bike," manager Matt Williams said Monday. "You just don’t pick it up again. So the timing's starting to come."
Despite eking out a disappointing .211 average with just two home runs through his first 28 games (while acclimating to a new defensive position, mind you), Zimmerman is 7-for-18 (.389) with a pair of homers over his last five contests.
Zimmerman's contention that he feels good at the plate despite the underwhelming results seems genuine, too, as his .252 batting average on balls in play represents a 64-point drop from his career mark.
The 30-year-old has also shaved his strikeout rate by more than seven percent this month, and is pulling the ball more frequently than he did throughout the first few weeks of the season.
Plus, teams are eventually going to stop pitching to Bryce Harper entirely - the 22-year-old already walking once every five trips to the plate - affording Zimmerman plenty of opportunities to produce runs that, for much of the season, Harper has been driving in.