Fantasy: 3 players to target in a trade

by Jonah Birenbaum 2h ago

Raj Mehta / USA TODAY Sports

Every Tuesday, we examine three players you should consider targeting by trade in your fantasy league. Analysis based on standard 10-team, 5x5 formats.
With less than one week remaining until June, fantasy owners should have a pretty strong indication by now of their team's strengths, and perhaps more importantly, which areas of their squad need improvement. Scuffling teams need not fret over a barren waiver wire, though, as there are some commonly-owned players worth trading for without too hefty an acquisition cost.
Here are three players to consider making a deal for:

Carlos Carrasco, SP, Cleveland Indians

Positive regression helped Corey Kluber mitigate the gap between his ERA and his fielding independent pitching this month, but there's another member of the Indians' rotation poised to see his numbers improve as the 2015 sample-size grows.
Carlos Carrasco - the 28-year-old who fashioned a 1.30 ERA over his final 10 starts last summer - boasts some of strongest peripheral statistics in baseball this season, though it's difficult to tell from his unsightly 4.74 ERA and pedestrian 1.26 WHIP.
Still, only six of 106 qualified starters have managed a stronger strikeout rate this season than Carrasco (28.2%), who's also walking a lower percentage of batters than Felix Hernandez. The culprits responsible for inflating Carrasco's ERA, then, are primarily his .351 batting average on balls in play - the fifth-highest mark among starters - and a 64.5 percent left-on-base rate that belies his strikeout ability.
With a little more luck on balls in play, Carrasco could be a legitimate fantasy ace. Fantasy managers with a void in their rotation should try to pry the Venezuelan away from his current owner, while his ERA still resembles that of Roberto Hernandez.

Wade Davis, RP, Kansas City Royals

Fantasy owners desperate for saves might want to consider brokering a deal for one of the game's premier setup men (at the moment) if the waiver wire has already been picked clean.
An integral part of the Royals' devastating bullpen, Davis currently serves as the warmup act for Greg Holland, but the closer hasn't exactly thrived since coming back from a pectoral injury earlier this month. In six appearances since returning from the disabled list, Holland has managed a 4.26 ERA while allowing seven walks to just four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. Holland also blew a save May 12 for the first time since July, and his velocity is down a bit since his return. A return to the DL, or at least a temporary reprieve from the ninth inning, could be looming.
As for Davis? All he's done this season is post a 0.00 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 19 appearances while ranking second among qualified relievers with a 0.63 WHIP. The 29-year-old also converted all six of his save opportunities while Holland was on the DL and recorded his seventh save of 2015 last Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds.
Even if Davis doesn't inherit the closer's role anytime soon, it certainly can't hurt to employ a reliever who literally never gives up runs - he was last charged with a regular-season earned run on Sept. 26, 2014 - and can single-handedly prop up a meager strikeout total.

Alex Rodriguez, 3B, New York Yankees

Nothing like a good comparison, right? Below you'll find the statistics of two third basemen throughout the month of May. The difference between their performances of late is downright negligible, but Player B doesn't generate close to as much respect among fantasy owners as his counterpart yet.

Name	HR	RBI	R	SB	AVG
Player A	5	13	10	0	0.273
Player B	5	10	11	0	0.289

Player A is Matt Carpenter. And you already know that Player B is Alex Rodriguez because, presumably, you read the sub-heading to this blurb. Given his strong performance of late and wholly respectable numbers throughout his first 42 games in 2015, Rodriguez is an asset worth making a play for.
It's scary, actually, how much Rodriguez has resembled his former self in recent weeks since he started putting the ball in play more frequently. The 14-time All-Star whittled his strikeout rate down by roughly eight percent in May after fanning in 27.4 percent of his plate appearances last month, leading to a huge increase in batting average while also allowing him to take advantage of the very real power still lurking in his bat.

Month	K%	BB%	AVG	ISO
Mar/Apr	27.4 %	17.9 %	.232	.275
May	19.5 %	6.9 %	.289	.289

He isn't surrounded by a huge amount of talent in the Yankees' lineup, but Rodriguez continues to prove himself to be a well above-average hitter - seriously, the dude missed an entire year and still has a .907 OPS - who could become a top-5 fantasy third baseman if he can sustain his recent changes.