Ask Nash: Filling the shortstop void
"Nash,Position help please…I have been toiling away with random shortstops all year, after taking your advice on Erick Aybar…sorry but I had to bring it up. I have essentially platooned Yunel Escobar, Zack Cozart and the aforementioned Aybar.Had Aybar in my DL and have the other 2 on my roster and I really can’t justify holding all 3 probably don’t want to be holding 2 really.Which guy is the best rest of the season?!Stan"
Hey Stan,
Yeah, sorry about Erick Aybar. If it makes you feel any better I drafted him on all four of my teams. I drank WAY too much of my own Kool-Aid.
Nevertheless, the season isn’t lost on one player and there is still time to make a move for the championship spot!
Now with these three guys there are a few things I would look at:
First, if you are in need of steals, Aybar is probably is your guy. Luckily, he is hitting well lately (nearly .300 over the last month, over .500 during the last two weeks) and is always a threat to run once he reaches base.
If you need to make your ground up in power none of these guys are ideal, but let’s take a closer look.
If you’re looking at only homers, go with Zack Cozart. I’m looking at somewhere between four and six bombs, with most of them being solo shots since he bats at the top of the order.
If you’re looking at overall power (homers and RBI), the edge goes to Yunel Escobar for rest of way. Yunel is more of a total package guy in the power department. The home run discrepancy won’t be great. Escobar is at seven homers now, hit 11 last year and was projected for 11-12 just about everywhere I looked this year. He should be a lock for 4-5 more this season. When you couple that with his position in the batting order, the RBI total should be much higher.
If runs is what you need, the edge would go to Cozart easily. He should hit for some power, even if most of the 4-6 homers are solo shots. He also guy gives you best shot in average and can steal a few bases as well to move into scoring position.
The key to these three guys to me is lineup spot:
Cozart hits leadoff in front of Joey Votto (when he is back) Jay Bruce and Brandon Phillips. That will get him good pitches to hit and will provide plenty of chances to score runs.
Yunel is batting fifth and behind a healthy Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion that is a pretty good spot for some serious RBI production.
Poor Aybar has been dropped to eighth and has NO chance at getting back to the leadoff spot for the Angels as a guy named Mike Trout has secured that spot for the next decade.
Aybar is hottest of late though. So, MY personal play would be to pick up the hot Aybar, let his ownership grow until about 75% then try my hardest to flip him for an upgrade at SS. I like to take a lower grade same position guy like an Aybar and maybe a hot pitcher like Wei-Yin Chen for maybe Asdrubal Cabrera as he isn’t exactly raking right now.
However, some people don’t have the, let’s call it persistence, to make these types of trades happen. So if you want to play it safe pick up Cozart and he should be the most complete option the rest of way!
Thanks for the Question man