Fantasy Baseball 2019: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

Should you cut one of your struggling draft picks for someone on the waiver wire to improve your fantasy baseball team?

The baseball season is two weeks old, starting from the real Opening Day. While it hasn’t been enough time to see what teams are real or pretenders, this is enough time to see which players are performing and which ones are holding your fantasy baseball team down.

It may be tough to cut a player you drafted high on the board but that pick means nothing when they are 0-for-28 or are hitting .210 after two weeks. There are plenty of good replacement options on the waiver wire.

Whether you need to win a head-to-head matchup or gain a couple of points in a roto league, a shakeup to your roster may be necessary. So, here is a list of players that you can cut ties with and players you should hold onto for a bit longer.

Ian Desmond – CUT

Desmond has been on a decline since leaving Washington. He tried to bounce back in 2018 with 22 home runs but he hit just .236.

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This season is off to a rough start. He has six hits, two doubles, with four RBIs and a .150 average. Desmond also has 15 strikeouts to three walks.

The 33-year-old was playing center field for the Rockies. But has now been moved to the bench in favor of Garrett Hampson. With playing time a concern, I would easily move on from Desmond despite being a top-150 pick.

Eduardo Escobar – KEEP

Escobar is also off to a bad start, .213 average, three RBIs and a 12:4 K:BB ratio. Though, unlike Desmond, he seems to be turning it around.

Over his last six games, Escobar bas a .318/.423/.455 line with three doubles and two RBIs. The Diamondbacks are hitting the ball well both at home, .278, and on the road, .280. With Jake Lamb on the IL, the Diamondbacks can’t afford to move Escobar to the bench.

They have a 10-game road trip coming up next week. That could be what Escobar needs to get on the home-run board.

Jesse Winker – CUT

Winker took advantage of Yasiel Puig’s two-game suspension with home runs in back-to-back games. But, with Puig coming back to the lineup, Winker will likely go back to being the Reds fourth outfielder.

Before these two games, Winker was hitting .042, 1-for-24, with seven strikeouts and one walk. Though, most of the Reds aren’t hitting, not having consistent playing time and struggling when he does play doesn’t bode well for Winker’s fantasy value.

There are plenty of other outfielders available on the waiver wire. Winker is owned in 43.3 percent of ESPN leagues and that number will continue to drop.

Matt Strahm – KEEP

Strahm has had two starts on the opposite sides of the spectrum. He went just 2.2 innings in his first then bounced back with one run in five innings.

The Padres offense is good enough to give run support to their pitchers. Strahm may not strike out a lot of batters, just four in two starts, but he limits opposing baserunners. He posted a 0.978 WHIP in 61.1 innings last year.

Strahm makes his next start on the road against the Diamondbacks, the team that roughed him up for five runs.

J.A. Happ – CUT

Happ looked good in the second half of last season with the Yankees. When the team announced signing him back, fantasy owners were excited. That hasn’t been the case so far.

He hasn’t made it out of the fifth inning in either start. Happ has allowed five hits in each game as well. He’s thrown 64 percent of his pitches for strike and averages over 19 pitches per inning.

With opposing offenses racking up his pitch count, Happ won’t pitch long enough to earn a win, let alone a quality start.

Starting pitchers may be harder to cut because of how little of them there are, so this may be tough for some owners.

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Your threshold to cut someone may be higher, so you may be a bit more forgiving to some of these early struggles. It also depends on your league’s settings AL/NL-only leagues have a shallower player pool, reducing the number of viable replacements.

I’d rather cut someone too early than too late.

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