In this article, we discuss the Week 8 Fantasy Baseball Surprise Players whose performances many fantasy owners may be missing if they are only reading the headlines from week to week. These are players that may be overachieving and may deserve more attention, or they could be players that are surprisingly underachieving. Fantasy owners are making moves every week and are always on the lookout for the free agent pickup that will carry them to the title. Additionally, fantasy owners may be overlooking players that are currently in their lineups, yet are not producing.
Sizzling
Josh Donaldson, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays
Over the past 30 days, Donaldson has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball with a .292/.364/.593 line. The Blue Jays third baseman has belted 8 HR with 29 RBI in the month of May alone. Donaldson’s move to the hitter’s paradise in Toronto was expected to yield strong counting stats for fantasy owners this season, and over the past month he has met those expectations. He has especially abused left handed pitching this season with a .474 AVG and an astounding 1.395 OPS. Fantasy owners should take a look at his home/road splits however as he has hit 10 of this 13 HR at home, and his batting average drops from .375 at home to .238 on the road. Donaldson also has a career high .336 BABIP on the season and his BB% of 8.5% is a significant drop from his 11.1% rate the past 2 seasons in Oakland. Bottom line is that if Donaldson has a matchup at home against a left handed pitcher he is one of the best hitters in baseball, and a majority of the ball parks in the AL East are of course very hitter friendly.
Arctic
Julio Teheran, SP, Atlanta Braves
Teheran entered the season as a young starting pitcher with very high expectations. Although it was expected that wins might often be difficult to come by, the other ratios were going to be solid. Over the past month, Teheran has a frighteningly high 5.14 ERA, and opposing hitters have a .309 AVG. He has maintained a very strong strikeout rate with K/9 of 8.36, and has a winning record in May. Unfortunately, two performances on the road have led to his awful month as he surrendered 8 runs to the Dodgers on May 26th and 6 ER to the Nationals on May 9th. Left handed hitters have are hitting .371 against him on the season, and his strikeout to walk rate (K-BB%) is 5.8% vs. lefties this season compared to 14.4% vs. right handed hitters. Left handed pitching was not a problem for him last season as they only managed a .239 AVG over 457 batters. Teheran is only 24 years old, and has demonstrated tremendous talent thus far in his major league career, and yet fantasy owners do have cause for concern this season as his poor trends have yet to change over the first 2 months of the season.
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