In this article, we discuss the Week 10 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 they are not producing.
Sizzling
Joe Panik, 2B, San Francisco Giants
Joe Panik has been perhaps the quietest consistently solid fantasy asset for fantasy baseball owners this season. Panik’s eligibility at a normally thin position in the infield has been a must own this season in deep mixed leagues, and AL/NL only formats, however he may still be flying under the radar in many traditional 10 and 12 team leagues. This season Panik is slashing a .323/.386/.482 line and has displayed surprising power with 6 HRs. This season Panik has proven impervious to the splits as he is batting over .300 vs. both left and right handed pitching, and batting over .300 both on the road and at home. Fantasy owners may be concerned with this .353 BABIP on the season; however he has averaged a .347 BABIP over the past 2 seasons. The concern with Panik entering the season was not his ability to hit for average, rather his ability to produce counting stats. Although he has not demonstrated proficiency for swiping bags with only 2 SBs on the season, he has a surprising .868 OPS and has scored 33 runs from the back end of the batting order. Panik continues to produce consistent fantasy value and deserves a closer look in all fantasy formats.
Arctic
Matt Kemp, OF, San Diego Padres
Matt Kemp was once a top 5-fantasy performer that produced across all five major categories. After battling through an injury plagued season, Kemp appeared to return to form in 2014 clubbing 25 HRs with a .287 batting average and did most of his damage following the All-Star break. Many fantasy owners may have been expecting Kemp to have a bounce back season in 2015 and for the most part he was drafted in a position that reflected that expectation. This season however Kemp’s performance has been nothing short of dreadful as he has yet to demonstrate any resemblance of power with only 2 HRs on the season. His ability to hit for average has yet to return either as he has a .249 BA on the season, despite his .320 BABIP. An additional indicator of his struggles this season is his career low 3.9% walk rate vs. his 7.9% career average. On a positive note Kemp has stolen 7 bases this season which seems to point to the likelihood that Kemp is healthy. Unfortunately, the patience demonstrated thus far this season by fantasy owners has yet to be rewarded. There has yet to be a sign of a turnaround with Kemp only batting .216 and having only 1 HR over the past 30 days. Kemp may indeed return to his former MVP candidate self, however if the right trade offer comes along fantasy owners may look to make a deal.
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