Brandon Belt, 1B, SF
Belt homered against the Rockies on Wednesday, his 1st HR since Aug 13 and his 1st hit in the month of September as he just broke out of an 0-19 skid. Belt made the all-star team this year but it hasn't helped him much as he's hitting a mere .200 since the break with a whopping 31.8% K%. Overall this season, Belt's K% is still lower than each of the past two years but still higher than league average which makes it hard for him to hit for a helpful BA. And after hitting 10 HR's through the season's first 3 months, it looks like he will once again fall shy of the 20 HR' mark (Wednesday's HR was #15), a mark that he has never reached in his career. Every so often, Belt teases us and makes it look like he's turning into a star, but he has yet to post elite numbers for fantasy owners in any category.
Maikel Franco, 3B, PHI
Franco was out of the lineup Wednesday due to a jammed thumb, but he hasn't looked like himself for a while anyway, slashing just .207/.255/.309 since the all-star break. The crazy thing is that Franco's K% since the break is only at 14.0%, which is lower than his K% from both the first half of this year and from last season when he hit for significantly higher average. He has suffered from a .224 BABIP in the 2nd half despite a higher LD% and no other significantly changed peripherals. There's plenty of reason to believe that 2017 will bring much better results for Franco.
Yadier Molina, C, STL
Molina has been on fire since the All-star break, hitting .361 with 17 2B's and 5 of his 7 HR's in the 2nd half. The rebound in BA was bound to come as Molina has always been an excellent contact hitter, but after hitting just 4 HR's all last year and only two in the 1st half of this season, it looked like his power may be gone forever. Recently, however, that hasn't been the case as Molina has now homered in 3 of his past 6 games. That may not sound like a lot, but even a small amount of power can go along way at fantasy's weakest position.
Christian Yelich, OF, MIA
Yelich has been going through a bit of a slump recently, hitting just .206 over his past 27 games and not coincidently striking out 26.7% of the time over that stretch. His career K% is 20.9%, so an increase from that would be concerning, but the cold spell hasn't yet been long enough to assume he won't turn it around. Throughout his career, Yelich has managed to hit for a high average despite a mediocre K% thanks to extraordinary BABIP's - his BABIP has been higher than .350 in each of his four big league seasons. His high BABIP trend can be primarily attributed to consistently miniscule FB rates - his career 16.9% FB% is the lowest in baseball since he debuted in 2013 - and the fact that it has remained so high every year should remove some of the fear of regression.
A.J. Cole, SP, WAS
Cole has been decent since rejoining the Nats' rotation this season, posting a 3.86 ERA with 17 K's in 18.1 IP through three starts. He'll have a nice matchup on Thursday against the Phillies who rank 29th in the league with a .689 OPS against RH-pitchers. The opposing pitcher in the contest will be Alek Asher who has a 9.31 ERA in his brief big league career, so Cole has a decent shot of picking up the win in this game. Value Play DraftKings Salary: $8,300.
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