The Calm After the Bust

We are at the halfway point of the 2017 Fantasy Baseball season. There have been many surprises in the first half. The utter dominance of Aaron "the God" Judge being the most compelling. Also the performance of Jose "Little Mouth" Ramirez and Travis "the Red Sox Guy?" Shaw have all been top players this year despite their pre season low ranks. However, I'm here today to talk to you abut some of the busts this year. Every time there is a bust there is a calm the follows. After a rough April, May and June there comes a brief moment of relief during the All-Star break. Hope is returned. Joe will get giddy as the games begin Friday. Mike will hope he can swindle another lopsided trade (JoeInnes for Manny) to put his team over the edge. Seems unlikely this season. Kyle will start talking about his team's upside again.  Will they turn it around? No. Is his team good? No. Is it sad? Yes.

Is there hope for these first half busts? Can they turn it around?

Time to embrace the calm after the bust.

1. Manny Machado: What a fucking L this guy has been. Sheesh! The average MLB player has an OBP of around .320. Machado's first half OBP is .290. That's bad. That's like having a batting average of .190. The poor guy has even been making fielding mistakes. I mean we are all rooting for Team Wheels because Team Wheels is a team we can all get behind and root for but what a mistake taking this guy with the 7th pick. When Kyle picked Manny he probably thought, "Ha, what morons in this league! I'm a shoe-in for second place again!". Boy was he wrong. Things may turn around for Macho Machado. His hard hit % has jumped 5% from last season and is sitting around a respectable 40%. He has also increased his walk rate which has yet to translate to his terrible OBP but it is a step in the right direction. He has 4 stolen bases also which is cool I guess. Panic Meter: 5

2. Francisco Lindor: Frankie Lindo aka Franny Lindy. This dude was on fire in the beginning of the season. Lindor had a OBP of .380 and 7 HRs in April. In May his OBP was .313 and 5 HRs. You see where this is going. June OBP of .261 and 2 HRs. To think I offered McLovin the whole farm for this guy. Dodged a bullet. Fun fact about Lindor he went to Montverde Academy in FL to play baseball. That's the same Montverde Academy that produced Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and D'Angelo Russell. Lindo looks lost at the dish. Last season he fell off post All-star break and this season looks to be the same. For a guy not known for hitting coming into the MLB and more for his glove his struggles are a little alarming. Panic Meter: 8

3. Trevor Story: What happened to this guy? Last season everything was going great. We all thought the story would never end until the injury. Joe was so angry he didn't get him on draft day. Rumor has it he punched a computer monitor at work the day after the draft and had to spend his lunch in HR. Joe my friend, you dodged a bullet. He hits the ball at a 50% medium hard contact rate which is certified bitch status. Hit the gym Trevor! You play in Coors! I believe in you and once it gets hot in Denver the ball will fly. Panic meter: 3