Uh, so, it turns out Chicago Cubs shortstop Addison Russell is pretty darn good after all.

Consider that Russell has a better bWAR (Baseball Reference Wins Above Replacement) than Manny Machado (2.6 to 2.2), although Machado bests Russell in fWAR (Fangraphs WAR, 3.2 to 2.1). He's hitting .281/.353/.404 with 5 home runs, 41 runs scored and a wRC+ of 105.

However, Machado is certainly a more valuable fantasy player, because he's more skilled offensively. Much of Russell's value comes on defense, which doesn't help fantasy owners one bit. He also doesn't steal that many bags, just four so far this season. He's not an elite batting average guy, and certainly doesn't have much power.

He did hit 21 bombs two seasons ago, but a repeat of that power surge doesn't seem likely this year.