MLB

5 Sell-High Options for Season-Long Fantasy Baseball Leagues

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Marco Estrada, P, Toronto Blue Jays

Marco Estrada is a straight up magician.

For the second straight year, the Blue Jays' righty is outperforming his peripherals by a significant margin.

YearERASIERAK%Hard-Hit Rate
20153.134.6418.1%27.4%
20162.934.2724.1%33.7%


This year, at least, he's got an above-average strikeout rate, but there's really no reason for him to have an ERA under 3.00.

So, how's he doing it?

Well, as you could probably guess, there's a whole mess of good luck going on here.

Estrada has the game's lowest BABIP at .191, and the second-lowest mark -- Colby Lewis' .234 clip -- is a long way behind his. Estrada is also tightroping his way out of trouble fairly often as his 80.3% strand rate ranks 13th.

Another terrifying thing is Estrada's fly-ball rate. At 48.9%, he's allowing more fly-balls than any other pitcher. Fly balls mixed with his 33.7% hard-hit rate is going to result in dingers sooner or later, especially in the homer-happy Rogers Centre, which ranks seventh in home run factor.

Maybe the batted-ball luck will continue in some fashion because it's lasted this long, but that's a risky proposition. Estrada is the 55th-ranked player in Yahoo standard leagues, and if you can flip him for a quality asset, you're fleecing someone.