2011 Fantasy Baseball Hot & Cold List W/E 4-10

Every Monday I will be bringing you the Top 3 hot and cold baseball players from around MLB. The twist, I’ll also be providing a buy or sell recommendation on the cold players to help you decide if this is a guy to target in a trade offer or someone you should cut if they’re clogging a bench spot. I'll also give advice on those playing well, if you should sell high or buy the continued dominance.

For the last week, here are your Hot & Cold recommendations—

HOT

Paul Konerko

Last 7 games: .393 Avg, 5 R, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 0 SB

Call: Sell

Konerko will get you around 30 home runs and 100 RBI, but if an owner in your league is seeing over 40 homers and a .300+ batting average, sell high.

Matt Kemp

Last 7 games: .407 Avg, 4 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 5 SB

Call: Buy

Kemp’s average will cool off, closer to his career .290, but he’s on a mission this year and you can expect the stats to keep piling up for his lucky owner.

Jaime Garcia

Last 2 games: 1-0, 0.60 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, 18 K

Call: Sell

Garcia looked good last year, so a strong start is no fluke. However, these numbers aren’t sustainable. But if someone in your league thinks they are, sell!

COLD

Vernon Wells

Last 7 games: .094 Avg, 2 R, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 0 SB

Call: Buy

With the move to a less hitter friendly ballpark, you should expect lower numbers than last season, but he won’t hit .100 all year. Buy with the expectation of home runs in the low 20’s and an average in the .270 range.

Derek Jeter

Last 7 games: .179 Avg, 1 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB

Call: Sell

Jeter has become a ground ball specialist as he’s aged. The trends say he’s declining. Sure, he won’t hit below .200 for the season, but if he’s your starting shortstop for the year you may be in trouble. Especially when the Yankees make the inevitable move to drop him down in the lineup.

Phil Hughes

Last 2 games: 0-1, 16.50 ERA, 2.67 WHIP, 1 K

Call: Sell

The drop in velocity has me concerned. You can’t expect opposing teams to hit .400 off him all year, but he doesn’t look like he’s going to be the same pitcher as last year unless something changes drastically.

Brian is a Senior Writer for 4thandHome.com where this, and other work, can be found. Additionally, he is co-host of the 4th and Home Radio show on Blog Talk Radio.