Sometimes my wife and I switch cars for the day, and inevitably when we switch back, things always seem a bit off. The seat is not in the "right" place, the mirror needs to be moved, the radio is on the "wrong" station and the air conditioning needs to be adjusted -- and of course, she has the same complaints about the minor alterations I've made to her vehicle. Such is the nature of ceding control of one of your possessions to even the most mindful of caretakers.
So, with Tristan H. Cockcroft taking the week off, he's left the keys to the going-forward rankings "car" in my trusted hands. Now I'm not going to make any major changes -- no reupholstering the seats or painting it a new color -- but I am going to make some small tweaks here and there to reflect a few players I think might be a little bit too high or too low in the grand scheme of things.
One of these players is Wilmer Flores, who I'm bumping up 12 spots from where Tristan had him last week -- still outside the overall top 300, but much closer than before. Flores is owned in just 6.9 percent of ESPN standard leagues, although his eligibility to be used at any of the four infield positions certainly should give him somewhat of a boost in value going forward.
If you're not a New York Mets fan, the first thing that likely springs to mind when Flores' name is mentioned is last year's trade deadline on-field tearfest that accompanied the news that he was being dealt to Milwaukee for Carlos Gomez. When that rumored swap did not end up taking place, Flores became a bit of a cult hero at Citi Field, as from that moment on, he hit .296 with six home runs and 19 RBIs over his final 142 at-bats of the season.
This year, Flores has been incredibly solid when given a chance to start. In 48 such games in 2016, he has hit .277 with nine home runs and 23 RBIs (166 at-bats). He's also in the midst of a ridiculous hot streak at the plate from July 3 to present (batting .395 with seven home runs). The power surge -- Flores is slugging a career-best .473 this season -- is likely a function of the infielder getting consistent at-bats in the wake of the injury to David Wright in late May. Flores has been hitting fly balls at a 45.2 percent rate, and 14.1 percent of them have gone over the fence.
Yet despite his recent success, when the Mets signed Jose Reyes and decided to start him every day at third base, Flores went back to being a part-time player. Reyes, despite the post-suspension rust, has seen his ownership rise to 34.7 percent. And while he does have hits in 12 of his 16 games since returning to the Mets, a 1-for-5 night seems to be his most common box score line. His overall numbers are a paltry .239 with a 19 percent strikeout rate.
On Tuesday, Reyes suffered a Grade 1 left intercostal strain in the first game of New York's doubleheader and will be sidelined for at least a few days, even if he ends up avoiding a trip to the disabled list (although that has not been ruled out). With Reyes out, Flores started at third base in the nightcap and promptly added a 3-for-4 night to his ledger, with a double and a run scored.
Flores should see a lot more at-bats while Reyes sits, and really, playing time seems to be the only thing standing between the soon-to-be 25-year-old and fantasy stardom. Whether he stays in New York or actually does find himself packing up his locker en route to a new clubhouse this time around, chances are he's going to start more often than not the rest of the way.
Here are some quick thoughts about the week's other big movers...
Melvin Upton Jr. now calls Toronto home after being traded from San Diego for cash and a pitching prospect. Nobody is saying that the likes of Wil Myers, Matt Kemp and Yangervis Solarte are lousy hitters, but Upton has had only 78 at-bats this season with runners in scoring position. If he continues to hit at a .295 RISP clip with the Blue Jays, his fantasy numbers could see a huge rise batting behind the trio of Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion.
Madison Bumgarner moves up to the top 10. For his career, Bumgarner's best month of the season in terms of K/9 rate has been August. His best ERA month? September. In short, you've got a pitcher with three straight seasons in the top 10 in Cy Young voting who has tended to end the year better than he started. With the status of Clayton Kershaw's back causing concerns, there's no "safer" option to be found on the mound.
A foot injury had Matt Wieters out for a week, and while the Baltimore catcher says he's feeling fine, his bat has completely vanished over his past 10 games. Wieters is just 1-for-his-last-31 entering Wednesday's play. Obviously, he's a much bigger threat at the plate than Caleb Joseph, but Wieters was quick to heap praise on his backup for his work calling games in his absence: "I think he really helped with Bundy and Gausman, just making them use their off-speed pitches," the catcher said, per the Baltimore Sun.
Obviously, Miguel Cabrera is a top-20 hitter and nobody is saying he's someone to be benched. That said, I can't help but notice that if not for a four-day hot streak from July 19-22, when he hit .600, his fantasy contributions this month have been close to nonexistent, with an 11-for-56 (.196) output. Sure, it all adds up in the end if you never remove him from your starting lineup, but if you're playing in weekly head-to-head leagues, it may be understandable why your perception of Miggy's production of late might be somewhat negative.
Tim Beckham (.563), Yunel Escobar (.480), Wilson Ramos (.478) and J.J. Hardy (.476) all get slight bumps in the rankings after strong batting averages over the last seven days. There's always a bit of counterintuition that goes on with hot hitters and rest-of-season projections. After all, nobody expects these averages to stay at their current levels going forward, and in fact, if you polled a large group of baseball fans, they'd probably predict that these hitters are more likely to nosedive than to simply regress to the mean. I'm more in the camp that hot streaks tend to fade out slowly, rather than immediately plummet into glacier-like runs at the plate.
New ESPN position eligibility
The following players added new position eligibility within the past two weeks. As a reminder, position players need to appear 10 times at a new position to gain in-season eligibility, while pitchers need to make three starts to earn starting-pitching eligibility or five relief appearances to earn relief-pitching eligibility: Adam Frazier (OF), Jose Reyes (3B), Matt McBride (C), Jedd Gyorko (1B,3B), Ramiro Pena (3B), Greg Garcia (2B), Dylan Floro (RP), Nathan Karns (RP), Jhoulys Chacin (RP)
The following players are within two games of earning new eligibility, with their total games played noted at the listed position: Prince Fielder (1B, 9 games), Matt Holliday (1B, 9 games), Stephen Drew (3B, 9 games; SS, 9 games), Howie Kendrick (1B, 8 games), Emilio Bonifacio (OF, 9 games), Paul Janish (3B, 9 games), Gregorio Petit (3B, 8 games), Mike Aviles (2B, 9 games; 3B, 8 games), Luis Valbuena (1B, 8 games), Andrew Romine (SS, 9 games), Chris Johnson (3B, 9 games), Daniel Descalso (1B, 8 games), Nick Franklin (OF, 9 games), Chase d'Arnaud (2B, 9 games), Miguel Rojas (3B, 9 games), Christian Colon (3B, 8 games), Ronald Torreyes (SS, 8 games), Cristhian Adames (2B, 9 games), Ji-Man Choi (OF, 8 games), Jace Peterson (OF, 9 games), Jose Ramirez (2B, 9 games), Daniel Castro (3B, 9 games), Marco Hernandez (2B, 8 games; 3B, 9 games)
Going-forward rankings: Week 16
Listed below are my updated, going-forward rankings. These are based upon an ESPN standard league of 10 teams and Rotisserie 5x5 scoring. Click here to see these rankings sorted by position.