3 Fantasy baseball targets for week 8 and 2 you might want to sell.

With week 8 of the fantasy baseball season approaching, here are some players to target and a couple you may want to consider selling on.

Week 7 is in the books so we look forward to week 8 of the fantasy baseball season. By now you are starting to have a good idea of what your team actually is. Needs are becoming obvious, surpluses are burning a hole in your pocket. And other teams are settling into contenders and pretenders making your trade partners more visible. So what should you be doing?

On the rise.

Jorge Soler (56% Yahoo, 60% ESPN, 78% CBS, 76% Fantrax)

Jorge Soler is finally starting to look like this uber-hyped prospect who fled from Cuba in 2011. Signed by the Chicago Cubs for $30M, the expectations were enormous for the 20 year old. Unfortunately, he failed to live up to them once exposed to a significant amount of major league pitching. Since his brief call up in 2014, he has struggled to be even a league average hitter.

In 2017 he all but fell off the map, posting a 32 wRC+ in 35 games with the Royals. But here we are, 34 games into the 2018 season and he has a 157 wRC+. He has a .320 BA, .426 OBP, 5 HR, 18 R, and 17 RBI. With no stolen bases that leaves him contributing in four categories in traditional 5X5 leagues.

He’s still young.

It’s easy to forget that Soler is just 26 years old. He’s been on the radar for almost seven years now. But is the breakout for real? There are certainly some good signs. His hard hit percentage is up 6% and his average launch angle is much lower at 12.4 degrees. That might account for the boost in production as he’d be hitting less pop ups and more hard fly balls and line drives. He’s also not pulling the ball as much as last season. But his pull/center/oppo percentages have fluctuated wildly from year to year, so it’s hard to draw any conclusions from that.

With an expected wOBA of .378 as compared to the .405 actual wOBA he has thus far, there is likely some regression coming. But it looks very much like Jorge Soler has arrived. He’s a great bit of outfield depth in any league he’s still available in. Scoop him up if you can.

Matt Adams (74% Yahoo, 79% ESPN, 77% CBS, 75% Fantrax)

Matt Adams is absolutely destroying the baseball. At age 29 he’s a bit old for a massive breakout. However, his 185 wRC+ says that’s exactly what’s happening. This isn’t the first time it has appeared that the big lefty was busting out. Is there reason to believe this time it will stick?

In 2013 he had a 135 wRC+ with 17 HR in 108 games. He followed it by going 116, 79, 106 and 112 in the next four seasons. So what happened between last year and this year? For one his barrel percentage is way up. His previous high was 11.6%. This season he’s at 16.7%. So it’s not a surprise that his hard hit percentage has jumped 10 points. He has also seen his average exit velocity climb from 88.8 to 92 MPH.

This might be due to his increase in pull percentage. For his career, Matt Adams has an 1.167 OPS when pulling the ball. That includes 60 HR in 579 PA. He generates enormous power on fly balls to the pull side. If he keeps this up, a good chunk of his spike in production may well be sustainable.

Incoming roster crunch.

The big question with Adams, however, is playing time. To date, he has played in 33 of the 40 the Washington Nationals’ games. With the addition of Mark Reynolds and the eventual returns of Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy, playing time might be a bit harder to come by in a few weeks.

For now, Matt Adams should be owned in all leagues and may still provide some nice depth once the Nationals are healthy again. If you can find a taker for him in a trade, it may be wise to sell high.