Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
One of the hottest fantasy baseball shortstops to start the season was Kansas City Royals SS Alcides Escobar. Escobar crushed three home runs in April and had an average well able .300 for a good part of the month. He even added six stolen bases and scored 12 runs.
However, the shortstop has been an utter mess since his strong showing in the opening month of the season. He has seen his average plummet all the way down to .248, and that is even after a 3-for-4 performance on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays.
In his last 40 games, Escobar has failed to hit a single home run. He has also driven in 10 runs and stolen just four bases in that stretch. Escobar’s recent struggles have seen him moved from the leadoff spot all the way down to ninth in the batting order. He has put up polar opposite numbers from his early-season totals and it has caused many fantasy owners to lose faith in the 26-year-old.
Escobar was a mid-level fantasy shortstop at the beginning of the year, but he has since become an emergency option only. Escobar doesn’t hit many home runs, so the fact that he isn’t even getting infield singles lately makes him too risky to be started on a daily basis. The position may be very thin right now, but there are plenty of options out there better than the struggling Venezuelan.
Adam McGill is the Senior Fantasy Sports Writer at Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @adammcgill83, like him on Facebook, or add him to you networks on Google here or here.
