Jennifer Stewart – USA Today Sports
With the All Star break over and the second half of the 2013 fantasy baseball season underway, it’s time to look at a few key players who can help make or break you in the second half.
At this point, a player’s first half has helped get your team where it is today, but it doesn’t matter much for the rest of the season. First half stars can become duds while guys who did little to nothing in the first few months of the season can help carry your team to a championship. One of those players is…
Milwaukee Brewers SP Wily Peralta
Peralta may be just 24 years old, but he’s been in the Brewers organization for almost 10 years now after he was signed as a free agent all the way back in 2006. He played his first professional season in the United States that year, and after progressing through the system all the way up to Triple-A in 2012, he made his Major League debut at the end of last season…and impressed. In 29 innings for the Brew Crew last year he had a 2.48 ERA and 23 strikeouts.
He was inserted into the rotation to start this season, but the results weren’t there as he was 3-6 with a 6.35 ERA after 12 starts. Fortunately for he and the Brewers, something has clicked and he has brought that ERA down to 4.61 on the year while recording five quality starts in his past nine outings; allowing more than three earned runs in a start just twice during that span. He is also getting more swings and misses. He had struck out five or more just three times in his first 17 starts, but has done so in each of his last three starts.
The 24-year-old is primarily a three-pitch pitcher featuring a four-seam and two-seam fastball – both consistently around 95 MPH — and a slider while mixing in the occasional changeup. It will be interesting to see if Peralta can continue to keep the strikeouts up, but he has shown enough over the past month to give you confidence that he can record some wins and quality starts while helping out your ERA and WHIP. He is currently available in about 95 percent of ESPN leagues, so there’s a good chance he’s out there waiting for you to pick him up. His next start is July 21 against the Miami Marlins.
Rich Arleo is a fantasy sports writer with Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Rarleo, ‘Like’ him on Facebook and add him to your networks on Google.
