RADIO
BALLER MOVE: Target ~240
ADP: 260
ANALYSIS: Edinson Volquez may no longer come with the potential for reaching a higher ceiling of performance, but the 32-year-old has been a steady contributor the past two seasons for fantasy owners who took him in. In his first season with the Royals in 2015, Volquez went 13-9 with a 3.55 ERA, 1.308 WHIP and 155 strikeouts in 200.1 innings. Though his ERA went up 51 points between 2014 and '15, Volquez was able to significantly cut down on wild pitches and beaned batters, all while slightly upping his K/9 rate and using the Royals' fantastic defense to limit runners from scoring. If it were not for a terrible final month or so to the season, that ERA jump wouldn't have been so pronounced.
But that's the story of Volquez's career -- he gets progressively worse as the season wears down. His career ERA the first three months is 4.01, before ballooning up to 4.64 for the remainder of the season. He's an okay year-long asset in deep leagues, but the way to maximize Volquez is as a short-term investment and mid-season trade clip as his value peaks in early July. But again, being a steady producer the past two seasons has hidden that behind decent stats, a fact fantasy owners should be sure to exploit come July.
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