Lourdes Gurriel a great source of average, runs
Chris Crawford discusses the seemingly underrated Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Lourdes Gurriel and how he can be helpful in the average and run categories for the Blue Jays and fantasy rosters alike.
Video Transcript
CHRIS CRAWFORD: There are a plethora of quality fantasy players on the Blue Jays. So you'd be forgiven if you weren't aware of how good Lourdes Gurriel has been as of late. That will not stop us from telling you how good he's been, however.
Over the last month, he's hitting .378 with a .906 OPS. And while it comes with just one homer, he's been able to double seven times to help compensate a smidgen. More if you're playing in a slugging percentage league.
This hot run has helped Gurriel improve his line to .313 with a .799 OPS. And the metrics say that he could play at a level close to this, if not better. Both his expected batting average and hard hit percentile are above 80%, and he's a very difficult hitter to strikeout.
There are some negatives here as well. Gurriel is well below average in barrels and walk percentage. He's very unlikely to contribute in the power category without significant and unforeseeable changes. So yes, Gurriel is a two-category player at most right now. But if you need help in average and run scored, he makes an awful lot of sense as a player to target.