Fantasy Baseball Stock Watch - Why White Sox Pitcher Michael Kopech is trending in the right direction!

In this week's edition of Fantasy Baseball Stock Watch, Yahoo Sports' Dalton Del Don explains why Michael Kopech is on the rise and Anthony Volpe is trending in the wrong direction.

Video Transcript

DALTON DEL DON: I'm Dalton Del Don with a fantasy stock watch report. A player on the rise is White Sox pitcher Michael Kopech. He's disappointed with a 4.50 ERA and even a bottom 5 FIP this season, but he's produced an eye opening 29 to 3 strikeout to walk ratio over his last three starts, including a 0.57 WHIP over that span.

A change in mechanics has led to increased fastball velocity and a bunch of whiffs, with Kopech among the league leaders in K minus walk percentage over the last three weeks. Kopech looked like a future star back in 2021, and he's healthy again. It remains to be seen whether he can keep it up, and it's becoming clear that release point means everything to him, but Kopech sure looks like a former top pitching prospect who's finally truly breaking out. His arrow is pointing straight up.

Anthony Volpe, on the other hand, has seen his fantasy stock drop this month, when he's hit just .181 in May. Volpe homered Tuesday night just to get his OPS over .600 this month, when he's recorded a whopping 36 strikeouts to only 5 walks.

Volpe remains on pace for around 20 homers and 40 steals, but only 11 qualified hitters have a lower WRC+ this season. Volpe should remain valuable in fantasy leagues if he stays in New York's lineup, even if he doesn't make a major leap at the plate this season. But there's a risk he starts losing playing time or even makes a trip back down to the minors with Oswald Peraza back and tearing up triple-a. Volpe no doubt is a future fantasy star, but the rookie's stock is no doubt down right now.