Those who own Tulo don’t need to be reminded of the .340/.432/.603 line or the 21 homers, 52 RBI and 71 runs he posted through 91 games.
There’s no way to replace that production. There’s hardly a player, let alone a shortstop, who can match him, but his owners have no choice but to try. And there are two approaches that can be taken over the next couple of weeks: look back or look ahead.
As we mentioned on yesterday’s Fantasy Source Baseball podcast, there are a lot of players whose poor full-season stats mask solid recent production. Sorting available players by the last 14 days reveals Stephen Drew’s 348-2-6 line and Jhonny Peralta’s .387-1-5 contribution over that span. Additionally, Josh Rutledge, the man who will see additional playing time in Tulo’s stead is 7-for-19 with a homer over that same time frame. Again, nobody is confusing these guys with Tulowitzki, but you’re only looking for a player – or several players – who can do a reasonable Tulo impression for 15 days or so.
You can also employ the daily streaming approach. If you head to Major League Baseball’s Beat the Streak page, you can see a hitter’s numbers against that day’s starter. Looking ahead to tomorrow shows that Eduardo Escobar is 3-for-5 against Hector Noesi, Asdrubal Cabrera is 4-for-9 against Danny Duffy, and Adeiny Hechavarria is 3-for-6 against Aaron Harang. Sure, those samples are tiny, but it’s not like there’s a perfect solution to such an adverse situation.
There’s obviously nothing worse than your best player landing on the DL, but if you’re willing to put in a few minutes of extra work each day, you can successfully bridge the gap between now and Tulowitzki’s return.
