In this weeks version of the Fantasy Baseball Top 250 Rankings, I wanted to touch on some of the teams that are going through their Mid-Season crisis.

It is kind of like a mid-life crisis, these teams are going through a funk where they don’t seem to know who they are.

Take the Cubs for example. They have lost six of their eight games and 11 of the last nine. The bats have struggled, especially the last week. More worrisome, is the pitching has not been carrying them through, as we’ve seen Jake Arrieta, Jason Hammel and John Lackey struggle. I think they will get through it though. So Cub fans don’t worry

Another National League team struggling right now is the Nationals. They had lost seven in a row against the Padres, Dodgers and Brew Crew. The offense, has really slowed down since that spurt they had in May and even early June. The biggest problem for them though is pitching, which is not being helped by Stephen Strasburg hitting the DL due to a back strain. He is supposed to be back soon, so right now I’m not moving him down too much, but i’m slightly worried given his injury history.

Last team I want to point out is finally an American League team and that is the Boston Red Sox. Their offense is still top notch, having scored the most runs in baseball on the season. Their struggles have been with pitching, has been all year with the exception of Steven Wright. It is getting worse though. Rick Porcello has come back to earth after a great start and worst of all David Price has been mediocre at best this season. They can’t find a fourth or fifth starter after both Clay Buchholz, Eduardo Rodriguez and Joe Kelly have failed in those spots.

Stock Up

Jonathan Schoop, 2B, Baltimore Orioles

Easily one of the hottest hitters in baseball for the couple of week, Schoop has raised his average up to .292 on the season. This is thanks to a .396 average over the last 15 days. In that time he has also four home runs, 15 runs and nine RBI. That gives him 13 home runs on the year.

I liked Schoop to start the year as a power hitter at a position that you do not usually get that from, but his slow start made me drop him a bit. This recent surge has me believing in him again.

Kendrys Morales, DH, Kansas City Royals

The Royals are getting healthy, with the return of Alex Gordon and are also getting some contributions from some unlikely candidates, Cheslor Cuthbert and Whit Merrifield.

Now Morales has started to get hot again, hitting safely in 15 of his last 27 at-bats with three home runs and 13 RBI and nine runs. This is a great sign for Kansas City as he was a main cog in that offense last year.

Stock Down

Noah Syndergaard & Steven Matz, SP, New York Mets

Both guys are dealing with bone spurs in the elbow, although we have conflicting reports about Thor on whether or not that is actually true. That said this really does concern me especially given the recent performances of both pitchers

Thor, was blown up Monday night by the Nats for five runs, seven hits, three walks in just three innings. Of course he is saying the rumors about the bone spur are not true, but signs are not good.

Matz on the other hand has confirmed that he is dealing with a bone spur and will pitch through it. Over the last two weeks he has allowed 12 earned runs in 14 innings. This last outing against Atlanta was particularly concerning since he allowed six runs in four and a third innings, also not striking out a batter either.

This is quite possibly the worst news for the Mets as Matt Harvey has not looked good and their offense is no where to be found.

Fantasy Baseball Top 250 Rankings

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Joe Bond

Founder at FantasySixPack.net

Not just another "Average Joe" when it comes to Fantasy Sports, Joe is the fantasy brain trust behind the up-and-coming FantasySixPack.net. For years now Joe has been spreading his love and addiction of fantasy sports there and many other sites such as FantasyPros.com and FanDuel.com. You can often find him waiting by his computer for your questions on Twitter too.

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