5 players to grab at a discount in fantasy

Hey, it’s May!

That’s right, the first month of the fantasy season is behind us already. We’ve reached the point where owners should have at least a sense of their team’s strengths and weaknesses. Here’s hoping it’s more of the former than the latter.

Either way, this a really good time to act. Put out some trade feelers and, heck, go bold and pull off that big swap you’ve been meaning to make in the name of bettering your roster. The following five players could do just that … at a discount.

Buster Posey, C/1B: This isn’t your typical buy-low situation, because by no means has Posey been bad. He’s hitting .284 with 12 runs, four homers and eight RBIs through 22 games. Those numbers? Fine. Then again, “fine” isn’t what owners were expecting when they selected Posey — the consensus top catcher in preseason rankings.

The 29-year-old’s sluggish start might be traced to taking a foul ball off his right foot on April 10. That caused Posey, who was hitting .391 with two homers at the time, to sit out two straight games. He’s slashing just .241/.302/.362 in the 15 games since returning. Hello, buying opportunity!

The minor injury shouldn’t be a problem going forward, and Posey, who homered Sunday, remains a fantasy stalwart with no peer at his position. Seriously, which backstop is going to rival him between now and season’s end? Jonathan Lucroy? Brian McCann? Salvador Perez? Please. It’s Posey, and it’s not close. But right now, his stats aren’t much better than any of those players.

And remember: Unlike most catchers, Posey plays first base, too, meaning he doesn’t lose quite as many at-bats as others do.

Adam Jones, OF: Like Posey, Jones spent a portion of the season fighting through an ailment, in this case a strained rib cage that cost him three games and limited him to late-inning appearances in a few others early on. The bad news is he’s batting just .225 with only seven runs, one homer and seven RBIs. The good news? Jones has played in 16 straight games, so he appears to be past the injury, making this the time acquire him at a steep discount.

Why? Because also like Posey, the 30-year-old Jones is a consistent, in-his-prime producer of fantasy statistics, having averaged 85 runs, 26 homers and 84 RBIs while carrying a .281 average over the past seven seasons. Even if he comes up a little shy of those marks, Jones still has it in him to be a solid No. 2 or strong No. 3 …

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