Even a small discount on Choo will pay big dividends. (Icon SMI)

Buy Low takes a look at fantasy players who are slumping or generally aren't instilling much confidence in their owners.  These players can be targeted via trade or on the waiver wire and, upon a return to form, can help you win your fantasy leagues.  Today's Buy Low focuses on the Cleveland Indians outfielder Shin-Soo Choo .

Entering the Indians final series of fantasy week 10, Shin-Soo Choo owns a .246 batting average, has hit 5 home runs, driven in 22 RBI and stole 7 bases.  These numbers do not reflect production of an early third round pick (average draft position of 28 in 2011 according to Mock Draft Central) and definitely not the 7th best outfielder (also where Choo ranked on draft day according to Mock Draft Central) in fantasy baseball.  In fact, according to Yahoo!'s rating scale, Choo is currently the 55th ranked outfielder and 188th best bat in fantasy baseball.

First, we should remind ourselves why Choo was ranked so high coming into the 2011 season.  In his previous two seasons, he has averaged over 20 home runs, 19 stolen bases and maintained a .300 batting average.  He was a mainstay in the middle of the Indians lineup, giving him a great chance to drive in and score runs. Not only were his numbers nice, but they were also consistent, something fantasy owners greatly value.

The main culprit for Choo's struggles this season is his inability to hit lefthanded pitching.  Throughout his career he has struggled against lefties, posting a triple slash of .260/.338/.373 while striking out 28.7 percent of the time and walking 7.9 percent of the time.  This season, his numbers are even uglier against lefties, as he's hitting .214/.276/.257, while striking out 31.4 percent of the time and walking only 3.9 percent of the time.  If we dig deeper into the numbers though, there are quite a few reasons to think that the native Korean will turn things around and be a productive player for your fantasy team for the rest of the year.

Historically, May has been Choo's worst month when it comes to offensive production (career triple slash of .269/.368/.406) followed by March/April (career triple slash of .278/.380/.443) as his second worst.  Last season, through the first two months, Choo was hitting .271, with 7 home runs, and 9 stolen bases.  Even though the batting average is noticeably worse, his counting stats are not too different.

A reason why there is such a great disparage in his batting average from this season to last could be because of a dip in his batting average on balls in play (BABIP).  Choo's BABIP has always been well above the league average, sitting at a robust .354 for his career.  This year it sits almost fifty points lower at .306.  Usually if there is a drastic change in BABIP, it is a result in a loss of a skill, such as speed, or a player's hit trajectory changes - neither is the case for Choo.  His percentage of line drives hit in 2011 is 20.4 percent, real close to his career mark of 21.3 percent, and his ground ball to fly ball ratio this season is 1.20, just below his career mark of 1.29.  The only batted ball statistic that people may take note of is his percentage of fly balls that are leaving the park for home runs.  Over Choo's career, 13.4 percent of fly balls hit have been home runs, this season only 9.1 percent have, but this should not greatly effect his batting average just his counting stats, which we has already been noted are not that far behind last years numbers at this point in time of the season.

In my opinion, Choo is still going to be a solid fantasy outfielder for the remainder of the season.  Again, a lot of his value on draft day was in his consistency, and he hasn't had that consistency so far this year.  His batting average is well below what was expected on draft day, but a change in BABIP "luck" could also turn around the batting average.  (It is also worth noting that as a whole the American League batting average is down, and look at players such as Ichiro Suzuki , Ian Kinsler and Carl Crawford who are also well below their career batting averages.)  With the numbers Shin-Soo Choo has now, his owner is probably frustrated with production, and frustration usually leads to irrational actions, such as trading him away for less than what he is worth.