Statistics always have a way of evening out; that is why they are called averages. Sometimes players do have bad years, but more commonly they just have bad months. The key is to grab these players in their bad months, because when talent snaps out of a slump in baseball, it’s a game-changer.

For example, Giancarlo Stanton has been terrible. The 23-year-old slugger came into this season with sky-high expectations, after he mashed 37 home runs and 86 RBIs last season in only 123 games. Throughout the first 13 games of this season, Stanton has zero home runs, zero RBIs, and he is hitting an abysmal .163. Now a shoulder injury has Stanton listed as a day-to-day player, with his return expected to be at the end of this month.

I think this injury may be for Stanton to get his mechanics right. I would buy low on this guy. There is too much talent to pass up. This is just an ugly slump for a hitter unhappy with his situation in Florida. Someone will tell him the best way to get a plane ticket out of Miami is to start doing what he does best, and that is mash the baseball. Remember, the 6-foot-5-inch, 248-pound Stanton only hit one home run last April, missed a month due to injury and still finished with 37 home runs for the year.

If you have Mets starting pitcher Matt Harvey, count your blessings. This guy is the future. Harvey is the No. 1 rated player on Yahoo! sports and proved he was the real deal, after out dueling Nationals pitching star Stephen Strasburg this past week. Harvey allowed one run in that contest, which raised his ERA to .93 on the season. Harvey is 4-0 on the season with 32 strikeouts in 29 innings. He may be a better pitcher than Strasburg already. Hold on to this man as if he were your firstborn child.

This week feel good about rolling out any of the red-hot Red Sox pitchers you may have on your roster. All seven games this week are at the friendly confines of Fenway, four of which will be against the lowly Houston Astros. So far, the Red Sox staff possess the best strikeout percentage in the majors, sending 27.5 percent of hitters back to the dugout disappointed. The Astros are the most strikeout prone team in the majors at 26.4 percent, so it seems like the Red Sox’s hot play will continue.

I was lucky enough to be given a tour of the new Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, and my first reaction was “wow.” The state-of-the-art design, vast space, numerous vendors — or exhibit booths — and surrounding luxury boxes easily make it one of the nicest venues in Maine, perhaps New England.

The $65 million arena is a magnificent facility. With the capacity to fit up to almost 8,000 patrons in seats comfortable enough to fall asleep in, any team would be lucky to call the Cross Insurance Center home court.

Twelve miles away, on the Orono campus, UMaine President Paul Ferguson has decided to make the Cross Insurance Center the home of the men’s and women’s basketball teams. Unfortunately, this comes as a “plan B” after years of fundraising efforts to renovate the aging Memorial Gymnasium in order to establish a home court for the Black Bears.

With $14 million dollars already committed to building a new home for the basketball teams, the renovation plan was called off months back after further cost-prohibitive complications arose.

Not all hope may be lost though, as the Cross Center could be a saving grace for the University of Maine basketball teams.

Pat Horne, the director of corporate partnerships for Cross Insurance Center’s managing company Global Spectrum, gave me the tour. According to Horne, it would be a good idea to bring Maine basketball to Bangor.

“There is a lot of excitement for the possibility,” Horne said. “There are a lot of alumni in the area. It’s a brand new facility with state-of-the-art dressing rooms, a great floor and the overall comfort of the whole arena is what people are excited about, and that is what I think the University of Maine is looking at down here.”

However, if the Black Bears’ home court were relocated to Bangor, attendance could risk being lower than it already is.  The men’s basketball team had the third lowest average attendance in America East this past season, bringing in just over 1,200 fans per home game. Many college students don’t even have a car. If they can’t make it to a game on campus, it could be even more of a challenge to get them to a game in Bangor.

That said, students make up only a small portion of the regular fan base on non-promotional nights.

Also, the Cross Center would be able to sell beer, which is something you won’t see on campus.

“I’m sure there will be a coordinated effort by our marketing and promotions department to attract fans to Bangor, if it ends up being our venue for games,” said Ted Woodard, UMaine men’s basketball head coach. “It’s a beautiful facility, perfect size. It will be exciting to see events come to Bangor at the new arena.”

Despite the nearly unheard of premise of playing college basketball games away from the university’s campus, the facility itself may be too nice to overlook. Horne thinks that when players and coaches see the finished product — doors are set to open in September — playing off campus wouldn’t be an issue.

“When you look at this arena and compare to other arena’s, it stands out,” Horne said. “In addition, if I’m a player on the men’s or women’s team, to play in an arena like this versus the other arena’s in New England, you are going to get the opportunity to bring in recruits that might not play her without a first class arena. If you get several good players to build on the core you already have, you will be able to build excitement because the team starts doing well.”

Another thorn in the side, throughout the years of basketball coaches at UMaine, is the inability to routinely practice on the same court where home games are played. Maine has played the majority of their home games in the Alfond Arena. It costs an estimated $3,000 every time they have to switch the floor from ice to basketball court. No basketball team should play in an ice rink.

There are many pros and cons that Ferguson and director of athletics Steve Abbott must weigh to make this decision. I’m not sure what the best move is, but what I am sure of is that the Cross Insurance Center would be a nice facility to play basketball in.

Baseball is a streaky game: A player can hit .500 for a week with four home runs in four games in April but be spitting sunflower seeds in Triple A by August.

Fantasy baseball is a lot different than fantasy football, where one bad week by a player can ruin your team. The key to fantasy baseball is looking at advanced statistics and each circumstance to determine who can keep their hot streak alive and who is just in an unlucky slump. Let’s breakdown Week 1 in the MLB to see who is trending up and down, for now and the future.

Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis was the talk of the majors after one week of play. The 27-year-old slugger hit a home run in each of his four games this season — only the fourth player in major league history to do so — and his 16 RBI through four games set a new record, since RBI became a stat in 1920. Davis is currently batting a ridiculous .556 with four home runs, 17 RBI and a .591 on base percentage.

Davis will clearly not keep up this pace, en route for 162 home runs and 648 RBI, but he has potential to mash over 40 home runs and finish north of 100 RBI. Most promising about the hot start by Davis is that he has only struck out twice this year in 18 at bats. This is an immense improvement from his 31 percent career strikeout rate. Bouncing around in the minors and some stints on the DL, Davis has only played over 100 games in the 2009 and 2012 seasons. In 2009 he hit 21 dingers, and last season he hit 33 home runs and knocked in 85 RBIs but had a whopping 169 strikeouts while hitting .270. The strikeouts will not go away, but Davis could be a huge boost to fantasy teams this season if they diminish.

Seattle Mariners outfielder Michael Morse has quietly swatted four home runs thus far to go along with six RBIs and four runs with a .333 average. The 31 year old was originally supposed to be a utility player for the Mariners, but it seems he has earned himself a full-time gig. I don’t trust him. Morse has bounced around in the minors for most of his career until getting full-time work the last two seasons with the Nationals. In 2011, his best season, he hit .303 with 31 home runs and 95 RBI to go along with 126 strikeouts. Morse, who stands at 6-foot-5, 245 pounds, has virtually no speed, but the big man has some power for an outfielder. Morse may give somebody 30 home runs this season, but that is his absolute ceiling. I don’t trust him. Consider him trade bait right now.

A player I’m buying into is Oakland Athletics shortstop Jed Lowrie. The 28 year old has earned the starting spot in Oakland and has produced early hitting .476 with two home runs and four RBI to go along with a .560 on base percentage. Lowrie has never displayed true power with his high in home runs coming last season with 16 and has never hit more than nine, but there is something special in the Athletics water. It seems like Oakland could even take a homeless man off the street and turn him into an everyday baseball player while somehow competing for a playoff spot. That’s why I believe in Lowrie. This is going to be his career year. Given a chance to flourish in Oakland, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lowrie finish with 20 home runs, 65 RBI and 60 runs with a .275 average. Those are certainly not gaudy numbers, but they aren’t anything to scoff at from a shallow shortstop position.

On a quick note, stick with Red Sox outfielder Jack Bradley Jr. I know he is off to a slow start, hitting .176 thus far, but his unbelievable glove — which earned him minor league defensive player of the year last year — will make him tough to keep out of the Red Sox lineup, which is one that is already surprising people. The hits will come. His patience at the plate, already drawing four walks this season, is far beyond his years.

Remember, fantasy owners, trading the hot player is sometimes the best move. Robinson Cano and Matt Kemp aren’t ranked in the top 1,000 — that’s right, top 1,000 — so far in the season. Trading a hot player for an established stud can leave a fantasy owner tossing and turning at night.

Don’t look now, but the University of Maine baseball team is 17-14 overall. More importantly, they’re atop the America East standings at 8-3, after sweeping a weekend series against Binghamton University.

Junior third baseman Eric White has been pivotal to the Black Bears’ success. After earning a starting spot this season at third base, White exploded onto the scene in UMaine’s home opening weekend against Albany. He hit .545 for the Black Bears, with five runs scored and two RBIs, and added a double to go along with a pair of successful stolen base attempts. But White brings more to the table than just his bat: He finished the weekend a perfect 12 for 12 on chances in the field, helping UMaine take two out of three from Albany.

In fact, White was the third Black Bear to be named Player of the Week this year.

“I just got to thank everyone that has helped me get to this point and my coaches that always pushed me hard: If you work hard, good things will happen” said the 5-foot-8-inch, 150-pound White in response to the conference honor.

White has certainly put in his time to earn a starting spot for the Black Bears. In 2011 he appeared in 32 games and batted .221 with 15 hits, including a six-game hit streak. In 2012 he regressed a little, seeing action in 18 games while making nine starts and hitting .189 with four runs scored and six RBIs for the season. White had an idea he would be in the lineup this Spring, but wasn’t sure he would be able to start at third base. His coming out party against Albany solidified his role for this baseball team. White has already played in 26 games this season, starting 22 of them, and is hitting .225 — a number that is increasing — with eight RBIs and 14 runs scored.

“I had an idea that I would be in the lineup, but I didn’t know where I would be playing,” White said. “Playing third base is where I have played almost all of my life, so it is nice to settle in there.”

White is one of four UMaine baseball players from the state of Maine — he was raised in Brewer, which is only 20 minutes away from Orono — and enjoys playing in his backyard at the college level.

“It’s a lot of fun, growing up in this area, playing for UMaine,” White said. “It’s something I have dreamed about since I was a little kid, while coming up and watching these guys play. I feel comfortable here with my friends and family being able to come.”

White feels the encouragement from his coaches, peers and family was a major contributor helped him reach the level he is at today.

“It was a lot of support from my family and my coaches growing up,” White said. “They pushed me and told me I was a good player growing up. I bought into that and tried to work hard to get to this point, and it is kind of a dream come true growing up around here and playing for Maine.”

White continued his hot streak this past weekend against Binghamton, going 2-3 in the series opener with a run scored in a 5-2 Black Bears victory. He would go 0-4 in the second game, a 3-2 victory for UMaine, but continued to play errorless ball in the field, assisting the Black Bears in a big conference win.

“I’m not doing anything different out there,” White said. “I’m just trying to keep my head on my shoulders and keep swinging the bat. Balls will start falling in eventually.”

White says the key to this Black Bears team is their great defense. The Black Bears currently sit second in the league in fielding percentage at .965 percent and third in runs allowed.

White and the Black Bears will play again on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Mahaney Diamond as they take on Thomas College.

There is a group of people at the University of Maine who frequently play pick-up basketball at the New Balance Student Recreation Center. Every time you lace ‘em up with a new attitude and high hopes of experiencing good basketball, the same set of familiar faces has already taken the court. In most cases, you are let down. Before you have swiped your MaineCard you are already telling your buddy that the kid you insulted last game is on the court.

Then it gets worse. Your friend you came in with just missed his free throw after elbowing aside three freshman who sprinted over from court two when they saw the line filling up to be able to shoot to make a team. Your buddy hangs his head as you let out an expletive and stand with three other people you have never met, who are OK with losing 15-8 as long as they hit two fall-away 3s.

Good chemistry at the rec. center is as rare as a solar eclipse, and frustration is almost always guaranteed. Not only do you have to wait for 30-45 minutes to get onto the court, you are almost always playing with people you don’t want to while the friend you carpooled with is jogging a mile and twiddling his thumbs. But don’t lose hope, my pick-up comrades. There is an easy solution.

The solution was proposed during a conversation with my friend the other day — which was similar to the first two paragraphs. He suggested the issues could be solved with a court cam. The technology is available, and the rewards would be enormous.

It’s simple: A small camera would be placed on the first two courts of the rec. center. All identified university students would have access to the camera feed on some online website and could do a simple check-in to see who is playing at the time.

Imagine the difference this would make. Everybody knows there is no way to tell who is playing on the courts at any given time. One Monday there is a line the length of the court trying to shoot a free throw to play at four in the afternoon; the next, you’re asking any average Joe you see walking by to jump in, just to get 10 people.

Trying to avoid the kid who plays too hard and is putting emphasis on boxing out and hard fouls? Check the feed. Trying to avoid the creepy old man who doesn’t shower and only wants to operate from the high post? Check the feed. Trying to run with your buddies and find some good competition? Check the feed.

Let’s be honest: one of the best parts of UMaine is the Rec. Center. Numerous Rec. Center members enjoy pick-up basketball, and the accessibility of pick-up basketball is something I will miss when I leave this campus for good. Yet all good things can be better, and the court cam is the solution this student body deserves. Many hotels have court cams to see if somebody is on the tennis courts. It doesn’t have to be high definition, just clear enough to discern which kids are currently trying to get their run in. The court cam just might improve the way of life in Black Bear country.

It was an up-and-down season for the University of Maine men’s basketball team. The Black Bears showed off their talent at certain times during the year, defeating NCAA tournament teams Florida Gulf Coast University — who knocked off Georgetown University in the round of 64 and advanced to the Sweet 16 — and eventual America East champion University of Albany en route to an 11-19 overall record.

However, the Black Bears struggled when they were playing away from the friendly confines of the Alfond Arena and The Pit, finishing 3-14 on the road.

“Anytime you go into a season, your goal is to compete and win a conference championship,” head coach Ted Woodward said. “We knew we had a young basketball team and liked a lot of the guys we had. We certainly showed, throughout the course of the year, that we were able to have some very good moments against some very good teams.”

Unfortunately, the Black Bears’ season ended in heartbreak, losing to the University of Albany, 60-59. The Black Bears split the season series with the America East Champs and led by as many as 11 in the second half of the first round contest. But the Black Bears came up just short, as it was their fifth loss of the season that was decided by three points or fewer. This is the eighth consecutive year that UMaine fell in the first round of the America East tournament.

“We were disappointed to not get past the first round here in Albany, but I thought we played a pretty good basketball game,” Woodward said. “We need to cut our turnovers down, but we went and battled extremely hard against Albany, who is in the NCAA tournament right now and just came up a basket short.”

Woodward’s squad did a great job in the paint this season, blocking 123 shots — the most in the conference — and shooting 43 percent from mid-range while holding opponents to 41 percent. UMaine finished third in the conference in scoring, with 66.3 points per game.

“We were a transition basketball team, and we were at our best when we were able to get stops and get out and run,” Woodward said.

The Black Bears struggled on the perimeter. UMaine only shot 29 percent from the 3-point arc — eighth in the conference — and allowed opponents to shoot 35 percent. The 150-point difference from behind the arc contributed to the Black Bears finishing eighth in the conference in scoring, allowing  69.7 points per game.

“We outscored a lot of people from the paint,” Woodward said. “We needed to get a little more balance from the arc, and that’s something we are working on right now with our guys and will improve through recruiting. At the same time, we’ve got to do a little bit better at slowing people down on the outside.”

Star guard Justin Edwards was the catalyst for UMaine and would be rewarded for his efforts this season garnering an America East second team nod along with forward Alasdair Fraser. Edwards, a sophomore from Ontario, was the first Black Bear in 23 years to lead the conference in scoring, with 16.7 points per game, and steals, with 1.9 per game. Edwards also chipped in 3.7 assists per game and 5.1 rebounds to round out his stellar season. His unbelievable leaping ability provided the Black Bears countless highlights throughout the season.

Fraser, the junior from Scotland, earned the award, scoring 13.7 points per game and finished fourth in the conference in rebounding with 8.2 per game. Facing double teams, night in and night out, Fraser shot 49.1 percent from the field and blocked 1.5 shots per game to contribute Maine’s fourth best two-point defense.

Senior center Mike Allison earned All-Defensive team honors for the second straight year,  averaging 1.6 blocks per game and 7.4 rebounds.

The season highlight for the Black Bears came on Beach Night Money Madness. The Black Bears performed in front of the largest crowd of the season — 2,265 fans — and fed off the crowd’s energy for a 71-68 victory over the University of Vermont Catamounts (21-12, 11-5). The key for the event was promotion. Flyers were placed all around campus, advertising free cash giveaways and halftime contests. Coach Woodward hopes to build off of the night to draw larger crowds in the future. UMaine ranked seventh in the league in attendance averaging 1,209 fans per game.

“The University has been very supportive,” Woodward said. “This year, it was the first step for football really engaging students and making sure they had a lot of different events going on. They certainly did a great job for that basketball game, and I know there are lots of plans in place to continue those types of promotional events.”

With only two seniors graduating — Allison and forward Jon McAllian — the Black Bears have potential for a bright future. Throughout the season, sophomore forward Zarko Valijarevic from Serbia really showed positive progression. Valijarevic provided the Black Bears with much needed shooting on the outside and gave them the ability to stretch the floor, averaging 8.4 points per game and shooting 33 percent from three. He developed the confidence to take the last shot and led the team in free throw shooting at 76 percent.

Woodward claims the Black Bears have already begun putting in the work this offseason.  With some improved chemistry, consistent defense and better shooting, this team could contend for a conference championship.

“We’ve got a good, young core, and the next couple years we have a chance to do some really exciting things,” Woodward said.

The ushering in of spring means a new baseball season: With baseball comes statistics, and with statistics comes fantasy. Fantasy baseball was the original fantasy sport. A fantasy head can become entrenched in the deep world of fantasy baseball, especially considering that it is one of the only sports with cut-and-dry statistics for essentially every play. That said, if you don’t know who Yoenis Cespesdes is, then this article may not be for you. But if you can commit yourself to scouring over information about National League second basemen, I just may be able to help you gets a few wins this fantasy baseball season.

You may have already done your fantasy baseball draft, but if you haven’t, don’t draft pitchers early. Yes, pitching statistics are weighted just as heavily as hitting statistics, but the predictability of a pitcher simply isn’t worth the risk in the early rounds. Don’t get me wrong, I love Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw this year, but you won’t find them on my fantasy squads. Just last year Tim Linecum was drafted in the third round in the majority of fantasy drafts. He finished ranked 820 overall with a 10-15 record and 5.18 earned run average. Yikes.

In ESPN’s Tristan Cockcroft’s preseason ranks of 2012, only 10 of the predicted players to finish in the top 25 actually did. You can get great value pitchers in rounds as late as the seventh through the tenth, such as top 25 pitchers like White Sox starter Chris Sale, Atlanta pitcher Kris Medlen and Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey. Be patient and load up your lineup.

When all is said and done your fantasy lineup should have a nice balance of rock-solid steady performers and talented upside picks. Young prospects can emerge on a team any time there is a deep free-agent pool in the baseball league. Oftentimes these prospects can change the course of a year for a team. The key is knowing about them before your buddies.

Everyone is familiar with the Washington Nationals superstar prospect Bryce Harper. It’s hard to continue calling Harper a prospect, after posting a .270-.340-.477 last year with 22 dingers, 59 runs batted in, 98 runs and 18 stolen bases, but at only 20 years old, he hasn’t even scratched the surface. The first overall prospect in 2010 and the “chosen one” of the diamond has been coming off the board late in the third rounds of drafts. Now that’s too late for young Mr. Harper. I see this kid playing at an MVP-level for the next 14 years, starting with the 2013 season. The strikeouts will go down and the on-base percentage will go up, meaning this guy is worthy of a second-round pick.

I think the Atlanta Braves may have a a star in waiting with shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who is set to be the lead off man for a loaded Braves squad. It will be hard for the young shortstop lose his spot in the lineup, especially considering his exceptional fielding skills. In 49 games last year, Simmons batted .289 with three home runs, 19 RBIs and struck out only 21 times. In the World Baseball Classic this spring, Simmons was on fire, hitting .333 with two home runs and 10 runs scored. He continued his hot play when he returned to the Braves for his first spring training game, going three-for-four with two home runs and a double.

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Domin Brown has been a top 100 prospect since he was 20 years old, but he hasn’t played like one. Even though he has played for three separate stints in the majors, Brown has yet to eclipse .245 from the plate. Further, he has struggled to find the power stroke he showed in the minors that made scouts salivate over his potential. Now 24, the talk is over for Brown. Thankfully, new hitting coach Wally Joyner has apparently changed Brown’s hand placement, and it has done wonders for the left fielder, rekindling the talent that made him such a hot commodity. I’m buying into the hype for one last season and the low asking price of the 15th to the 17th round.

After having fallen off the radar due to disappointing play during his first few seasons, Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Gordon has quietly stroked 14 home runs last season with 72 RBIs and sported a .294 average. He will be consistent again this year at a low price.

Chicago Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro, the Kyrie Irving of baseball, will be entering his fourth season in the majors. At 22 years old, Castro has remarkably never hit lower than .283 and his stolen bases have climbed steadily, up to 25 last year. Castro showed power in the minors and this may be the year that it becomes part of his game, making him a potential top 10 player. Yahoo! ranks him at 40th overall, but this is ludicrous with his potential.

The key to fantasy baseball is to always be one step ahead of your opponents. Always read prospects lists and minor league stats to see when the next Mike Trout may be making his debut, then pounce on the opportunity. Good Luck.