Yordan Alvarez has been absurdly good. J.P. Crawford is another young hitter who is performing. Machado is on fire, while Austin Hedges has been the exact opposite for the Padres. Jose Martinez and Eric Thames aren’t seeing huge at-bats, but both men have been very effective when in their perspective lineups. Austin Meadows – star or not? Kevin Newman keeps hitting, and Christian Walker hasn’t been awful. On the hill, the Cubs are giving Alzolay some run. The Dodgers are trying to decide what to do with Stripling/Urias. The Cardinals and Athletics are looking to change things up in the 9th inning.
HITTING
Yordan Alvarez is amazing. In 12-games he’s gone .333-7-16-12 with a 1.241 OPS. That’s a top-10 ever (?), first two weeks in the big-leagues. Love that 46.7 HR/FB for the absolute absurdity of it all.
J.P. Crawford has performed very well with the bat in his hands. There’s been some injury stuff to contend with, but over 27 games he’s slashing .300/.377/.450. Over his last six tames he has 10 hits while driving in seven runs. He’s benefitted from a .406 BABIP, but I do like the 11.4 percent walk rate which shows that he’s being patient at the dish. I wouldn’t expect anywhere near this level of production moving forward, he’s not a .300 hitter at this point, but he’s been sharper than expected and has carried over the minor league success this season.
Austin Hedges has disappointed the hell out of me this season. We’re 189 plate appearances in and he’s still failing to hit his weight with a .195 batting average. The strikeouts have reached epic levels, 32.3 percent K-rate, and without the walk, his OBP of .259 is also terrible. I’ve been holding and holding in two catcher leagues, but I admit I moved on from him in a couple of spots this past weekend. Very disappointed am I in Hedges, and Francisco Mejia is back and he could start to steal some work, so keep a close eye on this situation where everyone is searching for catching depth.
I got some push back on Twitter over Manny Machado because I stated he was hot, only to hear that it was cause of Coors Field. So much for that lame take. Machado has an 11-game hitting streak going with a .469-6-14-16-1 line with a .533 wOBA. That massive two week run has the always dependable Machado on pace for a season of .278-33-98-95-4. Yep, same as always.
Jose Martinez doesn’t always find it easy to get into the lineup with the Cardinals, and he’s hit just five homers this season. Still, he’s rocking a .291 average and a .358 OBP on the season, and those numbers play both at first base and in the outfield where he qualifies. The last two weeks he has that OBP sitting at .289, and the last week he went 7-for-18 with a .389/.450/.556 slash line.
Austin Meadows has been marvelous for the Rays with a .304-12-41-33-8 fantasy line over a mere 60 games. Just remarkable really. However, he’s hit a rough patch the last 13 outings with a .146/.212/.271 effort. As much as I love his game, and I’ve long been a fan, I’ve been surprised to see so many folks go all in with Meadows as if he’s a .300, 20/10 guy without question. Holding that position, with a player with fewer than 120 big-league games, and an extensive injury list in his background, always seemed too aggressive for my liking.
Kevin Newman has pushed the hitting streak up to 12 games. I spoke about him over the weekend.
Eric Thames has taken on the lion’s share of playing time over the continually struggling Jesus Aguilar (one homer and two BRI over his last 17 games with just 30 at-bats). Thames has hit OBP up to .378 on the season and his 1B/OF eligibility is also a nice little boost to his value. He has a homer every 16.6 at-bats this season, a 500 AB pace for 30 homers.
Christian Walker has been all over the place in the average category. He hit .307 in April, then .208 in May, and that mark is backup to .282 in June. He’s on a 150-game pace of .265-26-60-80. Those would certainly be solid numbers for a guy who wasn’t drafted. However, they wouldn’t move the ball at all in mixed leagues.
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PITCHING
Adbert Alzolay will start for the Cubs Tuesday against the Braves. He allowed one hit and one run over four innings in his first big-league outing last week. It’s unclear how much run he will get in the rotation, and it sounds like the current plan is for the Cubs to go with the ever popular 6-man rotation. Kyle Hendricks (shoulder) is already back to throwing (manager Joe Maddon said that “Kyle is doing extremely well”), and there is every expectation that he will return to the rotation in July at which point Alzolay will either shift to the bullpen or head back to the minors.
Jordan Hicks is having an MRI today, and the result was a torn UCL. His season is over. Who takes over? Carlos Martinez, Andrew Miller and John Gant potentially will get a look (for what it’s worth, team president John Mozeliak said that it seems likely Gant would be the top choice – whereas this beat writer thinks its C-Mart). I would favor Martinez, but it’s really a guess at this point. Speaking of the Cardinals, did you see that Alex Reyes was removed from his start Sunday with right pectoral discomfort? I’m really starting to wonder if that guy is ever gonna live up to expectations. At some point, skills just don’t matter if you cannot stay on the damn field. I’m just out on Reyes.
Ross Stripling is the presumptive option to full-in for the open spot vacated by Rich Hill. However, the Dodgers haven’t been overly clear with what the plan actually is, merely going as far as saying that Stripling and Julio Urias will share the workload Tuesday (we’re not sure who is starting). Urias has been impressive this season – five starts and 12 relief efforts – with 46 strikeouts, a 2.84 ERA and 1.02 WHIP over 44 innings. The still 22 year old Urias threw just 54.2 innings in 2017 and 11.2 inning last season, so you have to think that even throwing 100-innings this season seems unlikely. Given that he’s currently on pace for about 95 innings, I really can’t think that Urias settles in over Stripling in the rotation, but with all the oddity with rotations/reliever/openers… it’s possible that Urias makes a fair amount of starts though his innings pitcher totals remain in check. Stripling is my favorite to emerge.
Blake Treinen has been placed on the injured list with a shoulder issue. As I’ve been detailing each week in the Closer Chart, Treinen has looked nothing at all like the hurler that dominated the universe last season. Tabbed with a mild rotator cuff strain, it doesn’t seem likely anyone is sounding the death blow for his 2019 campaign, but there is no exact timetable for his return either. Treinen has lost two batters per nine off his K-rate while seeing his walk rate go up well move than 100 percent from last season. As a result, his 0.83 WHIP from ’18 has nearly doubled this season at 1.53. He’s also sporting a 1.28 GB/FB ratio which is less than half his career mark of 2.68. He’s just not been able to get it done. As for what the A’s plan to do until Treinen returns, it seems like Liam Hendricks will take over. Hendricks is pitching well with a 10.63 K/9 rate and a 1.06 WHIP over 35 outings. Since the start of June, the 30 year old reliever has allowed just one run over 11.2 innings while he’s punched out 16 batters. He’s worth a pick up in all formats, but realize that Treinen is expected to return to closing, and that Hendricks has all of two saves in 280 career outings with Joakim Soria and the suddenly struggling Lou Trivino lurking.
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