Mookie Betts has nine homers, eight steals, 35 RBI and 41 runs scored in 46 games. He’s been stupendous. However, a big issue is that he’s only walked 12 times leading to a poor .318 OBP that is barely league average. Where have the vaunted on-base skills gone for Betts?

Matt Carpenter has been placed on the paternity list to spend time with his wife. My BFF Jeff Mans is taking a lot of heat for suggesting that Carpenter taking four days off is nuts. I completely agree and have stated so on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio many times. Take a day or two, fine. But reports suggest that Carpenter is potentially going to miss the entire four game series against the Nationals. Why the need for four days? Certainly seems excessive to me.

I’ve been getting a lot of Welington Castillo questions lately. Hitting just .210 with a .562 OPS in May, people seem to be extremely disappointed in him. Can’t say I’m surprised in the least. It’s not like he’s the next Mike Piazza. Back in March I wrote about him in Misplaced Love. Clearly the article didn’t go viral or folks would have understood what Castillo was. Meanwhile, Chris Herrmann has a .286/.338/.600 slash line over his first 78 plate appearances. He’s been crushing it. Realize that Herrmann has a .263/.352/.384 slash line in more than 2,300 plate appearances in the minor leagues. He can get on base, but he’s hit a total of 35 homers over 566 games and his SLG was under .385 folks. No way the 28 year old keeps up his current pace, but he certainly gives the D’backs a solid option to turn to while Castillo struggles. He’s a short-term mixed league play, Castillo is still a better long-term option.

Adam Lind is starting to come around for the Mariners. Russell Martin is finally starting to hit. Logan Morrison has never developed into the player we thought he would be. Check out the Video.

Adam Duvall has a .918 OPS in May. Joc Pederson is at .904. Speaking of Pederson… he’s on pace for 25 homers, 80 RBI and 75 runs scored.

Randall Grichuk is hitting .241 with a .315 OBP. He’s been a disappointment. Just the truth. Beyond that… not many seem to notice that Grichuck has a .296/.359/521 slash line this May. Admit it, you had no idea, right? His .880 OPS for May is better than Nomar Mazara (.873), Betts (.865), Kris Bryant (.864), J.D. Martinez (.858) etc. Yep folks, it’s time to still buy low on Grichuk if his current owner doesn’t get it.

Scott Kazmir may be striking out a lot, but don’t expect more. Do not believe in Dan Straily. Collin McHugh is starting to look like himself from last year. Check out the Video.

Mike Moustakas is back to the DL with a torn ACL and his season appears to be over [the Royals called up Brett Eibner, a 27 year old who was tied for the PCL lead in runs scored (36) and walks (27)]. This is the second time that Moose has been on the disabled list this year. I own no shares of Moustakas as I never thought he was capable of repeating his effort from last season. Hopefully you don’t own him either.

David Ortiz is the MLB leader in wOBA at .453, twelve points ahead of Daniel Murphy and .016 points ahead of his teammate Jackie Bradley Jr. That’s a shocking a trio as you are likely to find in any category this season.

So much for Dustin Pedroia being hurt. Though he was removed Wednesday with a hamstring issue he’s right back in there Thursday for the Red Sox. He’s hitting .304 with a .833 OPS and the bat is as lively as pretty much ever, even though he’s only stolen two bags.

Colby Rasmus is tied with Gerardo Parra and Cesar Hernandez for the major league lead in bunt hits with five. Remove those five hits and Rasmus would be hitting .196 (his average is currently .228). Please tell me you sold at his apex a month ago.

Rob Refsnyder picked up three at-bats at the big league level before he was demoted to the minors in favor of Alex Rodriguez who was activated from the DL. Can’t stay RR at the moment unless you’re in an AL-only league, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him play a significant role later in the year.

Steve Souza leads baseball with a 33.3 percent HR/F ratio. Chris Carter is second at 30.2 percent. Souza had an impressive 20.5 percent mark last season which is way more commiserate with his skills than his current mark. Carter, a prolific blaster of the baseball, owns a 21.0 percent mark for his career. Obviously both men are going to have to push up their fly ball rates if they want to maintain their home run paces.

Mark Teixeira will likely miss at least the next three days after receiving a cortisone shot in his neck. An MRI says there is nothing structurally wrong with his neck, but obviously there are some things going on here. Tex has a 27.1 percent K rate, light years above his 17.8 percent career mark, and his ability to drive the baseball has vanished (.087 Isolated Power, .282 SLG). Wasn’t in on him coming into the year, and that’s looking like a good call.

I wrote about Julio Urias in this Player Profile. I bet many folks are overestimating the fantasy impact of the dynamic arm.

Christian Yelich is out of the lineup for the 5th time in a row due to back woes. The team hasn’t said that Yelich is DL bound, but at some point they will need to make the call. Certainly seems like a DL stint is possible, especially since Yelich spent 33 days on the DL last season with a back issue. This health situation threatens to derail what was looking like a breakout campaign (.320/.420/.524).

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).