While many fantasy owners remain upset about the continued injury plague to make fantasy so difficult this year, Mookie Betts will defray the hurt for many. Not only will Betts be activated prior to Boston’s game in Baltimore, but he will return and hit leadoff. During his 31 games in Camden Yards, Betts carries a .301/.394/.610 slash line with an equal amount of walks and strikeouts (18). More importantly, Betts has launched 11 home runs in only 123 at-bats as a visitor.
In spite of landing on the disabled list after missing games prior to his designation, Betts remains atop the leaderboard in terms of fantasy production with 52 runs, 17 home runs, 37 RBI and 13 stolen bases with a .359/.437/.750 line and a ridiculous 214 weighted runs created plus metric. Temper excitement since side (oblique) injuries can flare up, but hopefully Betts will remain active and productive going forward.
Night Moves
Lost in the excitement, all the Shohei Ohtani rumors swirling suggesting he will require Tommy John surgery. There’s nothing official from the Angels or his agent, so this remains open to future developments. In case one needs a replacement, Jaime Barria , with five wins and a 2.48 ERA will get the start on Tuesday in Ohtani’s place.
No surprise, but Josh Donaldson has yet to run the bases during his rehabilitation process and will not be ready to play on Monday. With Vlad Guerrero Jr. out for four weeks with a patellar tendon issue, there will not be complaints as to why he’s not with the team, nor a clear replacement if Donaldson incurs another setback.
Tampa Bay placed Daniel Robertson on the disabled list while recalling prospect Willy Adames . Adames will hit sixth tonight and brings his .286/.356/.424 line from Triple-A with four home runs and three steals to the majors. Chris Archer had a setback in his recovery from an abdominal strain and will not resume baseball activities until they subside.
Not to be outdone, Cleveland’s promoted Francisco Mejia and sent Evan Marshall back to Triple-A. Mejia’s one of their top prospects and has hit .350 (14-for-40) his last 11 games with three doubles, a triple, one home run and 10 RBI. This could be short lived or another prospect making the most of his call-up.
With the Yankees needing to replace Masahiro Tanaka in the rotation, David Hale will pitch on regular rest tonight signalling it may be Jonathan Loaisiga on Friday.
Once again, Roberto Osuna ’s leave has been extended until next Monday, when he’s slated to appear in court. This case will have many ramifications dependent on the severity of the crime or if the complaint gets overturned due to a lack of evidence. Since Aroldis Chapman and José Reyes still ply their trade in the majors, Osuna’s case will be the first in the Me Too movement.
After defeating the Yankees, the Mets cut veteran Adrián González and designated for assignment José Lobatón . In the corresponding moves, they promoted Dominic Smith and Ty Kelly from the minors. Also, the team’s weighing it’s options regarding demoting Michael Conforto in an effort to let him work on his swing and improve his health. Stay tuned. Last, but not least, Asdrubal Cabrera , arguably the team’s MVP to this point, remained with the team with his hamstring issue being listed as not serious. Where have we heard this before??
Elvis Andrus will initiate his rehab at Frisco. He’s been out since fracturing his elbow on April 11th. Andrew Miller will throw a bullpen session tonight as his rehab progresses. Jeff Samardzija threw 40 pitches from the mound and could face live hitting later this week. Zach Britton will return to the Orioles working his way back from an Achilles injury. Britton’s not slated to close out of the gate, but who knows how Buck Showalter will handle him. Milwaukee will activate Eric Thames which clouds the rotation at first base with Jesus Aguilar and continues to decrease the stock of Domingo Santana . Kevin Kiermaier will begin his rehab on Tuesday with June 22nd slated for his return.
We’re going streaking
Remember when fantasy owners mused about trading Paul Goldschmidt for about 10 cents on the dollar? He’s in the midst of a multiple extra-base hit streak, four games, and was named player of the week in the National League with a .640 average and 2.130 on-base plus slugging during his games. Goldschmidt’s hit safely in 12 of his last 15 games while torching the Rockies going 8-for-13 this weekend with two doubles, a triple and four home runs with nine RBI. His 24 total bases fell short of the major league record in a three-game series set by, Adrián González . It’s a strange, unforgiving game kids. Irony at its best.
Speaking of hot, Ketel Marte had extra-base streak of 10 consecutive snapped when he singled in the sixth inning on Sunday. Prior, Marte racked up five doubles, two triples and three home runs. He’s slashing .379/.419/.1.000 in this stretch with two walks and three strikeouts. And we thought Marte would provide stolen base upside. Irony once again.
On the other side of streaks, Gary Sánchez has two hits in his last 29 at-bats to start June with a .069/.156/.103 slash line. Aaron Judge is 4-for-31 (.129) but with four home runs making it a bit more tolerable. This offense will be streaky at times and the Yankees are lucky Miguel Andujar ’s hitting .305 with eight home runs with supporting underlying statistics from xSTATS with an xAVG of .313 and 9.2 xHR and Gleyber Torres remains on pace for 29 home runs in 112 games.
Although the White Sox will not name Joakim Soria the closer, he’s allowed one unearned run over his last 10 outings (10.1 innings) limiting batters to a .086 average against (3-for-35) with two walks and 12 strikeouts. Things changed around May 18th when he changed his release point on his fastball and slider by lowering his arm. Here’s two charts illustrating this courtesy of BrooksBaseball.net:
Soria’s Horizontal Release Points
Soria’s Horizontal Movement as a result
Take note of the spike in red. Soria’s slider has improved in its movement causing his swinging strike rate to increase to 16.5 percent the last 30 days with his chase rate reaching 40.5 percent. He could be a sell high since the White Sox should trade him to a contender, but it appears Soria’s made an adjustment which could stick the rest of the year.
With Brandon Kintzler landing on the disabled list, fantasy owners may want to take a look at Justin Miller , especially those in leagues which reward holds. Since his promotion in April, Miller’s yielded one hit in nine innings recording three wins, two holds and 17 strikeouts without a walk. This results in a 60.7 strikeouts minus walk rate in this small sample size. Miller’s adjusted his delivery to a cross-fire one making his arsenal harder to recognize. His fastball has generated a 42.86 whiff per swing rate and the slider 18.18 so far.
As Glenn Colton alluded to this morning, the Padres have used a “committee” approach for saves the last two weeks with Brad Hand and Kirby Yates . While Hand’s owners can justifiably be upset, Yates has recorded two saves while the team mirrors how the Indians deployed Andrew Miller and Cody Allen from two years ago. Over the last statistical year, Yates has 27 holds, three saves and 92 strikeouts (tied for 12th among qualified relievers). Those in leagues where every save matters need to check on Yates’ availability.
Burning Questions
Can Steven Wright make his knuckleball dance effectively in Camden Yards tonight? Will the Dodgers promote Manny Bañuelos (six wins, 71:19 K:BB in Triple-A with a 3.45 ERA in 60 innings) to start versus the Rangers on Tuesday? Should the Cardinals be playing Dexter Fowler or Harrison Bader ? Greg Holland blew a save in the minors this afternoon, will St. Louis just eat the bad investment?
Relax on the Manny Machado rumors on Twitter, he’s sick and not in the lineup as a result. Plenty of action on tap for Monday night, be sure to check back in the morning for Fantasy Alarm’s Round Up to stay ahead of your competition.
Statistical Credits:
MLB.com
Fangraphs.com
MiLB.com
BaseballSavant.com
BrooksBaseball.ne