DFS PLAYBOOK PRO – An exciting new offering from the Alarm is here! It’s the DFS Playbook Pro. I will be doing a daily breakdown of the hitters –Hitting Coach – while Howard Bender looks into the Pitchers (Pitching Coach).
OTHER LINKS TO BOOKMARK
RED SOX CALL UP CATCHER
The Red Sox lost Christian Vazquez to an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery in early April. The Sox then lost Ryan Hanigan to a fractured knuckle on his right hand and he was transferred to the 60 day DL over the weekend so he’s gonna miss substantial time. So begins the Blake Swihart era in Boston.
Swihart is a switch hitting backstop who is one of the better prospects in baseball, and that’s no hard sell. The guy is a top-20 overall prospect in baseball according to Baseball America (17th), Baseball Prospectus (17th) and MLB.com (18th). Pretty heady stuff.
In 18 games at Triple-A this season Blake hit .338 while getting on base at a .392 clip. As he has worked through the minors his offensive game has improved, he does have impressive bat control, but he’s really nothing more than an A.J. Pierzynski type of bat. I don’t mean the stupid good one we’ve seen thus far, I mean who AJP has traditionally been. That’s a .275 type of hitter with 12-15 homer power. There’s nothing wrong with that, but don’t make the mistake of thinking Swihart is going to offer a Buster Posey like offensive game, at least at this point of his development (Swihart hit .290/.337/.464 over his last 368 plate appearances against righties in the minors). He drives the ball well into the gaps, and his approach/swing should allow him to have plenty of success plying his craft in Fenway.
Swihart is a solid second catching option in mixed leagues as the path to playing time is wide open.
PADRES CALL UP CATCHER
Austin Hedges is being called up by the Padres. Rated 51st overall prospect by MLB.com and 23rd by Baseball Prospectus, he’s obviously got one bright future. An elite defender, let me repeat - elite, the bat was hot in the early going as he was slashing .324/.392/.521 over 21 games at Triple-A. Don’t be fooled by that small sample size though. Hedges game, at this point, is about 80 percent defense and 20 percent offense. His bat simply isn’t developed enough for the expectations to be that the 22 year old Hedges will be a mixed league option if given playing time.
Wil Nieves will be on the way out but don’t forget the key point I tossed in there… “if given playing time.” Question. If you were the manager and your catcher was batting .337 with a .880 OPS and on pace for more than 90 runs and 90 RBIs would you be benching him for an unproven rookie who is a good defender? Of course you wouldn’t. Derek Norris will continue to see the majority of work for the Padres rendering Hedges an NL-only option though Hedges could see some DH work when the Padres travel to Seattle to take on the Mariners next week.
RAYS UPDATES
Fast and furious.
Alex Cobb… ugh. Supremely talented, the guy simply cannot stay healthy. Currently dealing with forearm tendonitis, he was supposed to be ready to rock by 
early May. Not so much. His next throwing session will focus on his off-speed stuff, but it will be off flat ground. He’s nowhere near close to a return. Hard to envision him as a lock to return in May. Some guys are so immensely frustrating.
Desmond Jennings to the DL with the knee. The club hopes he will be back May 11th. Hard to hold him in shallow mixed leagues, but there is still talent here. Admittedly, we rarely see it. Maybe he’s my outfield version of Tim Lincecum – a guy I just can’t quit?
Jake McGee will make his third rehab outing Tuesday. It’s not clear if he will be moving back into the 9th inning when activated given that Brad Boxberger has been killing it (1.74 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 13.94 K/9, 6-for-6 saves). I’d say at this point it’s hard to expect that he will, at least at any point in May.
Matt Moore threw all of his pitches in a 26 pitch batting practice round Saturday. ’ I was very happy just being able to be around the zone with all the pitches,” Moore said. He is progressing well in his recovery from Tommy John surgery and hopes to be back at some point in late June. Always weary am I of guys coming back from Tommy John surgery in that first season, especially when it’s a guy who has long had issues with his control.
Steve Souza has 12 strikeouts in his last 17 at-bats. He’s also without a hit in that stretch. He’s hitting .205 with a .668 OPS. He does have four homers and four RBIs but this recent stretch is incredibly disconcerting.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
Mookie Betts is currently on pace to post the following fantasy line: .222-13-97-84-32. That’s rather remarkable counting category stuff given that batting average and horrible .301 OBP. Still, his vaunted BB/K ratio is gone – 0.58 currently – and his inability to get on base is a concern. Small sample size of course, can totally give you that. Here is his slash line through 76 career games: .267/.345/.410.
Kris Bryant --- no homers through 15 games. Well, at least he’s batting .278 with a .418 OBP. I know it’s early, and I know I will get flack for this too, but this is what you get for being extremely premature in anointing a guy a superstar before he’s ever take a real big league at bat – blah production. Bryant will be fine, but as I noted about 698 times in March/April that doesn’t mean he will be a fantasy star in his first season.
Dee Gordon is batting 440 through 100 at-bats. What? I don’t know what is more absurd – the .440 average or the .494 BABIP he’s sporting. Yeah, selling high might not be the worst idea ever. Let’s say he hits .315 this year in 600 at-bats (his career mark is .285). From this point forward he would bat .290 the rest of the way over 500 at-bats. By the way, he hit .289 last season.
Jay Bruce isn’t hitting .200 but the 30 homer, 95 RBI pace is rather impressive, is it not? #DontBeAHater
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday at 7 PM EDT 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).