Shin-Soo Choo had a walk and three more hits Thursday. He’s pushed his hitting streak up to 14 games. Good things come to those that wait.

Sean Doolittle gave up two homers in his inning of work at High-A ball Thursday. Don’t expect him to supersede Tyler Clippard for closing duties immediately with the Athletics. It might take some time, and while everyone thinks it’s a foregone conclusion that he will take over the 9th few seem willing to admit it may not happen. Coming back from injury, it’s no lock that Doolittle will immediately return to the level of success he showed last season.

Anthony Gose had four hits Thursday to bump his average up to .348. His .474 BABIP is an utter joke, and 20 strikeouts in 99 at-bats is pretty awful for a guy with one home run. Selling and not buying is what you should be doing.

Raisel Iglesias tossed eight innings of one run ball Wednesday, and his reward is a move to the bullpen. The Reds have four off days the next two plus weeks, so he will pitch out of relief. That also means Michael Lorenzen will pitch out of the pen for now as the Reds go with Johnny Cueto, Mike Leake, DeSclafani and Jason Marquis.

Aaron Harang tossed eight shutout innings Thursday to lower his ERA to 2.03. Just bonkers. Harang has walked just 10 batters over eight outings as he refuses to beat himself. His K/9 rate is down at 6.24 which would be his lowest mark since 2003, but the success is still there. Why? A career 1.12 HR/9 mark is currently sitting at 0.34. Yeah, not gonna continue. His BABIP is .255. The mark is .304 for his career and has never been lower than .277. His left on base percentage is 79.7. Right. His career mark is 73.2 percent. For the “real” Harang, even with all this success this season, check out his xFIP which is 4.20 in 2015. That’s more than two runs above his raw ERA and its actually higher than his career xFIP mark (4.10). Sell, sell, sell.

Greg Holland garnered his seventh save in eight chances Thursday. Not sounding the panic alarm or anything, it’s only been 10 innings, but it is strange to see him with only six strikeouts, and six walks, in that time. Keep an eye on him.

How scary it this?

Ryan Howard hit another homer Thursday. That homer pushed his slugging percentage up to .478, a solid number. He’s still hitting .230 with an under .300 OBP so he’s far from “back” but he is driving the ball pretty well.

It’s May 14th and Joe Mauer doesn’t have a home run? Come on Joe, do something.

Jonathan Papelbon has eight saves in eight chances. He’s also sporting a 1.20 ERA and 4.00 K/BB ratio. Old, but hecka reliable.

Mike Pelfrey allowed five runs, four earned, over 4.2 innings. Playing with fire you are if you have been starting him in anything but an AL-only league. Even in those setups he’s still a terrible bet to be a positive contributor all season long. Speaking of the Twins, what about Kyle Gibson? The guy has a 2.70 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. Those are pretty impressive numbers. Alas, his 3.12 per nine walk rate is a tenth above his career mark and his strikeout rate has gone from putrid to rancid. Last year the mark was 5.37 per nine which is embarrassing. This year the number is down to 3.53 which is so bad that it’s comical. You cannot succeed with a 1.13 K/BB ratio. He’s got the stuff to be better, but his hit or miss nature from start to start, and lack of punchouts, just stinks.

Anibal Sanchez allowed one run with nine strikeouts Thursday against the Twins. The effort dropped his ERA to 4.76 and boosted his K/9 up to 8.12. Sanchez issues aren’t really performance related, the ratios will continue to improve, it’s about his health. He’s never thrown 200 innings, was at 182 in 2013 and 126 last year. You can still buy low most likely, just don’t expect a return to 2013 levels and you should be happy. 

 

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).