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). You can find the link to the Hitting and Pitching articles under the DFS Playbook pro tab at the top right of the screen.
OTHER LINKS TO BOOKMARK
GALLO THE NEXT STAR?
Joey Gallo has been called up by the Rangers. Let the feeding frenzy begin.
I’ve heard it all on twitter the last 18 hours.
Gallo is a must add in all formats.
Gallo will be a fantasy star right now.
Gallo should be getting as much publicity as Kris Bryant.
Sorry to burst your bubble… actually I’m not. For some reason people lose their marbles any time there’s a prospect called up. They start having visions of the Hall of Fame. They just can’t help themselves. Never understood it. Here’s the water to cool the fire.
- Adrian Beltre is likely to miss 2-3 weeks with a thumb injury. No one seems to believe it’s a long-term issue.
- Gallo will be called up and asked to fill the third base position with the Rangers.
- Gallo will be sent back to the minors when Beltre is healthy. Read this one again.
People, #3 is the most salient point, and one that sooooooo many folks seem to be missing with Gallo. This is a short term call-up, not a Kris Bryant situation where the kid will be given full run at a starting spot. Some of the obvious reasons why that is…
The Rangers have Beltre to play third base.
They have Prince Fielder/Mitch Moreland to play first base and DH. Moreland is batting .289 with an .846 OPS by the way.
They have Shin-soo Choo in right and just added Josh Hamilton to play left field. Gallo can’t play center field. Speaking of defense, Gallo has played seven games at first base and six games in the outfield in his young career. At this point he’s only a third baseman, and a horrible defender at that (his fielding percentage is a pathetic .927 over 288 games – that’s atrocious). Given his youth and total inexperience it makes no sense at all for the Rangers to keep him in the big leagues unless he is starting every day.
Gallo can hit, but there are limits.
- Gallo has as much raw power as any player in baseball.
- Gallo blasted 40 homers in 111 games in 2013.
- Gallo socked 42 homers in 126 games in 2014.
So ends the positive. Now the reality check.
- Gallo has never had an at-bat above Double-A. Never.
- Gallo has a total of 371 at-bats above Single-A ball.
Don’t know what planet all of you live on where you think that doesn’t matter.
Gallo is 21 years, six months and 14 days old and has 371 at-bats above A-ball.
Bryant is 23 years, four months, 29 days old and had 520 at-bats above A-ball when he was called up. He also had three years of college experience to call on. There is no comparison between the two.
There’s also one other huge mitigating factor with Gallo. His MASSIVE strikeout rate.
In 1,177 at-bats in the minors Gallo has struck out 478 times. Perspective. That’s a pace that would net him 203 strikeouts in just 500 at-bats. If he were to pile up 575 at-bats the mark would swell to 234 strikeouts. The single season strikeout record is 223 by the way. An even more frightening data point is that his strikeout rate has been against Rookie Ball, Single-A and Double-A hurlers with 806 at-bats coming against Rookie and Single-A pitchers. What do you think big league pitchers will do to Gallo? They will carve him up. “Even if he really struggles, which is possible for a young player jumping from Double-A to the majors, he’ll be better long-term for the learning experience,” Daniels said. “He will have a better idea of knowing some of the things he will have to work on. … This will help his development.”
Gallo is a special power talent and is likely to be an annual option to lead the majors in homers when he’s fully developed. That time isn’t now. He’s young, inexperienced and has major holes in his offensive game. He could arrive in 2016 but it won’t be a happening in 2015.
ADDISON RUSSELL UPDATE
Addison Russell is every bit the prospect that Gallo is but he has one huge thing Gallo doesn’t – a spot in the daily lineup.
Russell has had a moderate start to his career with the Cubs. Through 35 games his slash line is passable for middle infielder (.254/.302/.438) and his current pace, over 150 games, would lead to 17 homers, 64 RBIs and 73 runs. Those are solid numbers for a second sacker. In fact, how many from the position went 17-64-73 last season? The answer is four if you include a guy who spend time at third base: Neil Walker, Brian Dozier, Ian Kinsler and Anthony Rendon.
On the downside Russell has only attempted three steals and been successful once. He’s also struck out a horrid 49 times in 130 at-bats. He’s simply got to make more contact in order to reach his potential.
MOOKIE BETTS UPDATE
Mookie Betts… still waiting for ya kid. Betts is batting .246 with a .304 OBP and .389 SLG. Remember those preseason prognosticators that said his OBP would be higher than .389 and that his batting average would be better than .304? Whoops. I keep hearing – ‘Ray his BABIP is gonna go up, don’t worry.’ Where is the data? The mark is currently lowish at .259 but given a 17.9 percent line drive rate that’s not a crazy number at all. His vaunted BB/K ratio is also down a bit from last year at 0.63, but at least his contact rate is a still impressive 88.6 percent.
More negatives. Betts does have three steals in his last five games but those three thefts came on the heels of a run of 30-straight games without a steal. How is that even possible given his speed? That’s horrible. Sorry Betts fans. As for his power he’s gone 23 games without hitting a homer and if we remove games on May 5th and 6th he has three homers in 48 games this season.
I’m not saying his numbers won’t improve, I truly believe they will, but this is just example nine trillion of the hype machine getting out of control with a young player.
STRASBURG UPDATE
Stephen Strasburg has been diagnosed with a left trapezius strain. He won’t throw another pitch until the issue resolves itself. Sounds like we could be talking days though according to manager Matt Williams. “But it could be within days that it feels better and he’s able to get back out there and do all the things he needs to do to get prepared to pitch again.” So if it’s a minor muscle thing that’s good news. Doesn’t explain his horrible performance though that includes a 6.55 ERA and an average of about 4.5 innings a start though. The club seems to think it’s not a mechanical issue. “[Pitching coach Steve McCatty] has looked at it, all the video,” said Williams. “There’s minor adjustments that guys make during the course of a season, but nothing that glares at us that he’s changed or that’s drastically different, no.”
It sounds like the DL stint of Strasburg won’t be long. It also sounds like they have no real explanation as to why batters are teeing off on the righty hitting and insane .325 (his career mark is .234). Is he tipping his pitches? I cannot recommend buying Strasburg unless the price is very, very low. For those of you interested in what I think of Strasburg make sure to check out the June Rankings Update.
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).