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
Here’s a link to my DFS HITTING COACH for June 3, 2015.
WHAT TO DO WITH GALLO?
Joey Gallo had one of the best debuts in big league history. Gallo had three hits, including a home run, as he drove in four runs and scored three times. For my thoughts on Gallo click on the link to yesterday’s Daily Trends piece.
BRUCE IS BACK
Jay Bruce is hitting .230 with a .749 OPS this season. Those are disappointing numbers no doubt. But guess what… he’s hitting right now. Seriously. Check it out. Over the last 14 games Bruce is batting, get this, .396. Look it up. He’s also sporting a .491 OBP. That’s out of this world good. Oh, and that .604 SLG… that will work too won’t it? Maybe a .473 wOBA in that time will seal the deal of his recent excellence. I haven’t had one question of late about Bruce as I think the majority of folks have given up on him. Don’t be one of that brood. See if you can still pick up Bruce from a frustrated owner on the cheap. He’s looking pretty good all of a sudden.
MCCUTCHEN IS BACK
Andrew McCutchen had a .194 average and .636 OPS in April and there was sheer panic in the streets. In the 30 games since then he’s batting .354 with a .429 OBP and .602 SLG. He’s also scored 18 times with 21 RBIs and five homers. That recent surge of success has McC on pace to hit .292 with 20 homers, 100 RBIs, 90 runs and his OPS is .876. The only thing he isn’t doing is running with only three steals to this point. The bat is back. Now we await a return of the wheels.
MOSS IS BACK
Brandon Moss had offseason hip surgery and he predictably started slowly hitting .238 with 22 Ks in his first 19 games. May was moderate (.740 OPS), but the last two weeks he’s been a cooking with a .304 average, .396 OBP and .630 SLG. He’s still not an overly exciting play, but a run to a 28 homer, 84 runs batted in effort, his average the last two seasons, is still doable for the slugger.
ANY INTEREST IN PILLAR?
Kevin Pillar has killed it the last four games with three homers, five RBIs, six runs scored and a 1.731 OPS. Yowzahs. Alas, hard to think it’s anything other than a nice run. On the year Pillar has seven steals and 31 runs scored in 53 games, but he’s batting .234 with a pathetic .273 OBP and .360 SLG. Moreover, in 142 big league games his slash line is virtually identical (.236/.273/.364). Just not much to see here at the moment. You can try and ride the hot hand in mixed leagues but he’s still looking more like an AL-only option than anything else.
HISTORY TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW?
Andrew Cashner became the first pitcher in big league history to strike out 10 batters, allow 10 hits and fail to last five innings in an outing Monday. The first
ever in 115 years of big league baseball. Twenty-four hours later Noah Syndergaard joined the club when he struck out 12, allowed 11 hits and failed to make it through five innings (4.2 frames). That effort left Noah with a 3.77 ERA and 1.26 WHIP through five big league starts. He owns a 10.05 K/9 mark which his arm could sustain, and while his control is often pinpoint, holding on to a 1.57 BB/9 rate moving forward is a tall order. Still, when that .349 BABIP comes down, and a lot has to do with his Tuesday effort, and his 64.3 percent left on base mark normalizes (the league average is about 70 percent each year), it’s quite possible that Thor will settle in as a strong mixed league option the rest of the way, one with SP3 upside.
IS RYAN BRAUN OK?
Ryan Braun will be out of the lineup for a few days as he travels to Los Angeles to have a second cryotherapy procedure on his thumb. The team is suggesting this was pre-planned and that there really isn’t much to get worried about. In fact, the team has tabbed the procedure as maintenance. “[The cryotherapy] apparently has a shelf life, I guess you'd say, and we're getting up on that shelf life,” manager Craig Counsell said. “We felt like now is a good time to do it." Further words from Counsell. “"It's not a situation where he can't play… he just felt a little deterioration in it, and the effectiveness of the therapy had kind of expired.” Will Braun require further “touchups” as we move forward? "I don't know the answer to that. I think the chances are probably that he's going to have to deal with it, but that doesn't mean it's going to affect him. He's confident he can manage it well.” Does that sound overly positive to you? Through 51 games Braun has hit 12 homers with 38 RBIs, 30 runs scored and six steals. Those are strong counting numbers but this is yet another reminder that continued success isn’t a lock as it sounds like this will continue to be an issue.
JOSH HAMILTON SITS AGAIN
Josh Hamilton is out of the lineup yet again Wednesday with a hamstring issue. Through seven games this season Hamilton has been a boss with a 1.021 OPS, but he’s also constantly in need of micro-management and very difficult to trust in leagues where you set your lineup once on Monday.
TWINS CALL UP MILONE
Tommy Milone will start for the Twins Thursday against the Red Sox. It may not be anything more than a one-time shot for the soft tossing lefty, but it should be noted that the dude has flipping destroyed the competition this season at Triple-A. In five starts he’s allowed three runs leading to a 0.70 ERA and he’s only walked three batters (one intentional) leading to a 0.72 WHIP. He’s never looked that sharp in the bigs as he’s the owner of a 4.02 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and 6.42 K/9 mark over 90 outings (87 starts).
DID YOU KNOW…
Starling Marte is 0-for-20 of late dropping his average to .254 and his OBP to .308. He’s a talented fella, he’s hit 10 homers and stolen eight bags, but he’s all over the map from week-to-week which is largely a result of the act that he never walk and strikes out far too much. This season he has a 0.22 BB/K ratio that is about half the league average, and that’s normally where he’s at given his 0.21 career mark. His performance is largely dependent on his BABIP. His first three seasons the mark was .333, .363 and .373. Currently the rate is just .298. It should improve moving forward, no doubt at all about that, but it’s pretty impossible to post a .360 mark season after season leaving his batting average output moving forward in a bit of a precarious position.
Jesus Montero had, for the third time in his minor league career, six RBIs in a game Tuesday night. In 51 games at Triple-A this season Montero is batting .310 with seven homers, 39 RBIs and a .811 OPS. He’s also hit .258 with 23 homers and 85 RBIs over 694 big league at-bats. He’s not going to ever win a Gold Glove, but his attitude appears to have improved and he’s flashing what scouts always thought he would – a power bat capable of being a big time run producer at the big league level. Continue to monitor his progress in AL-only leagues.
Over his last 10 games Jimmy Rollins has hit .306 with a .342 OBP and .500 SLG. He’s hit two homers, stolen a bag and scored nine times.
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).