DFS PLAYBOOK PRO – An exciting offering from the Alarm is 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

Daily Lineups

Daily Projections

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DFS MLB Playbook

 

BYRON BUXTON – THE NEXT SUPERSTAR

Here are some of the tweets I received over the weekend… OK, just one that really makes the situation pop.

Think Byron Buxton can really be the next Mike Trout?

People have been watching too much SportsCenter.

Buxton has so much to prove before that can be a legitimate question. Just not there yet.

Buxton is an elite talent and everyone agreed that he was the #1 or #2 prospect in baseball coming into the season. He projects as a stupendous fielder with elite, off the charts speed. However he’s 21 years old. He has a mere 244 at-bats above Single-A ball. He’s hit a total of 27 homers in 1,168 at-bats in the minors. The power just isn’t there yet.

When someone asked me about my projections for Buxton the rest of the way I wrote this on Twitter - 15 steals, .250-60 average, 8-10 homers. Basically I would expect him to be Mookie Betts like the rest of the way. Could he be better? Of course he could. Could he be worse? Of course he could (even if you don’t want to admit it). The fact is that he’s so raw it’s all about talent right now. Maybe he is the rare player whose talent allows him to simply take off. But, after appearing in just 31 games last year because of injury, and having just 61 games of experience above Single-A, the path could be rather bumpy.

FRANCISCO LINDOR – THE DEFENSIVE WHIZ

Francisco Lindor is an elite prospect, a top-10 option coming into the season according to Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and MLB.com. His glove is stupendous. His wheels are strong. His bat… so-so. Here’s my quote from Twitter when I was asked about Lindor. “When he develops think Daniel Murphy or Howie Kendrick bat with ability to steal 25 bases a year.” That’s solid, but that’s not world beating stuff by any means. More…

He’s hit .279 over 215 games at Double and Triple-A.

In 96 games at Triple-A his OBP is .331 and his SLG has been .390. Not great stuff.

Through 415 minor league games he’s hit all of 21 homers.

So right now he’s a .270 type of hitter with 10 homer power if he’s lucky. Ugh.

There is speed here, he’s stolen 27, 25 and 28 bases the last three years, and he should be running from the start of his big league career as well, even if they bat isn’t up to the same level. A middle infield option in mixed leagues at this point for me.

ODOR IS BACK

Rougned Odor is back with the Rangers after being demoted for his general suck-i-tude. Odor was batting .144 with a .486 OPS through 29 games with the Rangers leading to his demotion, but it sure seems like he found his bat at Triple-A as he hit .352 with five homers, 19 RBIs and 26 runs scored in 30 games. He will slot back in as the daily option at second for the Rangers and that should place him on the minds of everyone needing a boost at the middle infield position in mixed leagues.

WEEK 11 PREVIEW

Make sure you check out this piece each week. It’s talks about home/road games, righty/lefty matchups, Interleague play where those games in NL park, for AL teams, have those squads losing a bat each night. It also includes 2-start pitchers and starting pitcher rankings for the coming week.

WOW

Billy Hamilton abused Jon Lester for five steals Sunday. He leads baseball with 31 thefts. He still has a .576 OPS though. He’s like a 3-point specialist in hoops.

WELL…

Marcus Semien has committed 21 errors and we have to be getting close to the point where he takes a seat on the bench for a while. You just can’t make that many mistakes in major league baseball. His bat has cooled considerably as well. He’s still on pace for, roughly, a 15/15 season and the .267 average ain’t awful, but he’s hit only .214 with a .264 OBP and .252 SLG since May 15th. Getting a bit nervous here after his strong start to the season.

METS CHANGE

Dillon Gee has been designated for assignment by the Mets. The Mets will try to trade him but if they can’t find a taker he will be sent to Triple-A. This from Adam Rubin of ESPN. “The Mets still are going to use a spot starter, although not next turn. Looks like Steven Matz will now be on speed dial for next chance.” So everyone run to the waiver-wire and add Matz. The lefty from Stony Brook NY was ranked as the 33rd best prospect in baseball according to Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus coming into the season. He’s the owner of a career 2.32 ERA and 1.17 WHIP over 353.2 innings. He’s only made 13 trips to the bump above Double-A but he is cruising right along this season with a 2.30 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in those efforts. Also a big strikeout arm, Matz has 81 punchouts in 78.1 innings this season. Not though that the Mets still seem intent on using that modified 6-man rotation thing so even if Matz is called up it’s not clear how often he, or anyone in that rotation, is going to pitch. Matz tossed 140 innings last season, 106 in 2013, so a run to 180 innings this season is possible but still aggressive. He’s at 78.1 innings right now so he should be good to go as the season wears on.

Matz is a mixed league add, but as we have seen with Noah Syndergaard (2-4, 4.15 ERA, 1.36 WHIP), not all prospects produce (just another warning that will likely be ignored).

CLOSERS

Aroldis Chapman is a star. However, it sounds like the Reds might be selling off pieces like Chapman and Johnny Cueto this summer. So who closes in Cincy if Chapman is dealt? According to our Closers Grid, manned and updated by Howard Bender, the next man up would be J.J. Hoover. I agree with that assessment. Hoover has been on the case this season with a 1.59 ERA and 0.95 WHIP, tremendous numbers, over 29 outings. Oddly though, and this is a concern given his propensity to walk batters (3.98 BB/9 for his career), Hoover is only striking out 6.67 guys per nine (career 9.30). His velocity and pitch distribution haven’t changed, but the way he is using the pitches has. For the first three seasons of his career he was a fly ball pitcher. Now he’s Mr. Groundball as his 48.6 percent ground ball rate is ions ahead of his 31.5 percent career mark. I prefer the strikeouts, but you can’t argue with the results.

INJURY

Devin Mesoraco certainly sounds like a guy who is about to have his season canceled by hip surgery. Here is what Triple-A manager Delino DeShields said about Mesoraco. “It's obvious, to me, that he's injured, and he's not going to get better. It was even hurting him on his swings the other night in Columbus.”

Victor Martinez is offering some good news. He had his first minor league game on Sunday, and to this point his knee is responding well. Sounds like he will play four games for the Mudhens and if he comes out of it healthy he could be with the Tigers by the weekend.

Stephen Strasburg (non-throwing shoulder) to start Wednesday at Double-A Harrisburg, that’s the plan right now for the big righty. If that goes well he might rejoin the rotation for his next start after that. His velocity is intact but his swinging strike rate has plummeted. Each of his previous five seasons the mark has been at least 10.7. This year it’s all the way down to 7.0. Something’s not right. He’s just laying the ball in the fact part of the zone far too often. I’m guessing, totally here, but tipping his pitches perhaps? Just a thought. 

 

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).