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
MY GOODNESS – ANOTHER PROPECT CALLED UP BY CUBS
Kyle Schwarber will be called up Tuesday so that he can serve as the DH for the Cubs during interleague play this week. The 4th player taken in the 2014 Draft, the kid can rip it up. His stay with the big league club will also be very short. "Kyle has had a tremendous developmental year so far behind the plate, with the bat, and as a leader," GM Theo Epstein said. "His next stop is to continue his development as a catcher at Triple-A. First, however, he is going to join the Major League team for six days to contribute as a designated hitter, as a bat off the bench, and as a third catcher… "Regardless of how this week goes, Kyle will head to Triple-A after Sunday's game." So there you have it. Schwarber will be up for the week and then head back down to the minors. Don’t go blowing your FAAB or waiver-wire placement to get a guy for a handful of games. Dynamic future with the bat for Kyle though it remains an open question if he will be able to stick in the bigs as a full-time catcher given his defensive limitations which might force a move to the outfield.
ASTROS CALL UP ANOTHER
Domingo Santana is up for the Astros and just like Schwarber he has a bright future but will only be in the bigs for a short while. The Astros called up the prospect to take the spot of Colby Rasmus who will be away for a few days as he and his family deal with the loss of his grandmother. As of this writing, the club expects Rasmus to be back Friday. Santana is 22 years old, and though he struck out an inconceivable 14 times in 17 at-bats last season he’s hitting .320 with 11 homers and a .444 OBP at Triple-A this year. He is coming off a week in which he hit .545 with nine RBIs to earn the PCL Player of the Week award. Only a couple of games though, so be mindful before you overspend.
DIDN’T YOU USED TO BE A STAR?
The last three seasons Ian Desmond went 20/20 for the Nationals.
This season he’s on pace to hit 13 homers and steal three bases.
He’s not even 30 years old, so what the hell has happened?
- His 4.4 percent walk rate is the worst of his career. He owns a 5.8 percent mark since 2009.
- He’s always been a strikeout guy, but the 28.5 percent K-rate would be a career worst, just past the 28.2 percent mark from last season.
- His BABIP has been between .326 and .336 the last three years. It’s down a bit this year at .300.
- His line drive rate is down at 16.1 percent (career 18.0).
- He’s hitting too many balls on the ground at 53 percent. It’s not terribly removed from his 49.5 percent career mark, but it’s still too high.
- His HR/F ratio has been over 18 percent in two of the last three seasons and from 2012-14 it was 16.3 percent. This year it’s way down at 9.3 percent.
His approach stinks, though it always has. A few more hard hit balls should help the average move up. Have to think the homer rate improves as well. Basically, there should be improvement with the bat. As for the wheels… ugh. His OBP is way down and that’s not helping, but he’s only attempted three steals. Set the bar at 10 this season and hope he gets to 12-15. Even if it’s just 10 thefts this season that’s nine from here on out which wouldn’t be that far from the pace we normally get from him.
THE PUJOLS MYTH
Albert Pujols is back… I’ve heard it a lot. I’ve also heard things like people trading Max Scherzer to get Pujols. Oh boy.
The last two weeks Pujols has seven homers and is hitting .373. Stupendous work. But this no longer the Albert Pujols you remember folks.
He’s hitting .272 this season. He hit .272 last year. He hit .258 the year before that. The last time he hit .300 was 2010.
Pujols hit 28 homers last season with 105 RBIs. He can totally get to both of those numbers this season. He’s currently on pace for 45 homers and 85 RBIs. Right? Even with his hot streak he’s still not on pace to hit triple-digits in the RBI column. As for the homer pace… just not gonna sustain this. His last two healthy seasons Pujols has hit 30 and 28 homers. Pretty sure he’s not going to hit 40 for the first time since 2010. That’s just not common sense either. Pujols is currently at 41 percent with his fly ball rate. His career mark is 40 percent so he’s right there. But, check out the HR/F column. This year the mark is 21 percent. The last time he had a mark that high was 2006. Moreover, he hasn’t even reached 15 percent the last three seasons and during that time the mark is 13.4 percent. Again, his current pace just isn’t sustainable.
It’s been a great run of late, and he’s still a solid run producer, but he’s not “back.”
A BIT NERVOUS…
Greg Holland allowed five batters in a row to reach base Monday When it was over he had allowed three runs without recording an out as his ERA ballooned to 3.52 and his WHIP to 1.24. Note that for his career Holland has a 2.26 ERA and 1.08 WHIP. Just one terrible outing can affect those numbers, but the truth is there are some distressing signs here. For his career Holland strikes out 12.21 batters per nine. This season that mark is 7.63. Yikes. His velocity is down 2.5 mph from last season and that ain’t helping anything. His swinging strike rate of 13.2 percent is still impressive, but the truth is he’s just not locating his pitches properly. In addition to the lack of punchouts has been an explosion in his walk rate. Last year he issued 2.89 walks per nine. This year the mark is 5.87. Horrific. If not for a very fortunate .205 BABIP it might be ugly right now (both SIERA and xFIP suggest his ERA should be in the 4.60 range). Meanwhile Wade Davis is 8-for-8 in save chances, has a 0.32 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and a 3.44 K/BB ratio. I wouldn’t be shocked if Holland was placed on the DL and given some time to iron out the kinks.
BABIP CHECK IN
Still having obnoxious levels of success…
.418 Kris Bryant
.417 Paul Goldschmidt
.415 Dee Gordon
Bryant has had a strong start to his career but he is on pace for just 20 homers in a season of 600 at-bats. No one expected that.
Chase Utley is back down to .193. That’s only .102 points below last year and .107 points below his career mark. It simply doesn’t look like he’s lost it, but we’re beyond that point now and on to deeply troubling.
FINALLY HITTING
The last two weeks Austin Jackson is batting .352 with a .397 OBP for the Mariners. Jackson might be worth a look as an outfield option in mixed leagues at the moment, though he’s obviously a limited type of guy who can steal an odd base. Should be noted as well that he’s hit first or second in the lineup the entire time he’s been hot which allows him ample ability to score runs as well.
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).