DFS DIAMONDS

*The follow list of players are guys that Ray recommends as daily plays. He will try to avoid the obvious, so you will rarely see the stars of the game listed.

CATCHER: Jonathan Lucroy is a beast against Mike Leake. In 32 plate appearances Lucroy has hit .414 with a 1.020 OPS. Lucroy also has a 6-game hitting streak

FIRST BASE: Freddie Freeman, and how often do we say this, sees the ball well when Stephen Strasburg throws it. Over 39 plate appearances he has three homers, nine RBI, nine runs and a 1.203 OPS. He also owns a .380 wOBA for his career against righties.

SECOND BASE: Dustin Pedroia against the Orioles (150 games): .323-14-82-101-11. He has a .903 OPS against Ubaldo over 27 plate appearances. He’s also produced a hit in 6-straight and has scored in 4-of-5 games this season.

THIRD BASE: Let’s turn to some BvP history. Pablo Sandoval has 42 plate appearances against Ubaldo Jimenez. He’s hit .359 with a 1.020 OPS in that time with two bombs. It’s about time that the Panda has a positive.

SHORTSTOP: Marcus Semien hit two homers Tuesday night and has a hit and RBI in each of his last three games. He’s also gone 5-for-12 (.417) versus Matt Shoemaker with a home run and for his career has a .291/.333/.532 slash line over 21 games against the Angles.

OUTFIELD: Austin Jackson has a hit in 6-of-7 games. He’s hit .333 with two homers and four steals against Phil Hughes over 31 plate appearances. Righties lit up Phil Hughes last season hitting .304 with a .531 SLG.

OUTFIELD: Alex Gordon has produced 10 hits in 23 at-bats against Scott Feldman (.435). Gordon has also produced a hit in 3-straight games and he posted a .377 OBP against righties last season.

OUTFIELD: Justin Upton has a .321 average and .894 OPS over 33 plate appearances against Ryan Vogelsong who is taking over for an injured Francisco Liriano. Over the last two games Upton has five hits, including a homer, and four runs scored. He has a .913 OPS this season as well.

A DAY IN REVIEW ON THE HILL

Jhoulys Chacin was a start Tuesday night as he tossed six scoreless innings up there as he allowed five hits, no walks and struck out eight Nationals. The 28 year old righty isn’t really any good. Just check out the numbers: 40-49, 3.73 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 6.94 K/9, 3.70 BB/9. To be fair he pitched for the Rockies for six years, and that will kill anybody, but he’s just not overly skilled and has thrown just 96 innings at the big league level since the start of the 2014 season. Don’t pay him any mind in mixed leagues. However, kick those tires in NL-only leagues. After all, if he can cut down the free passes the guy can focus on the ground (48.2 percent for his career) and fine a level of success.

Gio Gonzalez made his first start Tuesday night, and it was a glorious one. Gio threw six shutout innings against the Mets while striking out four and, more importantly, issuing just a single walk. Gio had his first start skipped, and the club wanted to wait to slot him between Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer. The result was 16 days of in activity for Gio who will be starting five games from now as things are back on track. "Mike [Maddux], if you're listening, one bullpen," Gonzalez said with a laugh. Gonzalez was overlooked coming into the season, a fact that I discussed in his Player Profile.

Masahiro Tanaka has made two starts so let’s not jump the shark here.

 

At the same time, be cautious. I said all last year that I would be surprised if his arm didn’t blow up since we know that his elbow is damaged. He “made” it through the year, if you consider throwing 154 innings “making it,” but the fact is that he made only 24 starts a season after he made 20 starts. That’s right. In two season in the States he has yet to throw 155 innings. Not just that, but check out these two significant potential warning signs (again noting we’re talking just two starts). Last season PITCHf/x data had Tanaka’s fastball at 92.0 mph. This season the mark is 90.7. Having extensively watched his first outing this season I can tell you that on the ESPN broadcast that his fastball was sitting in the 86-88 mph range the first three innings, not at over 90 mph. (2) In year one he walked 1.39 batters per nine. In year two he walked 1.58 batters per nine. Through two seasons, minimum 275 innings pitched, his 1.49 walk rate per nine innings was 4th in baseball: Phil Hughes 0.79, Bartolo Colon 1.22 and Hisashi Iwakuma 1.22. So even though it’s been two starts, you have to be a bit nervous that he’s walked five batters over 10.2 innings, a rate that is more than three times his mark the last two seasons at 4.22. Keep a close eye on this measure, it might indicate that he’s working with diminished stuff or that there might be something going on with that arm.

WHEN BULLPENS GO BAD

Sean Doolittle had arm issues last season and the result was a mere 13.2 innings pitched. He showed up to camp this season claiming he was in the best shape of his life. Well, maybe his body was but it’s growing clearer by the day that his arm may not have been part of that discussion (he missed some time in spring with a triceps strain). I warned all offseason that Doolittle wasn’t a lock to (A) hold on to the closer’s role in Oakland (B) perform well. That line of thought was further strengthened in spring when Doolittle had a 6.43 ERA, 1.57 WHIP and allowed 10 hits in seven innings. After blowing a save chance Tuesday night his numbers during five outings this regular season including a 5.79 ERA and 1.71 WHIP. He’s also seen his K/9 cave down to 7.77 per nine, his career mark is 10.40, and his walk rate has exploded to 3.86 per nine, two full batters above his 1.78 career rate. That’s scary bad. Let’s put it all together. Over the last two seasons, albeit over just 18.1 innings, Doolittle has not been good.

4.42 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 9.33 K/9, 3.44 BB/9, 1.47 HR/9

You know how you all hate Fernando Rodney, right? Let’s compare his career numbers to those of Doolittle since the start of last season.

Rodney: 3.70 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 8.80 K/9, 4.38 BB/9, 0.69 HR/9

How nervous are you now?

Here’s what Doolittle said after last night’s blown save. “We take a lot of pride in what we do. We were handed a lead late in the game and I couldn’t get the job done,” Doolittle said. “I’m going to watch some video and see if there are some adjustments I can make because I feel like I’ve been a little inconsistent. … It’s early in the season, yeah, but that’s twice already.” He may not be able to find what he seeks.

Ryan Madson is the guy to add if he’s still hanging around out there. Madson, who himself slipped up last night allowing two runs, is simply the superior talent at this point. Madson missed the 2012-14 seasons trying to return from Tommy John surgery and he did so last season with spectacular results for the Royals (2.13 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 20 holds). He’s already picked up two saves based upon the matchups, and it’s certainly possible that he could take over in the ninth inning permanently for the Athletics.