RAYS MAKE OUTFIELD MOVE

Kevin Kiermaier has been placed on the DL with a fractured lefty hand. In fact, he suffered two broken metacarpal bones in the hand, and it seems likely that he will miss 8-10 weeks. That leaves the Rays with the following options in the outfield: Desmond Jennings, Corey Dickerson, Steven Souza and Brandon Guyer. Dickerson is usually filling the DH role, he has in 24 of his 34 starts, so that would seem to leave Guyer/Souza/Jennings as the potential starters.

Guyer is hitting .313 with four homers in 96 at-bats but the 30 year olds career slash line is slightly better than league average stuff (.267/.347/.410). He has a mere .688 OPS against righties in his career.

Souza should play daily, actually the only one of the three that is likely to is he. Steve has a .268 batting average and sickly 34.4 percent K-rate, but he does have an impressive .507 SLG. The team has to find out what they have in their 27 year old outfielder.

Jennings, a one time 20/20 threat, appeared in only 28 games last season due to injury. He’s also been beat up this season and the results are terrible as he’s hitting .181 with a pathetic .552 OPS. Still has talent, but how can they be trusting him at this point?

That means Mikie Mahtook might be worth a look. Mikie is a 26 year old outfielder who stands 6’1” and weighs in at 205 lbs. The righty thrower, and swinger, has had some big league and minor league success. Over 116 plate appearances with the Rays the big righty has socked nine big flies while batting .292 with a .961 OPS. That’s all good, is it not? Given those numbers, and his size, you would probably think he’s more of a power than speed guy. Maybe not. In 2014 Mikie had 12 homers and 18 steals while batting .292 at Triple-A. Last season he posted a mere .670 OPS at Triple-A, though he had those impressive numbers with the Rays. This season he was slashing .333/.416/.487 line over 20 games on the farm before he was promoted. He's batting second Monday.

I don’t know how things will play out, but if you’re in a 15-team mixed league, or an AL-only league, I would certainly grab Mahtook who has appeared in 211 games in center field in his career.

 

Nachos. I love them. Like looooove them. But I could never do this, could you? I think the worst part would be that they must have been cold. Ok, the worst part might also be eating six lbs of cheese. I don’t think that’s healthy. At all. Like you could die from trying. I still kinda want to.

 

THE LAST TWO WEEKS

As great as Rajai Davis was last week do you know that over the last two weeks he’s hit .234 with a .333 OBP? Be cautious, he’s just not a very good hitter.

Adam Duvall only has two homers and six RBI his last 12 games. But if we go back three weeks, to 19 total games, he’s hit six homers with 12 RBI and 11 runs scored. For more on Duvall see his Player Profile.

Bryce Harper is batting .242 the last two weeks. He’s only hitting .260 on the campaign.

Evan Longoria has a 10-game hitting streak. Bet you didn’t notice. Over his last 12 games he’s hit three big flies, has scored 10 times, and is the owner of a .327/.389/.612 slash line. Amazing to me how many people have just moved on from the 30 year old third sacker.

Dustin Pedroia has four runs batted in over 23 games with a poor .250 batting average. Showing that you can still trust him though you should note that he’s posted a .350 OBP while scoring 11 runs in 12 games.

Hanley Ramirez has appeared in 13 games with nine RBI and 10 runs scored. He’s also batting .388 with a .455 OBP and .531 SLG. It’s all about health with him. If he has it, he will produce. Hell, everyone is doing that with the Red Sox right now - producing. It’s crazy. The Sox lead baseball with a .296 batting average. The team is nearly hitting .300 ladies and gents. They are also first in OBP (.359) and SLG (.485). Wowzah’s.

Mike Trout has stolen three bases the last two weeks. Unfortunately, he hurt his ankle over the weekend. Should keep playing and all, but will he curtail his running ways in the short-term? Dude only has 27 steals the last two seasons.

Matt Wieters has hit .464 with three homers and eight RBI the last two weeks. Those would be impressive numbers by any measure but they are even more intriguing when you note that he’s only appeared in eight games the last two weeks. He’s still not playing every day, but as I kept saying every time I was asked, Wieters can still be a top-10 catcher this season. His hot run has pushed his slash line up to a solid .283/.330/.455. The man can still hit.

Ryan Zimmerman has four homers and seven RBI his last 12 games. Hey, it’s something.

 

Tyler Chatwood has been great on the road but, at home? Carlos Rodon is walking less. Adam Conley isn’t quite there yet. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO.

 

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday 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).