ROYALS 9th INNING CHANGE
Wade Davis might be the best pitcher in baseball the past few years. This season he’s posted 19 saves with a 1.23 ERA in the 9th inning for the Royals. He’s been the ballz. That run to excellence will end for now as he’s been placed on the DL with a strained right forearm. The DL stint is retroactive to July 1st, but as of this writing we don’t know how much time that he’s likely to miss. Davis owners have to hope that his stay is a short one.
The closer now? Seems like it will be Kelvin Herrera according to Bob Nightengale. Herrera has only five saves in his career, but for the last four plus seasons he’s functioned as one of the best right handed setup men in the American League. He’s been particularly on his game this season with a 1.40 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 11.41 K/9 and 1.63 BB/9. He too has been the ballz. There’s no reason to think that he won’t be able to have success in the 9th. Herrera should be added in all formats.
Don't forget, Joakim Soria could always get a look too. He's had tons of success in the 9th inning previously.
URIAS PLAN?
Julio Urias, the 19 year old future star for the Dodgers, has been mildly effective through eight big league starts with a 4.95 ERA, 1.54 WHIP and 10.90 K/9 ratio. Alas, he’s also walked 4.21 batters per nine and with a total of 36.1 innings pitched in eight starts he’s failed to give any depth at all for the Dodgers. It’s been a moderate start to his big league career. However, the work in the minors and the big leagues give him 77.1 innings pitched this season, just off his career best effort of 87.2 innings pitched. Moreover, he threw just 77 innings last season. There are no innings on this arm, and no chance he was going to be starting for the Dodgers all season long. Here’s what I wrote in his Player Profile. “The Dodgers simply cannot push him aggressively at that age. In fact, they have been extremely reluctant to push him at all since they signed him and there is no reason to think that will change in 2016.” We are being told that the time to worry is – right now. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that he expects that Urias will be sent to the minors today, and it would seem likely that if he returns to the bigs this season it will most likely be to work out of the bullpen, or if as a starter as a lightly used one.
Urias is useless in mixed leagues for the rest of 2016.
TAILLON HAS SHOULDER FATIGUE
Jameson Taillon has been sent to the disabled list by the Pirates with what is being described as “right shoulder fatigue.” According to Jon Morosi, the Pirates are hopeful that Taillon will be able to return shortly after the All-Star break. I have no reason to doubt that claim. I’m sure Taillon’s shoulder is tired. The guy threw how many pitches the last two seasons? As I pointed out in his Player Profile Taillon did not throw a pitch that counted the last two seasons due to Tommy John surgery and hernia surgery. That’s right. He didn’t throw an official pitch the last two seasons. Let me quote myself. “The guy has never thrown 150-innings in a season and didn’t thrown a single pitch the last two years. I can’t even believe he will be allowed to throw 150 frames this season, can you? Think with your head and not your heart, can you see him throwing 150-innings? Really?” This is likely just the Pirates giving Taillon a break to make sure his arm doesn’t fly off his body.
Meanwhile, Tyler Glasnow was not called up as the team chose to enlist the services of lefty Steven Brault. The party line will be that Glasnow pitched Saturday and wouldn’t have been able to step right in for Taillon. Fair, but I’m still causing shenanigans here. The reason Glasnow wasn’t called up is because he can’t stop issuing free passes. Over his last five outings Tyler Glasnow’s line is remarkable.
Glasnow has thrown 29.2 innings.
Glasnow has allowed five earned runs.
Glasnow has allowed 13 hits.
Glasnow has struck out 36 batters.
All of that is top shelf stuff.
The one negative though is a whopper.
Glasnow has walked a total of TWENTY-ONE batters in 29.2 innings.
As talented as Glasnow is, can he really be called up at this point since he’s walking every batter on the planet?
Junior Guerra is a quality start machine at the moment and is surprising everyone. Lance McCullers looks like last season’s version but has to limit the walks to do that. Matt Moore is a talented pitcher and is pitching pretty well. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO.
DFS DIAMONDS
*The following list of players are guys that Ray recommends as daily plays.
CATCHER: Russell Martin is at .300 with three homers over 30 at-bats against Chris Young. Young has allowed a homer in 5-straight games while he has allowed nine homers in those five games. Going back further it’s 18 homers allowed in 10 outings for Young. 
FIRST BASE: James Loney has hit .333 with a homer and a .875 OPS against Wei-Yin Chen (24 plate appearances). Loney has hit two homers with seven RBI his last six games this season. Moreover, he’s hit .300 with a .821 OPS at home this season.
SECOND BASE: Devon Travis has a hit in 9-of-10 games. He’s driven in six runners, has scored eight times and stolen two bases as well in that timeframe. He faces Chris Young, and you read above just how awful he has been.
THIRD BASE: Adrian Beltre has a hit in nine of ten games and he’s scored nine runs and driven in 10 runners. Beltre has faced David Price 35 times leading to a .314/.314/.600 slash line.
SHORTSTOP: Elvis Andrus has 12 hits in 27 at-bats against David Price, good for a .444 average, 1.016 OPS and seven steals. Andrus has also hit .295 on the road and .292 at night.
OUTFIELD: Ryan Braun is batting .343/.423/.597 against lefties with five homers in 67 at-bats. Gio has allowed a .280/.348/.364 line to righties and batters have hit .293 against him his last 12 starts.
OUTFIELD: Nelson Cruz has three homers in nine games. He’s taken Dallas Keuchel twice in 20 at-bats while batting .400 with a 1.208 OPS. Cruz annihilates lefties (.316/.387/.714 with 11 homers in 98 ABs).
OUTFIELD: Odubel Herrera has hit .329/.415/.509 against righties (he faces Mike Foltynewicz). He has hit .285 at home with a .800 OPS. He has hit .344/.439/.472 at night this season. In four games in July he’s hit two homers with four RBI, four runs scored and a steal.
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).