A STANTON UPDATE
Giancarlo Stanton is out of the lineup Wednesday against the Giants. It was a scheduled day off, but it seems to coincide nicely with a hip issue that’s bothering him a bit. The point of that statement is that Stanton sure is hurt a lot, but I’ve discussed that many times before. As for the bat…
Stanton has a hit in 5-straight games. He’s driven in a run in each of those outings too (seven total).
Stanton has hit two homers his last 12 games.
In 24 games since the All-Star break he has four homers, 17 runs batted in, is batting .272 and has a .337 OBP.
Add it all up and in 100 games this season Stanton has a .243-24-67-51-0 this season.
Can we finally just admit that he’s nothing other than a sexy looking Mark Trumbo? Please?
IT’S JUST NOT HAPPENING
Jackie Bradley has no homers and a .480 OPS in August. In 24 games since the All-Star break, Bradley is batting .253 with three homers, seven RBI, a .330 OBP and .402 SLG. Over the last two months he’s hitting .257 with two steals. He’s just so up and down, if you own him in a H2H league you’re pulling your hair out.
Chris Davis is batting .118 the last 22 games with a 35.6 percent K-rate which is the third worst in baseball the last 30 days (Miguel Sano 38.3 and Evan Gattis 36.7).
Here are the homer “leaders” the last 30 days for pitchers. This is of course a list you don’t want to lead in. These guys have been bad. Not good. Clear enough? A.J. Griffin (2.42), Jeff Samardzija (2.28), Zach Elfin (2.25), Ivan Nova (2.22), Sonny Gray (2.13), CC Sabathia (2.10), R.A. Dickey (2.08), Dylan Bundy (2.00) and Francisco Liriano (2.00).
Cameron Maybin is back on the DL, this time with a grade 2 sprain of his left thumb. Just another trip to the DL for the oft injured one who cannot stay on the field for any appreciable period of time. He’s appeared in 63 of the Tigers’ 113 games this season. He’s looking at yet another season with less than 100 games played, potentially his third in four seasons.
Brandon Nimmo was demoted to the minors with a .237/.297/.288 slash line for the Mets over 64 plate appearances. Not so much. Meanwhile, Michael Conforto is batting .221 with as .301 OBP and .420 SLG. Where are all of you that were arguing with me that Conforto was going to be an all-star this season?
Hanley Ramirez has been solid this season hitting .271 with 14 homers, 62 RBI and 54 runs scored. He’s also dealt with injury as always, and is missing time of late with the wrist. He’s hitless in his last four games and in August he has one RBI. So goes HanRam, up, and down, up and down.
Over his last 10 outings David Robertson has a loss and three blown saves. He’s also posted a 7.20 ERA and 1.30 WHIP. Remarkably, he’s still won three games with four saves so on balance I guess it’s a win for Robertson owners… though it’s a qualified one.
Francisco Rodriguez has seen his ERA go from 2.56 to 3.24 his last four outings. People are thinking it’s time to drop him in some quarters. Uh, no. Rodriguez has 32 saves in 35 outings, and despite the recent hiccup – four runs and three outs his last two outings – he’s still the Tigers closer.
Chris Sale has one victory in five starts.
Hector Santiago has allowed nine runs his last two starts (10.1 innings). He’s gone 5.1 or fewer innings in each of his last five starts. He has a 5.26 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP over those five efforts.
Vince Velasquez was blasted into oblivion last night as he yielding nine runs over 4.2 innings against the Dodgers. If you remove his first two starts this season you end up with a hurler who has a 4.58 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, 3.70 BB/9 and 1.36 HR/9. That’s a massive price to pay for 95 punchouts in 92.1 innings. Massive.
Tyler White went 0-for-4 last night and is batting just .185 since he returned to the big leagues. Over 61 games this season his slash line is terrible (.207/.286/.363). Remember when he was going to star this season? That’s what you all told me at least. Well, not all of you, but a whole bunch of ya.
DFS DIAMONDS
*The following list of players are guys that Ray recommends as daily plays.
CATCHER: Jonathan Lucroy has three homers in his last five games. He has six homers in 92 at-bats against lefties this season. Jorge De La Rosa has four or fewer strikeouts in 5-straight games.
FIRST BASE: Joey Votto has hit .368 with as 1.019 OPS in 45 plate appearances against Jaime Garcia. The marks are .357 and .957 in August against everyone.
SECOND BASE: Brandon Phillips is on quite the roll hitting .433/.485/.733 in August with two homers, three doubles, eight RBI and seven runs scored in eight games. He takes on Jaime Garcia with a .294 average and .490 SLG over 51 at-bats.
THIRD BASE: Nathan Eovaldi has allowed four homers his last two starts and 11 homers his last 11 outings. He also has a 5.23 ERA on the road with a 1.34 WHIP. Travis Shaw has a .283/.350/.482 line versus righties and his marks at home are even better (.294/.358/.518).
SHORTSTOP: Jose Ramirez faces Gio Gonzalez with at least two hits in 6-of-10 games and at least one hit in each outing. He’s also scored eight runs in 10 games and has swiped a bag his last two outings. He’s hitting .323 with a .839 OPS against lefties this year.
OUTFIELD: Andrew McCutchen has six walks in four games since being benched. That’s a great sign. He takes on the moderately effective Edwin Jackson with a .419-3-9 line with a 1.333 OPS over 38 plate appearances in his career.
OUTFIELD: Adam Jones is batting .382 with a .977 OPS in eight August games. He has a mere .579 OPS against lefties this season, but he takes on Ross Detwiler who will be making his first start this season.
OUTFIELD: Jayson Werth has a .522 SLG in August. He’s hit two homers in five games. All Josh Tomlin does is allow home runs.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 11 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).