•  A special note. I’m taking a break. Not from life, just from work. I think they call it a vacation? Such a foreign thing for me. My bosses tell me that it’s healthy not to work every day all year long. Who knew? I’ll be out of the office from July 10th to the 20th sipping on Mai Tai’s in Hawaii. Hey, when the Oracle takes a vacation he usually lays on a beach, boozes, and looks at pretty ladies. There are worse ways to spend your time off, no?

Neftali Feliz has gone through waivers with no claims. That means he can either accept a demotion to Triple-A or declare himself a free agent so that he can sign with any team. In 18 outings this season Feliz has a 4.58 ERA and 1.68 WHIP as he’s just not looked sharp around the injuries that have been an ongoing issue.

Gio Gonzalez will start Friday for the Nationals after having his start wiped out due to rain Wednesday. Still a fan of Gio… and you should be too. Gio has allowed one run in his last two starts (two walks over 14 innings), and four times in his last give outings he’s allowed two or fewer earned runs. The ratios will continue to shrink from where they are at (4.16 ERA, 1.43 WHIP).

Brett Lawrie is performing well for the Athletics. No one seems to be talking about it. I know he’s not great, but he is batting .290 with a pace that would equate to 15 homers and 70 RBIs. OK, he’s on pace for seven steals and 55 runs too, so it’s not like he’s been great, but even though he plays third base he should qualify at second base in your league, and if that’s the case then he’s a solid play up the middle.

Jeff Samardzija has finally found his game. He’s worked at least seven innings in 10 of his last 11 starts after a complete game shutout Thursday. The effort Thursday dropped his ERA to 4.02 with a WHIP of 1.22. Is he “back?” Certainly seems to be. Might see if you can pry him away from his current owner before he/she figures it out.

Masahiro Tanaka continues to have success while at the same time frustrating. His 1.04 WHIP is outstanding, that’s the level he lowered it to after allowing two runs over 7.2 innings Thursday, and he’s also in possession of an impressive 9.0 K/9 mark and 5.15 K/BB ratio. On the flipside he’s allowing 1.34 homers per nine, has a mere 67.3 percent left on base rate, and he’s been up and down. The last four times he’s take the hill he’s had two outings of five innings in which he allowed 13 runs (that’s 13 runs in 10 innings), so it’s not always been smooth. Then we get outings like today where he kills it. I’m still very nervous about his arm, but overall he’s been as good as you could have hoped.

Big 3, July 9, 2015. Check out the video – Jason Motte, Adam Eaton and Jarrod Dyson (and Alex Gordon).

ANGELS 9th INNING

Huston Street injured his groin Wednesday. Here’s what he said. "My gut tells me I didn't get it too bad," said Street. We shall see. We know that Street is often injured, causing him to miss game action frequently, and this might be the start of that scenario playing itself out yet again in 2015. If Street were to miss time I would assume Trevor Gott would slide into the setup role with Joe Smith taking over as the closer. Smith has a solid 3.56 K/BB ratio even without elite K numbers (7.93 per nine), and the guy always gets grounders (his current ground ball rate is 49 percent, well off his career 57 percent mark but still really good). Since the start of the 2013 season Smith has a 16-6 record, 2.17 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 3.28 K/BB ratio. Yeah, that’s good.

PUJOLS OR TEIXEIRA?

Mark Teixeira has 22 homers and 61 RBIs. He’s 3rd in the AL in homers and first in RBIs. First. The last time Tex hit 25 homers was 2011. The last time he had 85 RBIs was 2011. The last time he appeared in 125 games was… say it with me… 2011. The 35 year old has been stupendous, and I think an even bigger story than Albert Pujols given the preseason expectations. Don’t know how anyone would disagree. The facts.

Tex has a .356 OBP. Pujols .334.

Tex has a .902 OPS. Pujols is at .891.

#JustSaying

 

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).