THE METS BULLPEN
Jeurys Familia has 16 saves and hasn’t blown one chance. That’s just one off the major league lead of 17 saves (Jeanmar Gomez) by the way. However, things have gotten a bit dicey of late with Familia. Over his last two outings Familia has allowed six hits, three walks and six runs. OK I was lying, things have gotten flipping downright concerning. Some struggles from Familia, from any pitcher not named Clayton Kershaw, are normal. Familia also has 59 saves since the start of last season, the second most in baseball (Mark Melancon 67), so it’s not like the Mets are going to bail on him, but heed some concerns.
You cannot bomb in the 9th inning for any appreciable amount of time. Allowing a run here and there is fine, but when those outings start to back up and occur in succession, that’s an issue to be concerned with.
Familia has added four tenths of a point to his walk rate. Last year the mark was 2.19 and this season it’s 2.59. Note that his career rate is 3.38 and last year was the first time that he bettered that career mark.
Familia has seen his K/9 rate plummet from 9.92 last year all the way down to 7.77 this season. His swinging strike rate is only down two tenths, but the punchouts still haven’t been there.
Familia is still generating tons of grounders, at 62 percent (a career best actually), so there’s that.
Keep a close eye on the situation and if you own Familia you might consider rostering Addison Reed who is pitching great. Through 24 outings this season Reed owns a 2.08 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 11.63 K/9 and 2.08 BB/9 ratio. Objectively speaking, he’s pitching better than Familia.
PLAYING TIME A COMING
Tommy Joseph is likely to see a further increase in playing time at the expense of Ryan Howard. “We brought Joseph up here for a reason, to get a look at him,” manager Peter Mackanin said. “I can’t let him stagnate on the bench like (Darin) Ruf ended up doing, so he’s going to face some right-handed pitchers to keep his timing. I don’t know when the next time we’re going to face a left-handed pitcher is, but I’m going to use (Joseph) a little bit more often than I did Ruf.” Ryan Howard is a total mess right now. Over 44 games he’s hit .154 and that includes a .097 mark in February. He’s pretty much become a poor man’s Chris Carter, and that’s awful.
As for Joseph, he’s started off pretty well. He only has one walk versus 11 strikeouts, a terrible combination of numbers, and even though he’s hit well with a .861 OPS he must improve on that sickly .289 OBP. Hitting .347 with six homers in 27 games at Triple-A this season so he’s got enough of a stick that you should be paying attention to him in NL-only leagues at least, especially with Howard trending toward bench status even with a $25 million salary this season.
PLAYING TIME A COMING, PART II
Wilmer Flores is likely to see some time, in fact a good deal of it, with Lucas Duda on the shelf with back woes (4-6 weeks). That was until James Loney was called up to join the club. "Loney is a tremendous kid; he'll really help Flo," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "He'll show him positioning on the bag and certain things."
As best as I can figure it Flores will face lefties and Loney will face righties at first base… that is unless the Mets decide to continue to give playing time to Eric Campbell. Oh, and if David Wright’s back was better that would help too since it now sounds like Flores might have to see some time at third base as well. Ultimately the team would like Loney versus righties at first base. The would like to pair him with Flores to face lefties. Wright would stick at third base and that would leave Campbell to be a support player.
Honestly, I just wrote all that and I’m not any clearer on the situation, are you?
Bottom line is that everyone I mentioned is worth nothing in mixed leagues at the moment as near as I can figure it.
PLAYING TIME A COMING, PART III
As long as the Twins persist in leaving Byron Buxton down in the minors they need help in the outfield.
Miguel Sano is on pace for 35 homers, 85 RBI and a .807 OBP (homers in 4-straight). He’s also on pace to set an all-time major league strikeout record with 231 punchouts. The result is an, as expected, poor batting average of .236. What were you expecting? He will continue to play daily.
Oswaldo Arcia is batting .233 with a massive 36.5 percent strikeout rate and a poor .708 OPS. The numbers aren’t any better in May (.231/.333/.359). He’s offering nothing.
Danny Santana has stolen 10 bases on a big 16 attempts. Alas, he has one homer, a sickly 0.21 BB/K ratio, a .248 batting average, .281 OBP and .339 SLG. Sorry folks, but other than his steal production this guy isn’t even a big league average hitter. His only saving grace is that he’s playing center field, something the others cannot do (which is why they should call up Buxton).
Here comes Robbie Grossman who is batting .357 with a 1.149 OPS in nine games for the Twins. He’s, intriguingly, walked six times while striking out five times in nine games. Grossman has played center field 35 times in the bigs though he has more frequently been deployed as a left fielder. Check out his minor league record and you will not that he’s played centerfield 357 times, the most he’s been deployed at any position in the minors. Seems like the Twins will have to give him some playing time rope which likely means Arcia is the one who will lose work… that is unless the club wises up and benches the no hit Santana.
DFS DIAMONDS
*The following list of players are guys that Ray recommends as daily plays.
CATCHER: Russell Martin has three homers, six RBI and six runs scored his last six outings leading to a .503 wOBA. In 16 outings against the Blue Jays Ivan Nova has a 5.63 ERA and 1.46 WHIP.
FIRST BASE: Billy Butler has five homers and nine RBI in 34 at-bats against Ervin Santana. Butler has a homer and five RBI the last two days. Santana has allowed two homers, 13 hits and eight runs his last 11.2 innings.
SECOND BASE: Howie Kendrick has two homers and two steals his last seven games. He’s also scored three times his last three games and has a .438 average (16 at-bats) against Jason Hammel and .324 against the Cubs (38 at-bats).
THIRD BASE: Travis Shaw has a .331/.399/.563 slash line against righties. The numbers are pretty good in May as well (.287/.345/.535). He takes on Tyler Wilson who has allowed three homers, and nine runs, his last two outings with only seven strikeouts.
SHORTSTOP: Starlin Castro has a .414/.452/.621 slash line against Marco Estrada in 31 plate appearances. He’s also gone deep twice in four games of late.
OUTFIELD: Cameron Maybin has hit .433 with a .902 OPS this season against righties. He’s also batting .308 in 13 at-bats against Jhoulys Chacin. Meanwhile Chacin has allowed righties to bat .304 this season.
OUTFIELD: Kendall Graveman has a 6.57 ERA and 1.95 WHIP with a 1.42 K/BB ratio his last five outings while righties are batting .329 with a .897 OPS against him. Miguel Sano is batting .273 with four homers, seven RBI and six runs scored his last seven games.
OUTFIELD: Righties have hit Andrew Cashner hard with a .333/.420/.484 slash line. Seth Smith has gone 5-for-12 with three runs scored his last four games and he still owns a solid .382 OBP against righties this season even with his overall struggles.
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).