ANOTHER SETBACK FOR MATZ

Goodness gracious.

Steven Matz won’t make his scheduled starts Friday as his shoulder is yet again barking. What makes this even more frustrating is the fact that just a day ago Matz said he was “good to go” and ready to face the Phillies. It’s nearly impossible to think we will see him again in the regular season, and his availability for the playoffs, well, let’s just say that ain’t looking good either if the Mets make it to the second season. "When you're talking about the shoulder, you're talking serious territory," manager Terry Collins said. The Mets are now without Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Matz. "At this point, I don't have an answer," Matz said. "We're just going to take another look at it, see where I'm at."

Here’s what I know.

1 – Matz has had elbow issues for years.

2 – Matz now has shoulder issues.

3 – Matz cannot be trusted.

4 – I will not be drafting Matz in a single league next year and neither should you.

Matz has been very solid this season with a 3.40 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 129 strikeouts in 132.1 frames. Again though, I’m not investing. There are too many pitfalls with the lefty to consider investing anything in him. There are so many arms out there dealing with injuries, we all know that from our experiences in the fantasy game, so when a guy has an extensive track record of ill health, why bother? Matz is now in the Stephen Strasburg barrel of players that will never be on the Oracle’s club.

I’M A SURGING HITTER

I’m a shortstop.

I have a .342 batting average in September.

I have a .415 OBP in September.

I have a .658 SLG in September, the 11th best mark in baseball.

I have a 1.072 OPS in September. That’s the 9th best mark in baseball.

I have 22 homers this season. That’s two more than Carlos Correa and Xander Bogaerts.

I’m batting .281 this season. That’s better than Brandon Crawford and Troy Tulowitzki.

I have a .815 OPS this season. That’s better than Bogaerts, Tulo, Correa, Jonathan Villar, Brad Miller, Addison Russell etc.

I am… Asdrubal Cabrera.

Remember back in the preseason when I kept saying something like ‘if you want to wait on shortstop just grab Miller or Cabrera.’

Well, at least I got that one, or two, right.

BOY AM I SLUMPING

I’m a reliever with 37 saves, the 7th best mark in baseball.

Over my last 17 games I have an 11.20 ERA.

Over my last 17 games I have a 2.27 WHIP.

Over my last 17 games I’ve allowed 1.98 homers per nine.

I’m Jeanmar Gomez.

Can’t bash a guy too much who basically gave 37 free saves, but he is in epic meltdown mode as the season comes to a close. It’s amazing to think that you can argue that performance-wise that this has been his worst season in four years yet he has 37 saves this season after just one the last three years. Hence my desire to move to solds (saves + holds) over saves.

By the way, Zach Britton has converted all 45 of his save chances this season for the Orioles.

CARDINALS UPDATES

Luke Weaver, who has been bombed of late, has been moved to the bullpen. Weaver was tattooed in his last start allowing six runs over two innings against the Rockies in Colorado. That effort comes on the heels of another beat down at the hands of the Giants. The result is that the rookie righty has allowed 12 runs, though only six were earned, over his last 4.2 innings. #SimplyBrutal

Jaime Garcia, recently demoted to bullpen, will start Monday as Adam Wainwright will have his start pushed back to Tuesday. Garcia has allowed 14 homers his last 14 outings and has a 5.43 ERA in that time. He stinks. So does Waino which I wrote about in Thursday’s Mound Review.

BLUE JAYS PITCHING UPDATE

Aaron Sanchez has made seven starts since the start of April. His ERA is 4.54 and his WHIP 1.36. Neither is league average. He has a 6.13 K/9 rate. That is less than the league average. He has a 3.86 BB/9 rate. That is higher than the league average. He owns a ground ball rate of 50 percent in those seven games, well below his 58 percent career mark. Sure seems like he is running out of gas and should have been sent to the bullpen like the initial plan for him suggested. Too bad the Jays didn’t listen to themselves as they are stubbornly stick to their second plan of starting him until the wheels fall off. “We’ll manage it start to start, but the gloves have been off all year, so our gloves are still off when it comes to the opportunities in front of him and as long as he’s recovering well and he’s healthy then he should continue to pitch,” said GM Ross Atkins.

DFS DIAMONDS

*The following list of players are guys that Ray recommends as daily plays.

CATCHER: Francisco Liriano has allowed 26 homers this season, a career worst, including 11 his last 10 outings. Gary Sanchez has five homers with a .548 SLG over 42 at-bats against lefties.

FIRST BASE: Jose Abreu has blasted Trevor Bauer for 10 hits in 25 at-bats, a .400 average. He’s batting .364 his last 47 games and has a 1.027 OPS in September. Bauer has a 7.40 ERA and 1.44 WHIP in four September outings.

SECOND BASE: Brandon Phillips is batting .333 his last 54 games and in September his slash line is a sparkly .338/.343/.523. He also has hit in 9-of-10 games. He’s also batting .300 this season against righties. He takes on Zach Davies.    

THIRD BASE: Pedro Alvarez has hit 20 homers in 287 at-bats against righties with a .519 SLG. Shelby Miller has been annihilated by lefties this year to the tune of a .346/.418/.508 slash line.     

SHORTSTOP: Jose Reyes has two homers his last six games. He’s also scored five times his last three games and nine times over his last 10. He’s hit .370 with a .911 OPS against Jeremy Hellickson over 28 plate appearances.
  
OUTFIELD: Talk about some insane BvP data. In nine at-bats against Matt Wisler, Christian Yelich has produced eight hits leading to a 2.011 OPS. He’s batting .303 with a .911 OPS versus righties this season.

OUTFIELD: Ender Inciarte has hit .353 against Andrew Cashner (17 at-bats). Lefties have hit .294 with a .783 OPS against Cashner this season. Ender’s hit .355 his last 64 games with 54 runs scored.

OUTFIELD: Righties are hitting .296 with a .355 OBP and .482 SLG against Edwin Jackson. The righty has posted a 6.02 ERA with a 1.58 WIHP his last 11 starts. Hunter Pence is batting .296 against righties. He’s hitting .329 in September with a .941 OPS.   

 

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 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).