Things That Make You Go “Hmmmm…”

According to Adam McCalvy, Jimmy Nelson has resumed throwing. Nelson suffered a small set back recently in his return from off-season shoulder surgery that shut down his rehab. He will likely not appear until the second half, but at least is back on track.

Daniel Murphy is expected to return to the Nationals “fairly soon,” according to manager Dave Martinez. Murphy is recovering from off-season knee surgery and began a rehab assignment on Saturday. It appears that he should be back sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Ronald Acuna was placed on the 10-Day DL after injuring his ACL while trying to beat out an infield single. The injury looked much worse at the time, but he appears to have avoid significant injury. He is expected to miss 2-4 weeks with the sprain and should be back before he All-Star Break.

Shane Bieber will make his Major League debut on Thursday. Bieber, who is not related to Justin Bieber, has been fantastic at AAA since being called up there at the beginning of May. He had a 1.05 ERA in 34.1 innings with over 8s K/9. He has always had great walk and home run rates throughout the minor leagues and appear like he could translate very well to the Majors with a good fastball and a plus curve. He also sports plus command and a usable slider and change. He gets a bad White Sox team at home for his debut.

According to manager Bruce Bochy, Madison Bumgarner will make another rehab stint on Thursday in San Jose for their single-A club. He also said that it is the plan “right now,” which is leading to speculation that the Giants may decide to activate him from the DL instead of having him pitch another rehab start. Be ready to activate him if they go that direction.

 

That Happened?!?

Christian Yelich had a huge day versus the Cardinals. He swatted a homer and stole a base, bringing his season totals to .310/.374/.485 with six homers and six stolen bases. Yelich was overhyped coming into the season after the trade to the Brewers, but is starting to put it all together.

Yairo Munoz hit his first Major League home run on Monday versus the Brewers. Munoz struggled in his first cup of coffee up in the Majors, but this one has started off successfully with a .450/.500/.600 line in 22 plate appearances. With Paul DeJong on the DL with a broken hand, Munoz has a really shot at every day at bats for a while.

Gorkys Hernández hit his sixth home run on Monday. Here is a list of some of the players that he has more home runs than:

And many more…

Hernandez is an interesting guy in NL Only, but is starting to creep into mixed-league relevance considering he has been leading off for the Giants.

 

What We’ll Be Watching Today

Robbie Ray will have an MRI today on his injured oblique. The exam is purely a follow-up to see how he is progressing, but that means we should get an update on his status today.

Luis Castillo vs Zack Godley . These are two pitchers headed in opposite directions. Over the course of May, Casillo has been great, throwing 28.2 innings with a 2.83 ERA and over a strikeout an inning. Godley has been awful, throwing 27.1 innings with a 5.27 ERA.

Who closes games for the Rays, Blue Jays, and Pirates. The ends of these games will be important if they can illuminate the leaders for saves on these teams.

Can Matt Carpenter keep it up? After struggling early on this season, Matt Carpenter is absolutely crushing it right now. Over the month of
May, he is hitting .291/.364.582 with four home runs in 88 plate appearances. He appears to finally be healthy, but that is also hard to trust.

Kyle Gibson vs Danny Duffy . Both have struggled recently, but can they turn it around? The Royals are awful versus right-handed pitching and the Twins are not good versus lefties. Duffy is only $4,000 on DraftKings.

Baseball. Lots of baseball.