DFS PLAYBOOK PRO – An exciting new offering from the Alarm is here! It’s the DFS Playbook Pro. I will be doing a daily breakdown of the hitters –Hitting Coach – while Howard Bender looks into the Pitchers (Pitching Coach). You can find the link to the Hitting and Pitching articles under the DFS Playbook pro tab at the top right of the screen.
OTHER LINKS TO BOOKMARK
IS THE FUTURE NOW?
Carlos Correa is god-like, just ask around. One of the handful of prospects considered to be the best in the game, Correa should have a career filled with all-star appearances. His big league career starts this week, none too soon for a ravenous fantasy baseball universe that devours rookies like they were free shots of hooch on Friday night. Speaking of that…
Correa can’t drink, at least not legally. He’s not even 21 years old.
Correa has 98 at-bats above Double-A.
The guy has appeared in 53 games above Single-A ball.
I wish those three facts made more of an impact than they do with folks. I feel like I’m saying/writing/tweeting the same thing over and over with youngsters yet no one listens. Tremendous talent isn’t enough. I’m not going to sit here and say anything negative about the skills that Correa owns – his prospect status is as elite as they come (he leads all minor leaguer this season in extra base hits and is second with a .600 SLG while batting .335 with 10 homers and 18 steals in 53 games). I will, again, point out his total lack of inexperience and age. That should matter. I know it doesn’t.
Correa will be in the lineup on a daily basis. No doubt there. But will he be there in two months? "It's probably 33 games between now and the All-Star Game and you assume Jed's going to be back after the All-Star break, so that gives us a good amount of time to see how Carlos is doing and we'll determine at that point where everybody fits," GM Jeff Luhnow said. "Jed's a big part of this and will continue to be a part of his team." OK, if Correa hits of course he sticks and Lowrie goes to a backup role or is dealt. But what if Correa struggles? Again, the kid isn’t even 21 years old.
Correa is a potential 20/20 talent who could hit .300. He shouldn’t be on waivers in any league. We’ll have to revisit this situation in a month to see if he’s a borderline star of a youngster whose hype got out of control. "I think he's one of the 25 best players in our organization right now," Luhnow said. "We should have the 25 best players on the Major League roster so that we can give ourselves the best chance to win."
ASTROS MAKE ANOTHER MOVE
With Correa coming to boost the offense the Astros are pulling out all the stops calling up Vincent Velasquez to replace Roberto Hernandez in the starting rotation (Hernandez and his 5.81 ERA through 11 starts will now ply his trade out of the bullpen). Who is Velasquez?
Like Lance McCullers, Velasquez won’t have thrown a pitch above Double-A at the time of his promotion. A second round pick in 2010, he started this season slowly after suffering an offseason lat issue. He also missed two months last season with a groin issue and back in 2011 he had Tommy John surgery. That’s a lot of injury when we’re talking about a 23 year old.
Velasquez was a top-100 prospect according to both MLB.com and BaseballProspectus heading into the 2015 season, so it’s not like he isn’t talented. He was also tearing it up in five starts at Double-A with a 1.37 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 12.6 K/9 mark. At the same time those 26.1 innings represent the totality of his work above Single-A ball. Some more perspective. That’s 26.1 innings above Single-A ball for a guy who was drafted in 2010. Have at it adding him, but this call up makes me extremely nervous. The guy has less than 290 innings of professional experience, and multiple injuries in his background. I think the Astros are going all out to win thinking that maybe this is a “special” year for them. I also think their eyes might be bigger than their stomach.
NO INDIANS MOVE WITH LINDOR
Lonnie Chisenhall was demoted to Triple-A and Giovanny Urshela was called up (he’s an AL-only option at best as an all glove, little bat option). They also 
called up Zach Walters to serve as a backup to Urshela at third and Mike Aviles at shortstop. Why no Francisco Lindor? According to GM Chris Antonetti, Lindor is dealing with two minor health issues (hand and core) so the team didn’t want to call up the 21 year old when he wasn’t physically right. The takeaway.
Urshela is an AL-only add.
Walters is an AL-only add.
Chisenhall is an AL-only hold but a mixed league drop.
Aviles is a solid AL-only play and one, who in the short term, could be a decent middle infield option in mixed leagues.
As for Lindor… what should you expect when he is called up (it should happen at some point in 2015 without question)? Lindor is a top-10 prospect in baseball according to everyone. He’s a special defender. Offensively he has virtually no shot of ever being elite, but he also has virtually no chance of crapping out. His offensive game will likely mirror someone like a cross between Elvis Andrus and DJ LeMahieu. He will steal bases, potentially 30 in a campaign, but he’s never likely to develop the ability to hit more than 10-12 homers a season. He’s also hit only .277 in five minor league seasons so he’s not likely to be a big booster there either. His time will come but even when called up this season it’s hard to envision a scenario in which he’s a strong mixed league option.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
Three guys I’ve been fond of pumping the breaks on…
Jose Abreu has nine homers in 50 games this season. Going back to the second half of last year he has 16 homers his last 113 games. He’s just not lifting the ball. Through 196 big league games his fly ball rate is 31 percent. The league average is 34-35 percent.
Jose Altuve has hit .244 over his last 35 games. Altuve is currently batting .296 and his career mark is .302. This is who he is.
Alex Guerrero since May 14th: hitting .192 with a .218 OBP and huge 33 percent K-rate. He’s still not playing every day.
Some second base stuff…
Brian Dozier has nine homers and 25 runs scored his last 26 games. Everything is as good as or better than last year except one aspect of his game. Dozier stole 21 bags last season and has only three this year.
Ian Kinsler finally hit a homer, but over the last month he’s also hitting .224 with a .294 OBP and .327 SLG. Starting to get a little nervous here.
Jason Kipnis has scored 27 times his last 28 games.
Joe Panik has a .420 OBP his last 26 games. He’s hitting better than last year which is mildly surprising. Still, mad props to the Giants youngster. Through 128 big league games he’s batting .309 with a .361 OBP and 60 runs scored.
Dustin Pedroia is batting .345 with a .850 OPS the last 29 games. He’s “back” after an injury plagued 2014.
Some shortstop stuff…
Xander Bogaerts looks much better the last month during which time he’s hit .333. At the same time he has only one homer, 10 RBIs and 10 runs scored with a .357 OBP over 28 games. Good, but still a work in progress who is trending in the right direction.
Jung-ho Kang is all the rage. Just ask around. Anyone bother to go to the Tale of the Tape with him? Over his last 23 games he has eight runs scored a .263 average and a mere .393 SLG.
Only two shortstops in baseball have at least three homers and three steals the past month. They are both slumping but their names are Jimmy Rollins and Marcus Semien.
Finally, the best thing you will see all day…
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).
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