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

Daily Lineups

Daily Projections

Player News

DFS MLB Playbook

ATHLETICS OUTFIELD

Craig Gentry has been demoted after a horrible start to his season. Coco Crisp is hurt again, this time it’s his neck, and he’s about to the point that you simply cannot trust him to even be on the field. Into that void the Atheltics welcome Billy Burns. Who is the speedster? Through 87 big league plate appearances Burns is batting .309 with a .356 OBP. In 121 games at Double-A those numbers are .268 and .358. In 49 games at Triple-A the numbers are .247 and .310. What I’m getting at should be obvious. Burns really can’t hit. He will beat the ball into the ground and run really fast, but his bat is moderate at best and with two homers in 1,796 minor league plate appearances it’s pretty clear he won’t be driving the ball deep. He could be Ben Revere, but I just don’t think his bat is as good as the Philly. I’d be thinking more like Jarrod Dyson.


HAMILTON READY TO ROCK

Josh Hamilton has been activated off the DL and he will begin his quest to solidify left field for the Rangers. Hamilton is 34 years old, with a storied past we are all aware of. He looked sharp with a homer, five doubles, six RBIs and a .364 average over 12 minor league games so this is no mercy call-up. Still, Hamilton looked lost at times last year with 108 punchouts in just 338 at-bats as he seemingly waived at every single low and away pitch that was thrown up there. Hamilton is a fifth outfielder type in mixed leagues. The power is still there, but until he shows some discipline, and proves he can stay healthy, there is a pretty substantial amount of risk.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

Jose Altuve has three hits in his last 32 at-bats. His average is down to .294. It’s been 44 games, but as I said all offseason and every time I was asked the last two months, Altuve is way more of a .300 hitter than a .340 batter. We shall see how it goes the rest of the way but this is who Altuve is if you ask me.

Javier Baez has appeared in 23 games with Triple-A Iowa this season, and yes, he’s hitting. In 99 plate appearances he’s batting .322 with a .404 OBP and .540 SLG. He’s also done deep five times and stolen six bases in 23 games. He could still be a significant fantasy performer in the second half.

Shin-soo Choo is “back” in May. Through 23 games he’s batting .320 with a .361 OBP and .610 SLG. He’s gone deep six times with 18 RBIs and 17 runs scored. Good to see after I pushed him hard all offseason. One huge negative though. He hasn’t attempted a single theft this season.

Dexter Fowler has scored 14 runs in his last 13 games. That gives Fowlers 32 runs scored in 42 games. He’s also stolen 11 bases, a 7th straight year with that many. If he keeps up this pace he scores 115 runs and steals 40 bases. If he can just stay healthy he could push triple-digits in the runs category, but there ain’t no way he’s swiping 40. Think 25 with health.

Freddy Galvis has four hits in his last 32 at-bats (.125). He’s still hitting well above expectations with a .307 mark. He’s also swiped five bags giving him some moderate value as a mixed league option as a middle infielder. He’s not a .300 hitter though.

Danny Santana has predictably regressed from last season (see his Player Profile). Santana is batting .233 and his .320 SLG is one point higher than his .319 batting average last season.The guy has walked 21 times over 587 plate appearances. That’s awful. It’s been embarrassing this season as Santana has walked twice in 157 plate appearances. All a pitcher has to do is to throw the ball on the corners or just off them and watch Santana get himself out.

Ichiro Suzuki has 2,876 big league hits. Those are the second most in history for a player from his age 27 season on. The leader is none other than Pete Rose (2,970).

INJURIES

Jose Iglesias is out yet again, this time with a knee issue. The guy is always hurt. Always. He’s hurting himself running, being run into, sliding. I wonder if life hurts him. Iglesias is batting .333 with seven steals, way better than anyone had a reasonable expectation he would produce with the bat and wheels this season, but it won’t continue. He’s batting .278 with a .339 OBP in May, and the guy has scored 10 times while knocking in six runners despite 38 games played on the season. That’s horrible.

Matt Harvey has dead arm. No one with the Mets seems concerned. That’s crap. They are concerned. Come on, they have to be. Still, here’s the brave face being put on by manager Terry Collins. ““I have not talked to Matt yet, but it looks like he might be going through some of that dead arm stuff that sometimes happens. This might help him to have an extra day to get him back on track. “He’s going to pitch Friday with five days rest, be ready to go.” Harvey allowed seven runs in his last outing and it seems like the world is ending. It was a terrible effort. Who cares about one outing? He’s been great this year. However, the “dead arm” thing... Pitchers often deal with “dead arm” and emerge without issue, but how can you not be concerned when that pitcher is coming off Tommy John surgery? The main takeaway is this. Harvey is no lock to pitch 200-innings this season, not even close. Especially if the Mets go with this 6-man rotation plan for a bit. I’d be very pleased if Harvey threw 180 quality innings this season.

Devin Mesoraco has been placed on the DL with a hip issue. About FRICKIN’ time Reds. Mesoraco, in one of the most vexing decisions ever made by a coaching staff in the history of this game, had been kept on the active roster despite the fact that the last time he started behind the plate was April 11th. The Reds kept Mesoraco around for five weeks when he didn’t start a single game. That’s flipping asinine. No idea what the Reds were doing. At this point the hope is that he will be able to avoid season ending surgery, but after having a setback last week it’s looking more and more likely that the 2014 breakout catcher in the fantasy game will be a horrific failure in 2015. The Reds will lean heavily, well they already have been, on Brayan Pena. Through 116 plate appearances this season Pena is batting .307 with a .383 OBP. Dating back to the start of the 2013 season Pena has 731 plate appearances and he’s been effective batting .276 with a .733 OPS. Pena has been particularly effective against righties this season doing his best Jonathan Lucroy impersonation (.347/.407/.417). Pena has the look of a low end catcher two in mixed leagues. After all, he’s only driven in five runners and ripped a homer so far.

Ben Zobrist has been activated from the DL. He returned from knee surgery a couple of weeks before the expectation he would. His versatility is a nice boost.
 

Finally, a special thanks to all of those that gave their lives in the service of our country.

 

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).