MATT HARVEY IS HORRIBLE

Matt Harvey had his worst outing ever last night, so I need to write something about Harvey given the uproar in the fantasy game. Quick thoughts.

Harvey gave up nine runs, six earned, in a career worst 2.2 innings Thursday. #Abysmal

At this point the Mets say Harvey is healthy and that they are not considering placing him on the disabled list.

The Mets have considered skipping Harvey in the rotation, but it’s not likely. "When you see confidence as banged up as his is right now, that means it needs to get fixed," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "We're going to take a look. Is that best for him? Is that best for us?" Actually it looks like they have no plans to skip his spot. In fact, they might move him up a day since he threw so few pitches Thursday.

His velocity is down, but 94.0 mph ain’t suggestive of an injury.

Harvey has a 3.66 FIP. Hey, it’s something. I would also bet that the .385 BABIP he’s saddled with, .097 points above his career mark, is going to regress as well. Ditto that stupid-ass 29.2 percent line drive rate.

Jay Jaffe delved into the whole mess in What’s Wrong With Matt Harvey.

Buy Harvey now seems like a smart move since people are literally dropping him in mixed leagues. He’s someone I would easily give an SP4 to add, but I’m certainly not paying anywhere near full price for him.

THE ARTICLES/VIDEOS

Follow this link to check out the entire Player Profile Series. Speaking of the series, did you catch my Justin Smoak piece written Friday?

Check out my Big-3 Video on Jeff Samardzija, Ervin Santana and Colin McHugh.

Did you see the Daily Dive Video that talks about the hot starts of Gregory Polanco and Matt Carpenter, and the consistent production of Carlos Santana?

What is wrong with Michael Wacha, Jon Gray, Michael Pineda and Luis Severino? Daily Trends speaks to it.

Did you miss the Friday Live Advice session with me and my BFF Jeff Mans? If you did, click on this link to find the transcript.

THE LAST TWO WEEKS

Ben Zobrist has a .556 wOBA, the best in baseball, while Jackie Bradley leads the AL with a .550 mark the last two weeks. They are the only two men in the .500s the last 14 days.

Matt Carpenter and Khris Davis lead the way with six big flies.

Bradley leads the way with 18 RBI while Carpenter and Davis have 15.

The runs scored leader is Ian Kinsler with 15, two more than Carpenter, and three more than Zobrist, Mike Trout, Travis Shaw, Gregory Polanco, Todd Frazier and Stephen Piscotty.

The steals leader, with five, are a trio of terror: Jose Altuve, Starling Marte and Jonathan Villar.

THE LAST FOUR WEEKS

*30 days…

Francisco Cervelli has a new contract and he’s driven in 14 runs despite hitting just .253 the last 23 contests.

Yan Gomes has blasted five homers with 16 RBI in 21 games which is fantastic. However, he’s still hitting an anemic .154 and .202 OBP in that time. Limited even in his success, but a top-10 catcher the rest of the way he is.

Corey Dickerson has five homers and 14 RBI in 22 games. Strong stuff. He’s also hitting just .178 with a pathetic .250 OBP. Severely limited is he at this point.

Prince Fielder is batting .206 with a .242 wOBA the last 30 days. He’s just been awful with no homers and eight RBI. Buy on the loooooow, but don’t pay too much. As much as I like him and think there is plenty in the tank, it’s just not happening.

Carlos Gonzalez has one homer and three RBI. Mark Teixeira is even worse with no homers and three RBI. Matt Duffy is at zero and three. Those are the same numbers as Billy Burns has produced as well.

Anyone notice that Bryce Harper is batting .208 the last 28 games? NO ONE is talking about that. Harper, who hit .330 last season, has seen his average plummet to .254. He’s not a .330 hitter. He’s not a .254 hitter either. In fact, his current .254 batting average is .034 points off his career mark which is closer to his career mark than the difference last season (.330-.254 = .076). I said it before the season began with Harper, I would be very surprised if he hit even .310 and put the odds at a .300 season at just under 50/50.

Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t been any better with a .209 batting average the last 30 days. Do you realize that Justin Upton (.215) has a higher batting average the last month than Bryce Harper or Giancarlo Stanton?

Speaking of average fallers the last month, here is some more data

.221 Josh Donaldson

.222 Edwin Encarnacion

.223 Troy Tulowitzki

.226 Joey Votto

.232 Maikel Franco

Franco is on pace to exactly match his 80 game pace last season of 14 homers and 50 RBI. Alas, his average is down .037 points, his OBP is down .058 points and his SLG is down .069 points. He’s also seen his 0.50 BB/K ratio plummet to 0.29. Those are all terrible trends, not to mention that he’s also scored 12 times putting him on pace to barely get to 50 runs this season. Yikes.

 

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).