YOUNG TO THE ROTATION

Jason Vargas has been placed on the DL with a left flexor strain, and as we’ve seen more and more in recent years that injury often points to eventual Tommy John surgery. At this point, if you own Vargas in a mixed league you might as well hit the waiver-wire. Yohan Pinto was recalled from Triple-A to take Vargas’ rotation spot, but it’s Chris Young who will enter the Royals rotation.

Young became a big leaguer back in 2004. Since then he’s pitched more than 1,000 innings around injury after injury. Standing 6’10”, young has always gotten by more on his funky delivery than pure stuff (his average fastball last season was 85.2 mph). Now you might look at his effort last season with the Mariners and get all excited about Young since it looks like he will get some run in the Royals’ rotation. Fight that urge. Despite 12 victories, a 3.65 ERA and 1.23 WHIP last season…

Young had a 5.89 K/9 rate. That’s hideous.

Young had a 3.27 BB/9 rate. That’s worse than the league average.

Young had a 1.42 HR/9 mark. That’s horrible. He’s always been homer prone as he holds a p a t h e t I c 0.48 GB/FB ratio for his career, a mark he last night in 2010.

So how did he have success? Part of the reason was an 80.2 percent left on base rate. His career mark is 75.2 percent. The last time Young had a mark over 76 percent in a season of 100 innings was way back in 2006. There’s also only one hurler who has posted a mark of 80 percent in each of the last two seasons. That’s Clayton Kershaw.

Young, simply put, is a strikeout deficient innings eater. He’s an AL-only option or at best a streaming option in mixed leagues in the right matchup. As you can tell, I’m really not a fan. 

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WHO IS PRESTON TUCKER?

Preston Tucker was a 7th round selection in the 2012 draft. He’s got a solid power bat, but he’s not looked at as an elite prospect. He had a nice season in 2014 (.282-24-94-79 with a .834 OPS) and he was killing it at Triple-A this year (.320-10-32-19 in 25 games). Some people might say – well look what happened when J.D. Martinez was given a chance last year after a hot start. My response would be – don’t care. Preston would have to crush it to even be getting semi-regular at-bats in two weeks. The Astros have Colby Rasmus, Jake Marisnick and Evan Gattis to use in the outfield. In fact, the only reason that Tucker is even getting a look is because George Springer is on the DL with a concussion. When healthy Springer goes right back in the lineup, Gattis sticks in the DL spot and Tucker likely heads back to the minors – unless he crushes it and remains as a bench bat. A very short run for Tucker seems likely.


DOES DELINO DESHIELDS JR. MATTER?

Delino DeShields Jr. does not matter in mixed leagues. The only reason he is playing is because of the wrist issue of Leonys Martin. The starter, Martin won’t play Friday but he should be back in the starting lineup post haste. When he does return he goes back into the starting lineup and DeShields goes back to being a bench option. Delino has an impressive six steals, but he’s also picked up only 26 at-bats this season with a .521 OPS. There’s just nothing to see here.

JAKE LAMB HEALING SLOWLY
Jake Lamb has a foot issue that sidelined him, and the hope was that he would be back on May 13th. Not so much. Chip Hale, the D’backs manager, said that it might still be another three weeks before Lamb returns which would put a return to the field at least two weeks behind the original time frame.

In his absence Yasmany Tomas has been hitting it extremely well. Tomas has, through 47 at-bats, hit .340 with a .392 OBP. Oddly, he hasn’t gone deep yet (hello Kris Bryant). Tomas has been crushing righties with a .394/.444/.455 slash line and he’s only struck out four times in 47 at-bats. That’s all really good stuff. Defensively he’s appeared 11 times at third out of 13 games in the field committing two errors. The glove is still extremely suspect, but if Tomas keeps hitting like this he will continue to be in the lineup, and that should make Jake Lamb owners a bit nervous.

COBB IS DONE

Finally, Alex Cobb will undergo Tommy John surgery. His 2015 season is over and we shouldn’t be expecting him to pitch until mid-season 2016. Vaya con dios amigo…

 

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).