While Matt Selz handles the rookie work around here, he’s been neck-deep in studying players in the minors right now, looking for potential call-ups you all can try and grab ahead of time. But what’s happening with the current crop of rookies playing in the majors right now? Are they living up to their hype? Are they in need of a demotion? Just because they’re not dreamy, little call-ups like Yoan Moncada doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do a check-in and maintain some status reports.

Andrew Benintendi, OF BOS – Through 150 plate appearances, the No. 1 rookie is batting .316 with five home runs with 22 RBI, 21 runs scored and three stolen bases so right off the bat, I’d say there’s some success here. The walk rate is a solid 8.7-percent, he’s only striking out 12.7-percent of the time and judging by his swing rates, the plate discipline is impressive given the pressure this kid has on him to produce. The Red Sox have been using him as their clean-up hitter and while that’s not where many of us projected him to hit, you can’t argue with his placement there or the overall performance. The Yankees fan in me hates this beyond belief, but from strictly a baseball standpoint, I love seeing the results here. Would love to see more stolen bases from him by season’s end, but if he stays in an RBI-producing slot, we can’t be greedy.

Cody Bellinger, 1B/OF LAD – Another rousing success, at least from a short-term perspective. The Dodgers got hit with injuries and were forced to rush him up to the majors before they really wanted him there, but he’s responded extremely well thus far with a .322 average, six home runs and 17 RBI. He’s also kicked in 15 runs scored and even stolen a base! The team was going to send him back down once Joc Pederson returned from the DL, but between his level of play and the injury to Adrian Gonzalez, his stay was happily extended. We’ll obviously have to see what happens once A-Gone returns, but for right now, you just have to lock him into your lineup and hope he sticks. So far, the plate discipline has been good, but we also need to see how he handles the adjustments that pitchers will be making shortly.

Manuel Margot, OF SD – It’s been a little quiet on the Margot front, but he’s actually been a decent contributor for the counting stats with three home runs and four stolen bases. The .266 average and .314 OBP, however, leave little to be desired. He should be making a little more contact which might be a source of the weak rate stats. His line drive and groundball rates are good, but without a little help from the BABIP luck dragons, it’s going to be tough for him to really string together any sort of a lengthy run. Streakiness is expected from a 22-year old, so look for a number of peaks and valleys this season. Overall though, he’s been a serviceable fifth outfielder in 12-team leagues.

Hunter Renfroe, OF SD – Tough to think Renfroe’s struggles this season weren’t expected given the minor league data we’ve been looking at in recent years. The strikeout rate was expected to tick up, but over 27-percent is a problem unless he’s mashing a dozen home runs, which he isn’t. His plate discipline is rough and he just doesn’t know how to take a walk. He fishes outside the zone too often and his near-14-percent swinging strike rate isn’t helping either. There’s solid power potential in there, but he could run into some mid-to-late season playing time issues if he doesn’t right the ship soon. Not that Alex Dickerson coming off the DL is going to be a huge motivator, but the Padres did trade for Matt Szczur and if Renfore’s plate discipline doesn’t improve, he might be seeing a little extra bench time.

Dansby Swanson, SS ATL – I hate to say I told you so, but Swanson has always profiled as a player who is better in real life than he is in fantasy. There’s no real power to speak of and he doesn’t have strong speed, so the lack of production in the counting stats is what it is and it’s probably not getting any better. There was hope with him batting ahead of Freddie Freeman in the two-hole, but the .162/.242/.225 slash line is an easy indicator that he is overmatched by big league pitching right now. The Braves like him as a player and probably don’t want to mess with his confidence, but the recent acquisition of Danny Santana makes it seem like he could head to bench if he doesn’t start showing some consistent signs of life.

Yulieski Gurriel, 1B/3B HOU – After a disastrous start to the season, Gurriel turned it up in mid-to-late April. The problem is that there’s really no power to be had. Whatever he was doing in Cuba is certainly not translating in the majors and as a result, he’s an average play at the corner infield spot, at best. The .274 average has been fine, but the .311 OBP is awful and that 51-percent ground ball rate certainly isn’t helping. He doesn’t have the speed to beat out the grounders and unless he lifts that 12.5-percent line drive rate, it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of promise on the horizon. He’s in a slump to open the month of May, but you can certainly keep a watchful eye and see if things start to trend up. However, expecting any sort of consistency right now seems futile.

Josh Bell, 1B PIT – Another guy spending far too much time killing worms as Bell’s 50.6-percent ground ball rate is dragging down both his batting average and on-base percentage. The overall plate discipline hasn’t been bad, but until he starts making more consistent hard contact and starts hitting more line drives, he’s never going to be anything more than slightly below-average. That 50-percent ground ball rate might not be much of a detriment in the minors, but he’s definitely not getting away with it in the majors.

Aaron Judge, OF NYY – What’s not to love? He is tied for the league lead in home runs and the plate discipline has been light-years better than we thought. He’s showing solid pitch recognition and he’s not fishing outside the zone, so just sit back and enjoy the ride. He’ll slow down – hasn’t hit a home run in five games – but overall, you have to be happy with the results, especially considering how he fell like a stone in most drafts.

Jharel Cotton, SP OAK – The recent drubbing and subsequent demotion to the minors make it feel like a failed pick, but there’s still a lot to like about this kid. He’s got great stuff, but he just needs to harness the command better and learn to pitch deeper into games. Obviously he also needs to give up fewer home runs, but that will come once he stops perpetually falling behind in the count, thus forcing him to start lobbing meatballs over the plate. He’ll toil in the minors for a little bit while Sean Manaea makes his return, but once the team needs a fifth starter regularly, he should be back up. Don’t give up on him just yet. You can drop him for now, but I wouldn’t be afraid to pick him back up and start him when he returns.

Jeff Hoffman, SP COL – There’s plenty to like about his start yesterday, especially that strikeout rate, but he hasn’t earned anyone’s trust just yet. He’s looked strong at Triple-A this season and that momentum certainly carried over into last night’s start, but we’re going to need a larger sample size in the majors before we can truly assess.

Tyler Glasnow, SP PIT – Plain and simple, the command is atrocious. His 6.33 BB/9 is a disaster and consequently the lack of command is ruining everything else about him. Even a strikeout per inning is just meh given everything else you have to put up with. He definitely needs to work on his secondary offerings because right now the changeup is a mess, the curve is just okay and he’s nothing more than a glorified two-pitch pitcher. His time will come at some point, but right now, there is literally nothing special about him for fantasy owners.

Jameson Taillon, SP PIT – He gets an incomplete here because while he was having some command issues early on, the ground ball rate was tight and he was inducing a fair amount of weak contact. Unfortunately, he recently underwent a surgical procedure and the early speculation is testicular cancer. Fantasy owners outside of keeper/dynasty formats should probably drop him as there is no set timetable for his return.

So there you go, people. A little rookie round-up. Did I get them all? If I missed any, please chime in down in the comments and we can discuss.