The Face of Baseball

Yup. There is no doubting it. Whether you thought so before Friday night or not, what more do you need to see? The time has arrived! It’s Kyle Schwarber! Kidding! Fernando Tatis Jr. IS the face of baseball. Yeah yeah, Mike Trout is pretty good too, but he doesn’t bring the same swagger and the same energy that fans feel from head to toe every time he connects with the baseball. He is EXACTLY what was needed for a revitalization of baseball so to speak. Yeah, the game has been a little...stale but there is NOTHING stale about Fernando Tatis Jr. The game is in a great place with him leading the charge for years to come.

Barry Bonds or Kyle Schwarber... Not Sure

The title says it all. The run Schwarber is on right now is INSANE. He homered again on Friday and that marked his third straight game with at least one -- four over that span and has hit NINE over his last six contests. He’s hit 13 bombs in 22 games this month and is slugging .788 (!!!) in the month of June as well. He’s only three home runs off the league lead and is on pace to surpass his career-high of 38 back in 2019. Could we be looking at our home run champion come years end? It’s possible.


Can we Talk Tatis again?

Serious question... Are 50 homers on the table here? He has 25 through 59 games and still has July, August and September to go. He’d have to average less than nine homers per month to get there. He’s already hit nine or more home runs in three different months including last season as well. Some food for thought.

Can San Francisco Hold off the Padres AND Dodgers?

After seven masterful innings from Johnny Cueto on Friday against one of the better teams in all of baseball, the Giants continue to show us why THEY CAN hold both teams off. In June alone, San Fran’s pitching staff has a 2.89 ERA, the second best mark in the league. Their 1.91 ERA from their bullpen alone over that span tells us when they have a lead late, they win games. Oh by the way, they LEAD MLB in home runs and are top-five in RBI, OPS, wOBA and wRC+. As the kids say, they’re BUILT DIFFERENT.

I say Advanced Stats Matter, What do Yusei?

All of last year, we heard how unlucky Yusei Kikuchi was and yet he kept getting shelled -- at least from the outside looking in. You would see his 3.78 xFIP and wonder how he had a 5.17 ERA. Well, the advanced stats were right. The 30.7% hard-hit rate he allowed last year despite posting a bad ERA, and his HH was very good, has lowered all the way to 26.9%, an elite mark. His ERA in 2021? 3.34, matching his xFIP. His K-rate is up over 25%, his walk rate is below nine. He’s everything the advanced numbers said he was and a REALLY good White Sox lineup learned that the hard way on Friday night as Kikuchi allowed just one run over 5.2 IP.

Saturday’s Slate

Uhhhh, it’s a mess! DraftKings’ slate is starting at 2:10 pm EST and has a second slate at 7:05 pm EST while FanDuel separated theirs into three slates at 2:10, 4:10 and 7:05. We have a couple games that could be impacted by rain in CLE/MIN and SEA/CWS and both of those games do have the potential to be rained out.

The Blue Jays figure to once again be the chalk as they take on Keegan Akin and the Orioles in Buffalo aka Coors Jr. That Jacob deGrom guy takes the mound against Philadelphia today too. Jon Impemba breaks it all down in today’s MLB DFS Playbook!

Betting

The only time you ever see over/under as low as 6.5 is when Jacob deGrom is on the hill. That’s extremely rare, but that’s how good he is. Would it be crazy to STILL take the under? The Mets offense isn’t one to blow up too often..

Jacob deGrom and the Mets aren’t today’s biggest favorite, however, as Lance McCullers checks in at -300 in some sportsbooks today. deGrom isn’t even second, which is indicative of his luck in the past, as Dinelson Lamet and the Padres take on the lifeless Diamondbacks as -280 favorites. Baltimore vs. Toronto and New York vs. Boston are the only two games of the day with O/U sitting in double-figures.