What’s up members of the #FAmily!? After a great weekend of fantasy football at the King’s Classic and Fantasy Football Expo, it’s good to be back talking baseball and dissecting the latest MLB news and notes for your fantasy baseball lineup needs. There were many exciting MLB headlines and top performers on Monday, including Shohei Ohtani adding a new pitch and hot streaks for Christian Walker and Gavin Lux as they all rise up the fantasy baseball rankings. However, it wasn’t all butterflies and rainbows. On the MLB injury report front, the Los Angeles Dodgers received word that they would be without Walker Buehler the rest of the way due to elbow surgery. Plus, the New York Mets will await further information regarding Carlos Carrasco's injury. Be sure to check out the latest fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups, the MLB top prospects, and rest-of-season MLB projections to find those injury replacements for your rosters. I’ll also give you my MLB best bet for the day and if you are looking for some MLB DFS lineup advice, check out our MLB daily projections, MLB weather report, confirmed MLB lineups, and MLB Vegas odds. Let’s now take a look back at Monday’s Major League Baseball action for the biggest fantasy baseball storylines.

 

Fantasy Baseball MLB News & Notes

Dodgers SP Walker Buehler Out for Season

The Los Angeles Dodgers were dealt quite a blow here with Buehler now being ruled out for the remainder of the season. The hope was that Buehler could get a couple of starts before the end of the regular season so that he could be ready to make an impact in the Dodgers’ quest for the World Series, but that won’t be the case. After undergoing arthroscopic surgery in mid-June to remove bone spurs in his elbow, the idea was that it would alleviate the pain and the right-hander would be good to throw again after a couple of months. Now the ace is getting season-ending elbow surgery next week. With Buehler out for the season, and Kershaw currently on the Injured List, the Dodgers will be ecstatic to welcome back Dustin May to the rotation this week.

Mets SP Carlos Carrasco Exits Early

Carrasco had been one of the best pitchers over the last month and a half or so, but the New York Mets will now await results from an MRI. Carrasco fired 51 pitches across two innings of work last night, but he left early with left side discomfort/tightness.

Carrasco's slider was over two miles per hour slower than his mark for the whole season, while everything else was within range. The team, and fantasy baseball managers, will anxiously await MRI results.

Shohei Ohtani Adds Two-Seamer (or Sinker)

AS IF HE NEEDS ANOTHER WEAPON! Sinker, two-seamer, whatever you want to call it, but it’s a new weapon for the game’s most dynamic player.

Baseball Savant is calling it a sinker and while he only threw it a handful of times, it resulted in an out and posted a 50% whiff rate. The lone out the pitch recorded resulted in a Ty France ground out at an exit velocity at 71.6 miles per hour and a -45 degree launch angle with a .110 xBA. Ohtani’s sinker/two-seamer hung out in the upper 90s and if he can further refine this pitch – watch out.

Noah Syndergaard Gets it Done for Phillies

Syndergaard may not be pushing for a Cy Young, but he’s been solid for Philadelphia since being acquired at the 2022 MLB Trade Deadline. Last night against the Reds, Thor allowed three runs over seven innings and struck out six en route to the win. He has a 4.50 ERA across three starts with the Phillies, but an unusually high .387 BABIP has hurt him. The optimism is that his BABIP should regress to the mean (.299 for the year), while his 2.84 FIP and 3.67 xFIP indicate that his base numbers should look more impressive. Syndergaard isn’t going to be a great source of strikeouts, which is the same story for the season as a whole, but his base numbers should creep down with each passing start. Philadelphia will likely continue to let him work deeper into games to alleviate the strain on the bullpen.

Christian Walker Stays Hot for Diamondbacks

Walker has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games and during this run, he’s hitting an insane .455 with a .565 wOBA, 268 wRC+, three home runs, four doubles, 10 RBI, and seven runs scored. The Arizona Diamondbacks; youngster has a miniscule 4.9% strikeout rate, and his contact rate is into the 90s! Walker is making hard contact, not missing the ball, and doing an incredible job of staying in the zone. Outside of his batting average, he’s on pace for career-bests in home runs, RBI, and slugging percentage.

Gavin Lux Homers For Second Time in Three Days

In the Los Angeles Dodgers win over the Milwaukee Brewers last night, Lux homered for the second time in the last three games. For the majority of the season, Lux has been a great source of batting average and a couple of stolen bases, but the power has ticked up lately. He has a .586 slugging percentage over his last 34 plate appearances, though his ground ball rate remains elevated. Fortunately, he does have a 35% fly ball rate over his last eight games and a 28.6% HR/FB ratio is playing up his power a good bit. I don’t expect Lux to go on a power binge the rest of the way, but a .300+ average with 10+ home runs and 10+ stolen bases is still well within reach for the Los Angeles Dodgers' young middle infielder.

MLB Best Bet Tuesday

Philadelphia Phillies -1.5 Run Line (-115 BetMGM)

The Phillies should jump all over T.J. Zeuch in this one. They have the sixth-highest slugging percentage over the last two weeks, not to mention the 10th-highest wRC+. Philadelphia has enough pop in its lineup and Zuech struggled in his lone start of the year against the Mets. A lineup featuring Kyle Schwarber, Rhys Hoskins, Alec Bohm, and J.T. Realmuto should have no problem against a guy who has a 7.37 FIP on the year, and has served up a wOBA north of .425 to both lefties (.426) and righties (.477).

 

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