Monday’s Major League Baseball action featured just five games, as we had a postponed Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers contest. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t noteworthy performances to enjoy in your fantasy baseball lineups. Michael Wacha tossed a complete game for the Boston Red Sox as managers scramble to grab him off the fantasy baseball waiver wire. Cincinnati Reds rookie sensation Hunter Greene fired seven shutout innings as the top MLB prospect is rising up the June fantasy baseball players rankings with his swing-and-miss stuff. New York Mets infielder Eduardo Escobar stole the MLB headlines when he hit for the cycle last night. Houston Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker has been one of baseball’s hottest hitters over the past week or so and he kept it going last night. As for the latest MLB injury report news, the Mets and Red Sox both could be welcoming top pitchers back into their rotations in the near future. Lastly, we’ll take a look at my MLB DFS top picks and favorite MLB player props for Tuesday night’s games. There are some weather concerns, so be sure you’re checking out the latest MLB weather report as well as today's MLB lineups before locking in those MLB daily fantasy lineups. Now let's take a look back at Monday's MLB top performers and what it means for fantasy baseball lineups.

 

 

Fantasy Baseball Headlines

Michael Wacha Twirls Complete Game Gem

 

 

WHO IS THIS Michael Wacha GUY!? Outside of allowing five earned runs back on May 26th, he’s allowed two or fewer earned runs in every start this season. Wacha's six strikeouts last night were also a season-high. What he has provided the Boston rotation, and fantasy baseball managers, has been nothing short of solid this season. For fantasy baseball purposes, you may need a higher strikeout guy to offset any damage that Wacha will do there. Still, the Red Sox righty has allowed only seven earned runs over his last 29.1 innings of work, which includes those five runs allowed in one outing.

 

Eduardo Escobar Hits for the Cycle

 

 

Hitting for the cycle is always an exciting and rare feat for MLB players. On Monday, Eduardo Escobar became the 11th player in New York Mets history to hit for the cycle when he smacked a ninth-inning triple. It's even more impressive that Escobar needed a triple (arguably the hardest part of the cycle) in his last at-bat and he ultimately came through. The Mets infielder also drove in six runs and scored three times himself last night. Escobar now has a quality .323 average over his last 15 games, in which he's homered three times, scored 11 runs, and has driven in 15 runs. He certainly won't hit for the cycle every time out, but fantasy baseball managers should be enjoying his recent production, as well as the multi-positional flexibility he provides.

 

Hunter Greene Tosses Shutout For Cincinnati Reds

 

 

When Greene doesn’t walk batters, he can be flat-out dominant for the Cincinnati Reds. Yes, it was against a weaker Arizona lineup last night, but a performance of seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts and no walks is still excellent. The outing ended up being a complete-game shutout after the game was ruled a final after seven innings due to rain. After walking 14 batters in the month of May, Greene hasn’t issued a free pass in either of his June appearances spanning 10.2 innings of work. Check out this graph of Greene's 2022 plate discipline in terms of throwing strikes:

The nice thing from the above graph is that he lit up the strike zone last night, and he could afford to not have as many strikeouts or swinging strikes. Last night, Greene’s fastball generated 12 whiffs on 25 swings, whereas his slider generated five whiffs on 15 swings – meaning both pitches registered a whiff rate of at least 33 percent.

 

Kyle Tucker is Heating Up

 

 

After his three-hit performance last night, Tucker is hitting .421 in the month of June and has a modest six-game hitting streak in the works. Over his last seven games, he’s hitting .375 with a .667 slugging percentage for the Houston Astros. It’s nice to see some of his expected statistics trending the right way following a streaky start to the season. Here's his expected wOBA and expected batting average now well above the league average in 2022 after his early-season struggles. Looks like he's getting back to his higher levels of production from 2021. 

 

 

MLB Injury Report 

  • Tylor Megill’s velocity was excellent in his rehab start, and he should be returning to the mound later this week in the New York Mets' rotation.
  • Jacob deGrom recently threw a bullpen session but is still well off from a return for the New York Mets.
  • Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Bailey Ober is heading to the Injured List with a groin issue…again.
  • Chris Sale’s return to the Boston Red Sox rotation could be nearing, as he is scheduled to face live batters later this week.

 

Tuesday’s MLB Best Bets

 

 

Edward Cabrera (Marlins) – OVER 5.5 Strikeouts (+105 DraftKings Sportsbook)

Cabrera struck out nine Rockies in his last outing and Washington has struck out at a similar rate against righties this season. This line seems mighty low for a pitcher with Cabrera’s swing-and-miss stuff, and to get a little juice here with a +105 line is tantalizing. Washington hasn’t struck out a ton of late, but with multiple pitches that can miss bats with ease, I’m going for the over here with the Miami fireballer. 

 

 

 

Austin Riley (Braves) – OVER 1.5 Total Bases (-130 BetMGM Sportsbook)

As long as the weather holds, I’m over on Riley's total bases prop – even at -115 on DraftKings Sportsbook. Riley has a .487 wOBA versus lefties this year, which is the fifth-highest mark in all of baseball. Furthermore, in his home park, he has a .402 wOBA this season, and he’s hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games. Oakland’s Cole Irvin has allowed a .282 average and 5.09 ERA on the road this season, and with the splits favoring Riley in this one, I’m going over the 1.5 total bases.

 

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