Welcome to another edition of the Fantasy Baseball Daily Roundup. The MLB season is in full force and yesterday was filled with plenty of highlights and stories. One player is on the verge of history after a Hall of Fame career, another flirted with history with 12 strikeouts and a near-perfect game while another All-Star player had a huge day at the plate. So, let’s take a look around the league from Wednesday’s day of baseball.
 

 


THE INJURIES


Heaney Down

What luck. A day after one of his best major league starts when he struck out 11 over six innings, Andrew Heaney has been shelved. The Dodgers placed the left-hander on the 10-day injured list with discomfort in his left shoulder. 

Heaney is no stranger to shoulder woes as he dealt with injuries in 2017 and 2019 as a member of the Angels. Tony Gonsolin stepped up in Heaney’s absence yesterday when he threw six scoreless innings against the Braves.

Springer Dodges a Bullet

George Springer left yesterday’s game against the Red Sox after being hit on the right forearm by a pitch in the sixth inning. X-rays were negative, so it appears Springer got away with just a bruise. He should miss hardly any time. 
 

 

Josh Bell to Undergo MRI

Nationals first baseman Josh Bell left last night’s game early when he felt his left knee tighten up while playing in the field. He mentioned after the game that the knee didn’t feel real bad but he will still undergo an MRI today.

Any loss of time will be bad news for Bell's fantasy owners as he has come out of the gates hot. He has a slash of .354/.456/.521 with a.977 OPS. His .396 XBA is one of the best in baseball while he is in the top 5% in wOBA .438) and XwOBA (.460).

Trout Return Imminent

Mike Trout should be back in action on Friday. According to Angels beat reporter Jeff Fletcher, Trout was even available to pinch-hit yesterday, but Angels manager Joe Maddon was giving his hand one more day to heal. Trout was hit on his left hand in the fifth inning of Sunday’s game by Spencer Patton's 81 MPH slider. Trout has not played since.
 


Jose Altuve to 10-Day IL

Seven-time All-Star Jose Altuve’s strained hammy has led to a 10-day stint on the IL. On Monday night, he tweaked the hamstring late in the game against the Angels and it obviously hasn’t healed as quickly as the Astros hoped. 

Altuve has struggled to start this season slashing only .167/.268/.250 with just one extra-base hit. The move to the IL also led to the call-up of prospect J.J. Matjevic who could be making his major league debut soon. Matjevic was a second-round draft pick in 2017 and has been raking at AAA with a .310/.420/.714 slash and four bombs in his first 11 games.

 

WEDNESDAY'S STARS

Ohtani is Special

And people had doubts? Shohei Ohtani entered last night’s game with the Astros having lost two consecutive starts for the first time in his career. There were whispers that maybe he wasn’t the pitcher that many thought he was. Well, that was put to rest quickly as he only allowed one hit and one walk over six scoreless with 12 strikeouts. He was throwing a perfect game into the sixth and looked unhittable.
 

 

Cooperstown is Calling

One more to 3,000! Miguel Cabrera got hit #2,999 last night and he’ll be knocking on the door today at Comerica Park against the Yankees.

Here are some more interesting facts - Cabrera’s next hit will make him the 33rd member of the 3,000-hit club and a double would make him the third player in history with 3,000 hits, 500 homers and 600 doubles. Even crazier is that fact that Cabrera’s first career hit was a homer, as were hits 1,000 and 2,000. So no matter how he gets to 3,000, whether it be a single, double or home run - it will be special.
 

 

J-Ram Keeps Slamming

José Ramírez is en fuego. He is slashing .457/.500/.886 and leads the major leagues with 20 RBIs in 10 games. But it gets better - he smashed his second grand slam of the young season yesterday.
 

 

Freeman's Revenge

Freddie Freeman has made the revenge game narrative popular again. In his first at bat against his former team on Monday, Freeman went deep for his first longball as a Dodger. He didn’t wait long for his second home run, going yard off Charlie Morton in the first inning of yesterday’s series finale with the Braves.
 

 

Grab Me A Beer

If you read my DFS Playbook yesterday, you would know that I was a big fan of Seth Beer against the Nationals. The Diamondbacks rookie made a name for himself when he hit an opening day walk-off home run which was also National Beer Day.

Fast forward to last night and the rookie had another big game as he went 3-for-4 with three RBIs in an 11-2 win over Washington. He has now started five of the last six games and is slashing .438/.486/.625 with a team-high eight RBIs. 

 

A LOOK AHEAD TO THURSDAY

Whether you play season-long fantasy baseball or DFS, we have you covered at Fantasy Alarm. Here is a mini look at today’s slate:

  • Dylan Cease faces a tough Guardians offense but is the top overall arm of the day. The Guardians have the third-highest OPS and second-highest ISO against right-handers. Cease has only allowed one run and struck out exactly eight batters in each of his two starts. Something has to give here and I lean towards Cease.
  • Joe Ryan of the Twins is a nice pivot if you don’t want to pay up for Cease or even pair with him as an SP2 on DraftKings. He is my favorite sneaky pitcher of the day.
  • Other pitchers to consider are Paul Blackburn (Oakland), who has started off great in 2022 against a bad Orioles offense; Jordan Montgomery (New York Yankees), against a Tigers team that strikes out 28% against lefties; Carlos Carrasco (New York Mets), who has only allowed one run through his first two starts while striking out 13 and Zach Plesac (Cleveland), against a White Sox offense that continues to struggle against right-handers.
  • The top stacks to consider are the Yankees (who will be popular) and Nationals (facing a bad Zach Davies) while a sneaky stack could be low-rostered Mets who are facing Anthony DeSclafani and the Giants.