Now the baseball Gods have gone too far. Carlos Correa was my AL MVP pick for this year, my biggest keeper in my main league and one of my few reasons for joy so far this fantasy season. 6-8 weeks is his time table and since it is a torn ligament and not a broken bone he probably won’t have that super-human Freddie Freeman healing time frame. August 29th is the earliest we might see Correa take the field again in real life, but he’ll be playing SS and hitting HRs every night in my dreams. Stash or Trash: Stash. Unless you’re in a 2-team league. In which case, what the hell is wrong with you? Fill In: I grabbed Jose Reyes (18.3%) because I’ve lost control of my life. Since the beginning of July, Reyes has a .405 AVG with 3 HR but only 1 SB. If he’s figured something out he might find eventually himself hitting higher than 7th in the Mets lineup. More likely though, I’ll be cycling short stops in an out until August 29th.
Aaron Altherr, OF, Strained Hamstring
A-A-ron was one of the biggest fantasy surprises of the first-half of 2017. After only hitting .212 in his first 340 big league at-bats expectations couldn’t have been any lower. But a slash line of .288/.359/.539 for an undrafted player isn’t bad. Stash or Trash: It’s too early to guess on how long Double-A will be out, but I think it is safe to predict at least 2 weeks. The most unfortunate thing is that Altherr has 20+ stolen base potential, but this hamstring injury might make him a bit more cautious. Stash him until we hear more. Fill In: With so many outfield injuries this week I’m going to make all my outfield fill in recommendations at the bottom of this article.
Byron Buxton, OF, Groin Strain
Name a more disappointing player than Byron Buxton over his first 3 professional seasons, I’ll wait. I think we all got excited about the minor league potential that we overlooked the warts. Not every #1 prospect needs to get called up right away. Hopefully Buxton can serve as the pace car for future patience with prospects. Stash or Trash: Trash. .218 average, a handful of stolen bases and not much else. Fill In: With so many outfield injuries this week I’m going to make all my outfield fill in recommendations at the bottom of this article.
Tyler Chatwood, SP, Strained Calf
It’s time for my favorite game to play with Rockies starting pitchers — “What’s Their Splits?!” Chatwood in his away game starts: 3.75 ERA. Chatwood at home: 6.14 ERA. Gulp. Stash or Trash: You can safely trash Chatwood. Can’t find any reports on his length of stay at the DL hotel, but I could see him missing 3 to 4 starts. Fill In: Where the hell does Matt Garza (9.7%) get off having an ERA below 4.00? His cumulative ERA the last 2 years has been 5.18. It’s a contract year for Garza and being that he’s only 33 you can tell this dude is digging deep to get paid. Over his last 4 starts he’s thrown 22.1 innings and only allowed 6 ER. His next start comes against the (29th in runs scored) Phillies who should be trying to rebuild with young prospects, but instead are saying they want to acquire Christian Yelich and Giancarlo Stanton. Who is running this team? James Dolan?
Lonnie Chisenhall, OF, Strained Calf
Lonnie is the perfect example of a prospect taking a few years to be productive. In his first 577 major league games The Chiz hasn’t really done much of anything. While this year’s 29 run, 12 HR, 51 RBI, .305 AVG line doesn’t pop completely off the page he has been a nice 4th OF in deeper or AL-only leagues. Stash or Trash: If you’re in a league that size I can see him being a fine stash. And he was placed on the DL on July 10th so he could be back as early as tomorrow. Trash in smaller leagues. Fill In: With so many outfield injuries this week I’m going to make all my outfield fill in recommendations at the bottom of this article.
Randal Grichuk, OF, Strained Lower Back
This DL stint was backdated to July 10th so he’ll be back tomorrow. Stash or Trash: Trash. Grichuk is too unreliable to be trusted. Since his last minor league sojurn he has 56 ABs with 5 HR, but with a .196 AVG. Fill In: With so many outfield injuries this week I’m going to make all my outfield fill in recommendations at the bottom of this article.
Michael Pineda, SP, Tommy John Surgery
The guy everyone tries to make their deep sleeper ace was letting you down again this year. His fantasy owners must’ve felt like they were riding Coney Island’s Cyclone roller coaster with his up-and-down starts. June 2nd vs Toronto: 5 IP/5 ER; June 8th vs. Red Sox: 7 IP/0 ER; June 14th vs. Angels: 6 IP/5 ER; June 20th vs. Angels: 5.2 IP/1 ER; June 25th vs. Rangers: 4 IP/7 ER; June 30th vs Astros: 6 IP/2 ER; July 5th vs Blue Jays: 3 IP/ 5 ER. Stash or Trash: Trash. Hard and fast. Fill In: Now, where the hell does RA Dickey (18.0%) get off having (almost) an ERA under 4.00? Over the last 30 days you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better pitcher than lil Dickey. He’s made 5 starts, throwing 33 innings with a 1.09 ERA and 27 K’s. He’s faced some formidable offenses in those 5 starts as well with the Diamondbacks, Nationals and HR-hitting Brewers in there. If that knuckleball is dancing in Atlanta against the Cubs you might be too late to take a grab at this Dickey.
Stephen Piscotty, OF, Strained Groin
Piscotty does seem like a prude so it’s no surprise that he only suffered a mild groin strain. Wild man Bryce Harper probably would’ve torn his groin wide open! Piscotty is set to return July 25th. Stash or Trash: There must be an ancient Native American burial ground beneath the Cardinals outfield grass this year. Piscotty, Grichuk and Dexter Fowler have all been disappointments and have all spent time on the disabled list. If you have better options, this might be a safe time to cut ties with Piscotty. Fill In: With so many outfield injuries this week I’m going to make all my outfield fill in recommendations at the bottom of this article.
Hunter Renfroe, OF, Strained Neck
Renfroe probably injured himself swinging through one of his 95 strikeouts. Stash or Trash: Trash him at this point. While a 34/16/39/3/.231 line isn’t fantastic, the power isn’t terrible for the 25-year-old rookie’s inaugural season. That being said there is probably better options out there. Hopefully Renfroe pulls an Aaron Judge this off-season. Fill In: With so many outfield injuries this week I’m going to make all my outfield fill in recommendations at the bottom of this article.
Joe Ross, SP, Tommy John Surgery
Mama Ross is going to get sick of having her son’s crashing on her couch. Get a job! After brother Tyson Ross missed all of 2016 with Thoracic Outlet Surgery, now, Joe is going to miss a lot of time after undergoing the dreaded Tommy John surgery. Stash or Trash: Trash. Sorry Mama Ross. Fill In: Brent Suter (17.2%.) I don’t want to recommend Suter. He just looks and sounds like a guy who you don’t want on your team. I expected him to have terrible minor league stats that don’t match his current minor league numbers, however, he has a 3.44 ERA and 1.29 WHIP in 609.1 minor league innings. And those numbers have somewhat translated to success over his previous three starts: 17 IP, 15 K’s, 2.12 ERA. Eventually you have to believe that people are going to start teeing off on his 86.1 MPH fastball, but for now you can ride the hot hand especially with Suter’s next start coming against those same Phillies I trashed earlier in this article.
Outfield Recommendations:
Gerardo Parra (13.3%.) With injuries all over the Rockies outfield and now with quotes from Rockies manager Bud Black saying that David Dahl might not be back at all this season Parra has a shot at stealing some at-bats. In July he has 28 at-bats with 7 runs, 2 HR, 11 RBI and a .464 AVG. He’s been batting 4th behind Charlie Blackmon, DJ LeMahieu and Nolan Arenado and if that trend continues, he could be rolling in the RBI.
Jason Heyward (16.3%) has been hitting pretty well post-All-Star break. He had 3 straight 2-hit games including a HR, a SB, 6 RBI and 5 runs. He’s capable of hitting 20 HR. He’s capable of stealing 20 bases. He’s always been chock full of potential and if he can somehow finally cash in he could help push you into the playoffs.
Odubel Herrera (32.7%.) After a seemingly out of nowhere 15 HR/ 25 SB/ .286 AVG year in 2016, Herrera’s ADP ballooned up to 138. Unfortunately for those that took a shot on him Odubel was a bust over the first 2 months of the season. He only had 3 HR, 4 SB and a .218 average. At that point, you probably dropped or traded him. However, he has rewarded patient owners who have stuck with him providing 19 runs, 5 HR, 19 RBI, only 1 SB, but a much better .311 AVG since June 1st. Now, if Odubel can get that 4.9% walk rate back up to last year’s 9.6% he’ll only continue to reward those patient owners.
