Chicago Cyclist Tristan Peters, Spins To Win

Chicago cyclist spins to win Friday night as the A’s wheels come off. White Sox outfielder slash rookie slash heartthrob slash former professional Banana baller Tristan Peters discovered a newfound love for cycling Friday night going 4-for-4 hitting for the cycle, and adding four RBI in a historic performance that was central to his team’s 14-1 drumming of the Athletics. Tristan started things off with an RBI single in the first inning to break this one open, then Peters added a 2-run shot in the seventh sending this ball to Neverland. Batting around in the seventh, and a triple away from the cycle, TP slapped one down the first base line and put on the jets as the crowd roared. Have a day rook! You’ve come a long way from Banana ball, and you earned that sombrero. It was the first cycle for a White Sox player since Jose Abreu did it in 2017, and only the fifth time a player has done it from the 9-hole in ever! Peters has a very respectable .303/.357/.484 slash, and despite his strict platoon, he could be useful in deeper AL-Only leagues. The rook is hitting .444/.464/.852 in July with two homers and a 1.316 OPS! Tristan was mic’d up early on in this game and made it his mission to put on a show for the South Side faithful, and as a former Savannah Banana there’s no doubt he’s got experience putting on a show, and there’s even less doubt now that he belongs in the show.

Here’s what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night:

Sean Burke – 7.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, 9 K, 6th win. Burkey has allowed just one run in four of his last five starts and is sporting a pristine 2.50 ERA, 1.17 WHIP with a 48/10 K/BB over the past month. We talk a lot about this spunky White Sox lineup, but it’s the starting rotation that has enabled them to be truly competitive (see Nats, Washington). S/O David Martin and even Anthony Kay too, you’re the reason they’re in first place, slightly above .500. Man, the AL is really garbage, huh? Regardless, Burke has been the standout Ace this team has needed and has a 30 K% over the past two months. He’s also walked 0 (zero!) batters over his past two starts, striking out 20! Sweet sassy molassy!

Miguel Vargas – 3-for-4, 2 runs, HR (21), 3 RBI. Varg-Bomb! Sox put up a 14 spot on the A’s after scoring just two runs total versus Boston. That sweep struck a nerve I guess. Also, take a gander at Miguel Vargas’ baseball savant page. He’s basically Mike Trout now.

Munetaka Murakami – 1-for-5, run, RBI. Samurai sword a little rusty but got on the board with an RBI double in the seventh and now he’s coming for Okamoto-san.

Jack Flaherty – 6.0 IP, 2 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 3rd win. Well, if you thought Flaherty was washed after a disastrous May that featured five losses and a 6.26 ERA then you don’t know Jack. He always gets hot right around deadline time, so some poor team will bite, and he’s currently rocking a 1.54 ERA in July after a 2.50 ERA in June, and he’s allowed just four runs over his past four starts and just seven since the start of June! Are we sure the Tigers should be selling?

Aaron Nola – 5.0 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K. Rostering Aaron these days is like a night out in NOLA, sure there might be some good times you just don’t know how it’s going to end, but someone is probably crying by the end of the night. But hey free beads!

Kevin McGonigle – 1-for-5, HR (8), .286/.395/.426. Looks like the easy ROY favorite. Watch this ball soar with Chad Smith in the booth! Give it away now! That’s as many homers as Colt Keith (8) and 3 more than Tatis! McGonigle is that slacker, wise-cracking detective that doesn’t play by the rules and he’s always pissing off the Chief for not going by the book. McGonigle! But in reality, no one is more devoted to the case, and he will find that missing girl. Of all the rookies that got paid before proving themselves, Kevin got paid the most. Does Detroit know something we don’t? McGonigle has reached base multiple times 53 times this year, the most for any rookie since 1933! Maybe we know exactly what they know. This kid’s gonna be a star! Ha-cha-cha!

Spencer Torkelson – 1-for-4, HR (16), 2 RBI. Only mentioning SpenTor cause he goes on homer binges and he just hit one on Wednesday, so one might be starting now, but since the break that ruins everything, so you have two days to ride this bingey.

Brandon Young – 7.0 IP, 8 hits, 3 ER, BB, 5 K. His stats are spectacularly mid but surprisingly not awful: 7-2, 3.42 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 67/31 K/BB. I roster a lot of players over the course of the year, but I haven’t once thought of streaming Young, but after seeing that line, perhaps I should reconsider? I could see considering the prospect of maybe thinking about mulling over the possibility of contemplating whether or not I should review the option of potentially picking him up. I still don’t know for sure, though!

Andrew Kittredge – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, K, SV (3). I thought all the Brits left the country by now. It doesn’t get more British sounding than Kittredge, right? Maybe Nigel Beansontoast? Also, is soccer still going on? I destroyed my TV in rage after Christian Pulisic embarrassed the entire country. I’m so over it and also mad that I got roped into it again. Their flopping makes SGA look like a victim. It’s hard to watch when you’re not winning.  Anyway, Kittredge has saves on back to back days after Tyler Wells did the same thing last week? Will it be Rico Garcia next? I don’t know!

Jac Caglianone – 2-for-4, HR (15). Could Cags be getting hot again after breaking out and then going absolutely ice cold like Carm’s eggplant parm left out overnight? Hopefully, with Vinnie P. coming back soon the Royals can save some face, just in time for feast season. Salud!

Samuel Basallo – 1-for-4, HR (15), 2 RBI. Seriously, if they weren’t already completely out of it, they flip Basallo for Skubal and Jake Rogers. This might be intriguing if their star player Gunnar Henderson wasn’t terrible at baseball now.

Hunter Greene – 7.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, BB, 12 K, 1st win. Well hello! It’s been a while, didya miss me? Because oh boy did we miss you. I’m sorry I started you last week fresh off the IL, that wasn’t cool, I was just eager, is all. A start like this, 14 whiffs, against the division rival Cubs at GABP? Statement start. That’s how you knock off the rust! Can confirm, unlike Gunnar, Hunter Greene is still good at baseball. There are few better 1-2 punches than Greene/Burns if this is what we can expect from Hunter in the second half.

Shota Imanaga – 5.0 IP, 7 hits, ER, BB, 5 K, 8th L. His ERA is finally starting to settle in nicely at 4.17, and that’s right around where he belongs I think. Which is a sigh of a relief for me, I can relax. He can’t hurt me anymore.

Elly De La Cruz – 2-for-5, 2 runs, HR (15). Elly of the Cross can be the most exciting player in the league if he feels like it but we haven’t seen much of that guy in 2026 as he’s been battling injuries. Well, he’s slashing .286/.390/.543 this month and he’s got two bombs in the past week including this one (wait for the dab at the end) and there are just a few players who hit the [expletive deleted] out of a baseball as hard as EDLC. I want to call the Reds a wagon so bad you guys, but we’re not there just yet.

Sandy Alcantara – 7.0 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 8 K, 5th L. Sandy ain’t so Cheeks! Sub-4 ERA and a 100/33 K/BB. That’ll do! How about those Marlins? Now have I mentioned I think the Fish possibly, maybe, feasibly, potentially, conceivably, perchance, could be a wagon, y’all!? I’ve been saying it for years (weeks). Fightin’ Fish! Marlins Baseball. Get Hooked!

Parker Messick – 6.0 IP, 1 hit, ER, 4 BB, K, 8th win. The Guardians are so good at what they do it’s unreal. But as long as they got Messi, what more do you need? Messi about to make the Swiss wish they chose a side. This was not the best outing for Parker but it didn’t matter. He heads into the break with 8 wins, and 2.73 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 110/36 K/BB. Waiver wire gems don’t get much better than that!

Cade Smith – 1.0 IP, SV (28), ERA at 2.70 ERA. Leads the league in saves by three. Bryan Baker has 25. This is a team who rostered pretty much the best closer in baseball BEFORE Cade Smith replaced him. The Guards don’t miss a beat, this is what I’m talking about. Brad Pitt should make a movie about this front office.

Heriberto Hernandez – 1-for-3, HR (13). I feel like whenever I look at the Fish box score he’s always homering. Get Hooked!

Chase DeLauter – 2-for-4, HR (10), 2 RBI, slashing .282/.347/.447. Although he’s missed time with injury, I think Chase has as much of a case for ROY honors as that wise-cracking McGonigle! Maybe Chase just needs to be DeLouder. 430 foot moonshots is a good start! His third home run in the past five and he’s hitting over .400 in the past week!

Nick Martinez – 5.1 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, BB, K, 8th win. One strikeout? What am I supposed to do with this? My opps started Hunter Greene and Mis and I’m rolling out Messick and N-Mart for two combined strikeouts. This cannot–oh, sorry, I almost didn’t see your 2.61 ERA there. It’s so tiny. Carry on.

Luis Castillo – 5.0 IP, 9 hits, 4 ER, BB, 4 K, ERA at 4.93. What happened to the piggy backing? Was that just like a complete lie? Luis Luis having an uncharacteristically poor year so far, maybe a change of scenery helps both sides here?

Junior Caminero – 2-for-4, 2 runs, HR (28), 2 RBI. For those of you who get sapped of strength and energy when JuCamRo or JC or Killer Cam homers (nickname is still being workshopped), you had a nice four day reprieve where he went 0-for-15. But that was short-lived, he prefers hitting homers I guess, and he was right back to it with the oppo fieldo shot-o Friday and has now homered on back-to-back days, and is two bombs from a 30 piece before the break. I think back to that commenter who was worried he was struggling and wonder why I couldn’t have struggling players like this.

Cedric Mullins – 1-for-4, HR (11). He was a BUY and average is really just one category, you guys. No reason to hone in on that, there’s literally nine others.

Victor Mesa Jr. – 3-for-4, HR (5), SB (3). The slam & legs in Tampa is served St. Pete style, that’s tapioca pudding, soft boiled eggs and a lukewarm sanka, nothing too offensive for the digestive tract. Wouldn’t want that! Victor has now homered in two of his past three games and is hitting .429 in the past week!

Cole Young – 1-for-3, HR (11). Hey, another BUY, and hey! What did I tell you about the batting average. There are so many other glorious categories to behold! Cole’s average ain’t all that bad either, and he’s been kinda hot with four homers over the past two weeks.

Sonny Gray – 6.0 IP, 5 hits, ER, BB, 3 K, 11th win. It’s not all blue skies for Sonny, who will miss the All Star game (at the time of writing this) despite a 2.54 ERA, 1.10 WHIP. It’s the lowest qualifying ERA for a pitcher that didn’t make the All Star team. What in the Cristopher Sanchez kind of BS is this? What’s most impressive about Gray’s season to me is he’s managed 11 wins (ELEVEN) on this terrible Boston team that’s still four games under .500. He’s responsible for a quarter of their wins.

Nolan McLean – 6.0 IP, 5 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 6th loss, ERA at 3.52. He hasn’t been the breakout ace you probably thought when drafting him as high as you did but he hasn’t been as bad as some of the Mets have been. Somewhere a Kodai Senga drafter is mocking fantasy football drafts right now.

Anthony Seigler – 2-for-5, 2 runs, HR (2), 2 RBI. He’s leading off for this Red Sox team that’s showing life right before the All Star break, which is not nothing. I’m guessing they’re going to sweep the Mets? Which would be nine in a row heading into the break? The hottest team in the MLB, I guess. Is it that the good teams are limping into the break and the Red Sox take advantage? Boston won 10 in a row going into last year’s break before completely falling apart end of July into August. I’m guessing it’s gonna go something like that, but hey, leadoff Seigler!

Wilyer Abreu – 3-for-4, 2 runs, HR (10), 2 RBI. Most baseball experts predicted the Red Sox would not have a single 20 home run hitter this year and if it weren’t for Willson Contreras refusing to be a big fat loser on a team of big fat losers they may have been correct.

Brett Baty – 3-for-4, HR (4). He’s hitting .357 with the homer and two steals in the past week. He’s also hit safely in the past 10 games. Read the room, Brett!

Hunter Brown – 6.0 IP, 4 hits, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 K. Got “outdueled” by Cal Quantrill  6.0 IP, 5 hits, ER, BB, K and Brown doesn’t look right but that is technically a quality start so maybe we should just ignore it and go about our day? I don’t need this right now. I can worry about Hunter Brown after the break.

Yordan Alvarez – 2-for-4, HR (30). Here’s a Yordo shoto for 450 for 30 for 200! Two homers for our, boy, our Captain. Don’t get too emotional. That also leads the league, the American League but, it’s a league. We all drafted him, right? So everyone’s happy and no one has serious FOMO right now?

Jake Burger 1-for-4, HR (16), 4 RBI. The much anticipated matchup of Burger vs. King and it ended how you’d expect, a flame broiled whopper!

Wyatt Langford – 1-for-3, 2 runs, HR (9). He can’t stay healthy, sure, but when he does play, watch out! He’s got six homers in his last 11 games started. I wish he was still hurt so I could maybe draft him next year when he’s fully healthy. Odds are good he could get hurt again I suppose. But one of these years he’s gonna put it all together, then we got a Yordan Alvarez on our hands, no? Byron Buxton would also like a word.

Grayson Rodriguez – 5.1 IP, 6 hits, 3 ER, BB, 0 K, 3rd win, ERA at 7.55 ERA. Yeesh. Only the Angels, boy. These aren’t the players you should be taking risks on Mr. Angels General Manager. You should be signing as sure-things as money can buy, there’s no room for lottery tickets in Anaheim. Gray-Rod completely abandoned his off-speed pitches, and managed just one whiff from his fastball/changeup combo. It was still somehow enough to beat the Twins. Pick him up if you hate yourself.

Kirby Yates – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, SV (3). He was a BUY and he’s been surprisingly solid with a 3.00 ERA. I wouldn’t anticipate many save opportunities, and he’s probably going to blow at least as many as he converts, but hey, he seems to be their guy when they’re there!

Vaughn Grissom – 2-for-3, HR (5), 2 RBI. Now, based on my previous two blurbs I think I’ve made it clear I would never, ever compliment the Angels on a job well done for anything baseball related. If they can somehow trade Mike Trout I will give them their flowers, but I will also point out that Grissom is batting .450/.455/.650 in July with a 1.105 OPS.

Shane Bieber – 4.2 IP, 6 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. Baby, baby, baby, oh no, baby. Okay, so not all the starters I drafted and held for two months panned out.

Kazuma Okamoto – 1-for-3, HR (22), 3 RBI. The Kazuma zoom-a! The 22 dongs ties Ohtani’s record for most home runs by a Japanese rookie. I’m just going to draft all the Japanese players next year.

Chris Sale – 3.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, BB, 5 K. This game had a long rain delay, don’t let that take the wind out of your Sale.

Eduardo Rodriguez – 6.0 IP, 7 hits, 2 ER, BB, 5 K, 8th win, ERA at 2.29 ERA. That’s All-Star Ed-Rod, to you, sir. Put some respect on that name. It’s his first ever All-Star appearance which is kind of hard to believe, but not that hard.

Tim Tawa – 3-for-4, HR (2), 4 RBI, slashing .187/.279/.307. Sure you lose Pavin Smith but at the cost of every day playing time for Tim Tawa.

Shohei Ohtani – 1-for-4, HR (21). Had his knee drained so he couldn’t pitch, he said from the pitching slot on my roster as he hits a home run from my bench. Hmm interesting. Having a knee drained sounds p serious and lowkey disgusting, but healthy enough to play and hit and homer, but not healthy enough to All Star? Like half the audience of this game is there to watch you. Make it make sense to me, Shohei?

Andy Pages – 3-for-4, HR (17). He went back-to-back with Shohei which is something if I ever did I would never shut up about it. Literally, would never stop talking about it and I would be insufferable, and boring, and rude and you may dislike me a lot, but you also didn’t go back-to-back with Ohtani like I did in this scenario.

Rafael Devers – 3-for-3, HR (19), 3 RBI. As far as struggling players who scuffled to begin the year, Rafael has upped his .253/.321/.487 slash to respectable levels. Giants fans rip him but he’s almost exactly the same player they traded for and well on his way to basically identical stats to 2025. Rafael De’livers!

Kyle Karros – 3-for-5, 2 RBI. He was a BUY and he’s hitting .296 with two homers in the past week, and one of those homers was on the road! That works! KK!

Robbie Ray – 5.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, 6 BB, 4 K. Robbie was lucky to escape this one with the line he has and the bullpen came in to clean up a bases loaded jam he got himself into. He leads the league in walks, and I think he did last year too. Even following a successful string of four straight wins the potential for him to get bombed looms with every start. Maybe he should loosen his pants a bit just to try it out?

Antonio Senzatela – 1.0 IP, K, 9th win. Tony is coming for you Aaron Ashby! Two can play this game. That’s more wins than almost all the Yankees and Dodgers starters.

Caleb Kilian – 0.0 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, BB, BS (3). Kilian Mbappe with an impressive closing effort that would make Jordan Romano blush. Speaking of, Jordan Romano then entered the game for his hold-my-beer watch how a closer closes moment (0.2 IP, 1 hit, ER, 3 BB, HOLD), to show Caleb how it’s done but Juan Mejia ended up notching the final out for his fourth save. I really can’t believe Jordan Romano (7.71 ERA), of the Locatelli Pecorino Romano has been given another chance to be shredded in the most volatile pitching destination in the entire MLB. There is really no better, younger, more promising, adjective, option in your entire org, Rockies? Bravo to Mr. General Manager. Shameful stuff!

Ryan Weathers – 5.1 IP, 6 hits, ER, 6 K. The Nationals are the best team in the league against lefties and with Weathers being one of the league’s most sporadic lefties I figured starting him here was a no-brainer. The old me would have benched him, but I have nothing left to lose at this point. I kid cause I love, he’s been more than serviceable and way better than his 3-7 record would have you believe. What’s funny is, not this incoming fact but, I roster him for the win potential being on the Yankees and he’s mostly failed at that.

Ben Rice – 1-for-4, HR (29). Rice Bowled it! His seventh home run in the past 10 games, and you better believe I’m playing him in H2H this week. He’s got five home runs this week alone with 10 RBI! Imagine rostering a player with 29 home runs? I can’t even imagine it at this point. When I close my eyes all I see is Gunnar Henderson.

Jasson Dominguez – 2-for-4, HR (5). Aaaaand the Yanks are hot again? That was a pretty brutal stretch highlighted by some of the worst defense I’ve ever seen from one Jasson Dominguez. Still, his ownership numbers seem shockingly low for a guy that was once both highly touted and a top prospect and hits in the heart of what remains a stacked lineup in a hitter friendly park. He’s slashing .346/.393/.615 with two homers and a steal over the past week, I can’t blame you for not believing but this is all I have at this point.

James Wood – 3-for-5, HR (26). I have a league where the first place guy has James Wood and literally hasn’t made a move in two months. This is a highly competitive league where most of the top teams have over 75 moves at this point, but not this guy. He just sits back and lets Wood carry him, and wouldn’t you know it. He does. Not sure how Wood is not the most valuable fantasy player to date, considering he probably went in late second or third round at the earliest. He’s slashing .391/.588/1.087 (!!) in the past seven days, with four home runs, two steals and 11 runs scored. If that doesn’t give you Wood, how about this: J-Dub’s 87 runs scored is 22 runs more than the next closest guy, he also leads the league in walks and is top five in OPS and OBP. Wood now alert and standing at attention. Now imagine what this team could do with an Ace and a bullpen.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. – 1-for-4, HR (13), 2 RBI. When the unstoppable force that is the Nats bullpen (they literally can’t stop anyone) meets the immovable object that is Jazz Chisholm’s ego (only 37 more to 50). Fireworks! Absolute Cinema!

Thanks for reading! Questions? Problems? Complaints to management? Advice, small gifts or large bribes? Please leave it in the comments below. Join us next Saturday for another Friday recap as fantasy baseball continues next week, all week long!