Kiké It Up A Notch

Bam! Enrique Hernandez had two hits including his 11th home run of the season Friday night and has been hotter than twin Black Widows since returning to the lead off spot. You heard that correctly, friends, there is another Black Widow and she’s just as hot, and smart and badass as the first. As for Enrique, the home run was Kiké’s fifth out of the lead off spot and his fourth lead off home run in the past two weeks! Time to Kiké it into high gear! Hernandez struggled at the top of the order in May and early June but has found his groove since return to the #1 spot responding big with a .288 batting average, 9 runs, 11 RBI, and five dingers in the past two weeks! I know what you’re thinking–Enrique Hernandez? Is this guy for real? We all know what Kiké Hernandez is at this point, a career .240 hitter with very little speed who’s never hit more than 21 bombs in a season. He’s a clubhouse guy, a utility player, a swiss army knife for sure, but not a fantasy stud, right? Yeah you right, and Dodgers fans are rolling their eyes at me so hard right now, but hear me out! He’s leading off for possibly a top three offense in baseball and was basically headhunted by Sawx Manager Alex Cora. Cora loves himself a good swiss army knife, and Kiké is the guy he’s wanted leading off since day 1, despite his struggles and despite much more desirable, and likeable and handsome (*cough Verdugo*) options available. The impending arrival of top prospect Jarren Duran also puts Hernandez’s future as the lead off man even more in doubt, but he’s currently one of the hottest hitters in the league and scoring runs for one of the best teams in baseball. I’m not saying he won’t come back down to Earth, but I am saying he could be worth adding while he’s at least pretending to be the leadoff hitter Alex Cora always dreamed of. And as long as he has studs like JD Martinez (2-for-3, HR (18), 4 RBI) and Rafael Devers (1-for-3, HR(22)) driving him in he doesn’t have to do much but get on base and could help Kiké start your offense in the second half!

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

Triston McKenzie – 7.0 IP, 1 hit, 0 ER, BB, 9 K. News flash! This Trist-on! Do you see what I did there? I swear it worked in my head! I like me some Trist McK?KK?KK?Kenzie, and he was on my pre-season sleeper list so I’m trying to view his season struggles in a positive light. Also, the “?”s are supposed to be backwards Ks but wordpress doesn’t recognize unicode and I’m not a racist. Anyway, I’ve gotten to add/drop Triston 5-7 times at this point. How lucky is that! And this was probably his best start of the year, even though the Royals are not very good at hitting baseballs. He’s likely to get Houston in his first start back after the break, so I might hold off grabbing him but I’ll be watching him closer than the Loki season finale, in that I have to pause and rewind multiple times so I’m 100% sure I still know what’s going on, but I know I’m rooting for the alligator.

Emmanuel Clase – 1.0 IP 2 hits, ER, K. James Karinchak – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, 2 K, W. Clase closed! Wait–no! Clase pitched the 8th, and did a pretty shoddy job at it too, after blowing the save chance last time out. Not only was Karinchek the planned 9th inning man, but Clase blew his chance at redeeming himself after Monday’s blown save, too. Methinks this isn’t much of a committee after the break and Karinchak runs away with the job, but Clase’s 1.72 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 41/14 K/BB are still real nice. Maybe don’t drop just yet!

Bobby Bradley – 1-for-3, walk of HR (10). Bobby B! B is for BUY! I’ve been sweating him for about a month now–and he’s basically Grey’s new favorite player. If you watched him hit one of his trademark Bobby Bombs you’d want to own him, too.

Brad Keller – 7.2 IP, 4 hits, ER, 4 BB, 9 K. Take out the starts versus Boston and NYY and B-Rad has had an impressive June. Ooh, um, better get rid of that Detroit start too–oops, and the Angels outing def shouldn’t be there. Hmm, guy owned the AL Central though!

Patrick Wisdom – 2-for-5, HR (12), 2 RBI. It doesn’t require any wisdom to get some Wisdom. Just an index clicking finger. He’s hitting .270 with two bombs in the past two weeks. Are you wise enough to see you need him to do better before you add him?

Kyle Hendricks – 6.1 IP, 7 hits, 2 ER, BB, K, 11th win. Oh hey! The Cubs won again. But I thought the whole point of the game was just an exhibition of all the trade pieces they have. For the record, Kris Bryant–not injured and has a perfectly reasonable 18 million a year dollar contract.

Charlie Morton – 7.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 8th win. Well, he turned it around quickly. Is he the best pitcher on the Braves staff yet? I think he is. He’s got 8 wins with a 3.64 ERA, which is real nice considering that number was 5+ in mid-May.

Freddie Freeman – 1-for-3, HR (18). Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley and Dansby Swanson added two hits a piece. Freddie’s first homer in like two weeks! I’d be frustrated with his first half, but he’s probably going to win my league for me in the second half.

Jake Odorizzi – 6.0 IP, 7 hits, 2 ER, 4 K. Now I know to go to Houston if I need to revitalize my career. *cough cough* I’m looking at you, James Harden! Maybe take a page from, Jake! H-Town is where its at.

DJ LeMahieu – 2-for-5, 2 RBI, SB (3). An Astros/Yankees game with no home runs!? BORING!

Trevor Larnach – 1-for-4, run, RBI. If you’re still asleep from previous blurb then Larnach is perfect for you–he’s got two homers and 7 RBI in the past week for this yawnstipating Twinkies line up. He’s also batting third. Most importantly, he’s outperformed Kirilloff in the battle of which rookie outfield will win our hearts.

Wade Miley – 8.0 IP, 7 hits, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 7th win. Wade To Go! It seems like only yesterday I was writing about his no hitter, kidding myself into thinking I could convince anyone to pick him up. FAST FORWARD–Wade has gone 6+ innings in six straight starts and since a rough outing at Coors about a month ago has only allowed 2 ER in a start once. His 2.80 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 76/26 K/BB makes me wish I took him more seriously back in May!

Heath Hembree – 10. IP, 0 ER, 3 K, SV (5). BUY. “He’s the Reds closer!” If I had a database of all the words I’ve written on RB this year I’d love to see how many times I typed that. Over or under 5? Regardless Heath seems to be doing well so far, with five saves in July already! What are you waiting for? It’s a closer that might not kill your ratios–I said might not!

Eric Lauer – 6.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, 4 BB, 3 K. All the pitchers the Brewers training staff touches turn to gold, the secret is they are sapping all the power from the hitters. Eric has three straight 6 IP QSs against some pretty bad offenses, but I’d give him a look next time out!

Jace Peterson – 2-for-4. BUY. He is a hot little potato right now. In Milwaukee they’d probably cover him in cheese and sour cream. No chives! Too green. He’s hitting .381 with 2 homers and 2 steals in the past two weeks. Grab him while he’s hot–you’ve got two days before the break and all these streaks are irrelevant.

Willy Adames – 2-for-3. BUY. More like A-daaaaamn-es! Willy’s batting .352 with five bombs, 13 runs and 12 RBI in the past two weeks. If he’s available in your league he shouldn’t be.

Cole Irvin – 5.0 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, 5 K. Cole was better than the line looks in this one, taking a shutout into the sixth. He could get the Mariners after the break, which could be a good reason to pick him up now!

Alek Manoah – 3.2 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 K. The More You Manoah! If this is the worst I can expect out of my rookie pitcher I’m all in on those Ks and I’m throwing him parades when he pitches 6 innings. Alek’s 52/15 K/BB in 42 innings makes me want to start planning our house together for next season. He likes an open concept while I prefer more traditional rooms–but I will make a compromise if it means more strikeouts.

Shane McClanahan – 4.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, 3 BB, 5 K. Speaking of starters I’m going to own next year, Shane-O-Mac isn’t exactly “I want to buy a house with you material” yet but he’s getting there! This start was against the Blue Jays so I’m still looking at his 71/21 K/BB all googly eyed emoji. He should get a date with the Orioles after the break which is always a good chance to pad the stats and should be owned in more places at this point.

Wander Franco – 0-for-5, 4 K. Meanwhile Taylor Walls was 2-for-4, run, 2 RBI. Aren’t you glad you held him on your bench for two months?

Taijuan Walker – 5.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K. Taijuan made in Queens! Fuggedahabout it! That was my impression of someone from Queens. “You call this bagel hot!?” That was another one. Walker was selected to his first All Star game as a reserve, which makes me feel all tingly and nice because I’ve been streaming him for 5+ years now and he’s finally made it.

Jonathan Villar – 2-for-4, 2 HR (8). Villar of Greatness! You know you almost got a Villar lede but I spared you because there’s only so many times I can tell you to pick up a guy who could go 20/20 before I just do it myself.

Francisco Lindor – 1-for-3, Grand Slam HR (10). Pete Alonso also hit a go-ahead 3-run bomb. Do I think Lindor could come alive after the break and carry the Mets to the postseason with a huge second half? Yes. Do I think he will? No.

John Nogowski – 3-for-4, RBI. Someone’s got to get ABs for the Pirates. Pick him up if you hate yourself.

Brandon Nimmo – 2-for-4,  2 runs, 2 RBI. Nimmo is a whole lot of average and not much else, but if he leads off for a Mets team that should, in theory, score lots of runs, he could be worth a look.

Garrett Richards – 5.0 IP, 7 hits, 3 ER, BB, 4 K, 5th win. His first win in over a month and like the rest of us Garrett is counting the days until Chris Sale is ready to join the rotation and he can just collect his pay check and not worry about his spin rate so much anymore.

Dallas Keuchel – 7.0 IP, 7 hits, ER, BB, 3 K, 7th win. I know we all want to White Sox to trade for another Ace or make Michael Kopech a starter but Keuchel’s been fine and ain’t going anywhere.

Andrew Vaughn – 3-for-5, run. BUY. He was a buy and along with Gavin Sheets (1-for-3, 2 runs, HR (3)) who is hitting .273 with 3 bombs since his call up. Both of these guys needs to pick it up in a big way to fend off the impending arrival of Eloy Jiminez, but I’d take a chance on any of the three as the White Sox should be primed for a huge second half offensively. Now if I could just get Luis Robert back I’d be set.

Logan Webb – 3.0 IP, 1 hit, 0 ER, 4 K. Impressive return from the IL even if he only went 3 IP. I wish all my starters were on the Giants at this point. Webb should ramp up that pitch count after the break and I could see adding him based on his appearance in the Black Widow post-credits scene alone. No spoilers!

Tres Barrera – 2-for-3, 2 RBI. Talk about an amazing name! In Spanish it translates to “Three Doorstep.” Wow! Three doorstep is right! Yan Gomes left with an injury and if he’s expected to miss time, Barrera might be worth the add for you catcher crazy fools out there.

David Price – 3.0 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, BB, 3 K. As a Dodgers fan I’m less OK with Price’s three-inning opener “role” given his contract and given Trevor Bauer may not pitch again this year, but I would expect him to go deeper next time out. He’s definitely worth the add if he’s hanging out on the waiver wire, and as annoying as he is, he’s considerably less insufferable than Bauer.

Eduardo Escobar – 2-for-4, HR (20), 2 RBI. He’s already got three homers in July. Someone hasn’t told Eduardo the DBacks are throwing.

Mitch Haniger – 2-for-4, Grand Slam HR (20). Being the best hitter on the Mariners is like being the least awful human on Gossip Girl. It’s got to be someone–I guess, Blair isn’t so bad when she’s not scheming. She schemes cause she loves.

Alex Cobb – 5.1 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K. He’s the only Angels starter I’d own, and tbqhwy you should probably stick to streaming him.

Joakim Soria – 1.0 IP, K, SV (3). BUY. I’m honestly shocked at how long it took for Arizona to make Soria the closer. I thought bad teams always went with the guy with experience. Soria’s got XP in spades. In spades, I tells ya! He hasn’t given up a run since becoming the closer and has three saves in the span! Yes, you should add him!

David Fletcher – 3-for-5, HR (1). Fletch has a 22 game hitting streak and is hitting .427 during that stretch. He hit his first home run of the year last night. That’s right–OF THE YEAR. Shohei must look at David with disgust.

Shohei Ohtani – 1-for-4, HR (33). How can I gush anymore about Brohei Brohtani. At this point you know what he’s doing is unreal, historic, unprecedented, and hasn’t been witnessed since that guy who’s in that movie about the kids with the big dog and the baseball. He’s got the lightning bat speed of Ichiro combined with an ultra-violent swing that hits everything in or out of the zone like Vladimir Guerrero, Sr. Every bomb is a moonshot. I heard a broadcaster say the home run derby will be a coming out party for Shohei, as if “the world” is watching the derby. I would say 33 bombs in the first half is a coming out party–I don’t need to see him win an exhibition of lobbed baseballs to know he’s the best player in the league right now. He’s got 16 home runs in the past month (that’s Schwarber-eqsue!) and has a real shot at 60 on the year. But that broadcaster whose name I don’t remember is right, its going to take a home run derby win for “the world” to take him seriously. And as someone with a minor to serious gambling problem depending on who you ask I can tell you that Ohtani at a +300 is ez money! Let’s make it happen, Sho-time! Daddy needs a new Ohtani All Star game jersey!

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!