Welcome back to Perception Vs. Reality. These last few weeks have been absolutely brutal when it comes to injuries to baseball’s young stars. Shohei Ohtani won’t pitch again this season, which is really unfortunate because he was a ton of fun to watch pitch for a couple of months. Our player rater leader, Mookie Betts, was taken off of the disabled list on Monday and is being brought along cautiously with playing time. Ronald Acuna Jr. might start a rehab assignment this upcoming weekend, but he has certainly been missed the last few weeks. But a fantasy playa gotta play. Let’s see if I can help you out at all and lets take a look at the player rater.
First Base and Outfield
Jose Martinez – Martinez has been on an absolute tear in the month of June. Just in his past five games going into Tuesday, he has 10 hits and 5 of them have left the yard. He is hitting .531 (!!!) for the month of June and his OBP is almost at the .400 mark for the season and he is hitting well over .300 for the year. Jose Martinez was going late in most drafts, if he was even drafted at all. Although there were some analysts, even a few here at Razzball, who couldn’t contain their excitement about the late bloomer. Jose Martinez has made his way up to the 53rd spot on the player rater for the season. It’s hard to see him being held outside of the top 50 for too much longer if he is able to keep this pace up.
Second Base
Scooter Gennett– After an incredible month of May, in which Gennett hit .398 and went yard 8 times, you still can’t slow this man down. In June, he his hitting .324 going into Tuesday night’s action, bringing his season average to .340. It seem’s like his 27 home runs from last season was not a fluke at all and he might hit 30 this season. Gennett has gone from a hitter that hit in the .260s just a couple of seasons ago to someone you know has a great shot at finishing in the .300 area. Gennett currently sits at number 19 on the player rater.
Jose Altuve – Of course, the best fantasy second baseman (that still regularly plays second base) is slightly ahead of Gennett. It is a bit of a surprise to me considering there has been a lack of counting stats from Altuve this season compared to season’s past. Altuve seems to be heating up in June and he’s hitting .371 for the month and has stolen four bases through the first 11 days. Altuve has 6 straight seasons with at least 30 stolen bases so there’s a great chance of history ending up repeating itself when it is all said and done. But, he has some work to do if he’s going to have his third straight season with at least 24 home runs. Altuve is still sitting pretty at #16 on the player rater.
First Base
Paul Goldschmidt – The time for buying low on Paul Goldschmidt abruptly came to an end last week. After an abysmal month of May that saw Goldschmidt his .144 for the Month, Goldschmidt had a back to back games in Colorado that saw him hit multiple home runs. Goldschmidt is hitting .463 for the month of June and seems to be back on track to be one of the premiere fantasy first basemen. He has worked his way all the way back up to #66 on the player rater.
Outfield
Leonys Martin– Leonys Martin is one of the unsung heroes of the waiver wire so far this season. He’s so unsung, in fact, that he is only 28% owned in ESPN leagues. Martin has crept his way into the top 100 on the player rater and currently sits at #94. May was kind of a fall off from a pretty good April and saw Martin hit .237 for the month. He has bounced back rather nicely this month with 3 home runs and a .289 average in the month of June. He seems to be getting more aggressive on the base paths as well. 3 of his 5 steals for the season have happened in the first 11 days of June.
