White Sox 3B Munetaka Murakami would be my number one pick if we could re-roll the First-Year-Player Draft today. Nine home runs in his first 23 games is crazy talk. That’s almost a 50-homer pace across a full season. And the craziest part is that something close to that seems sustainable, at least to some extent. Murakami’s patient until he’s not. He’s early to recognise a pitch he should pounce and does exactly that. I wish I had him somewhere. My bad.
Athletics OF Carlos Cortes looks like a major league mainstay. Is he gonna be your hero, baby? Is he gonna take away the pain? I wouldn’t count on it. But for now, he makes the most of every pitch, tracking them deep into the box, spraying off-speed the other way to stay alive. I’ve had the eye on the guy for a long time, and it sure feels like this is his moment.
Mets OF Carson Benge might be able to blend in with a 31 wRC+ as a rookie on a winning team, but these Mets are not a winning team so far. In fact, you might call them a pretty high-profile failure after losing their 12th straight game on Tuesday night. Benge has three minor league options remaining, making him an easy button to push for anyone looking to tweak the lineup. Trouble is, nobody on the team’s hitting. Why blame the rookie?
I think Blue Jays RHP Louis Varland is the main guy moving forward. Jeff Hoffman looks cooked. I wish he weren’t. I have him several places because I tend to like the former high-end prospects escaping Colorado.
Bullpens all over the league are in disarray. We have to squint to see the ground from here. Cubs RHP Caleb Thielbar looks like the closer there until Daniel Palencia returns. Athletics RHP Joel Kuhnel has that spot secured for the time being. The Phillies could do anything with Jhoan Duran on the Injured List. Sounds like that’s exactly the plan in Los Angeles while Edwin Diaz recovers.
Tigers 3B Hao-Yu Lee might be in the majors mostly to hold space for OF Max Clark, but he’s a good enough hitter to make the most of this chance even if he wasn’t exactly cooking in his one-week Triple-A sample this season, slashing .154/.185/.269 through six games.
Even if Lee hits, I still won’t understand why Detroit hasn’t called OF Max Clark up to play center field. He’s slashing .351/.416/.519 with ten strikeouts and ten walks (11.2%) through 19 Triple-A games. 2026 is probably their final season with Skubal, right?. Gotta be Clark’s job soon, right? I dunno. Logic doesn’t count for much in America these days.
Dodgers C Dalton Rushing is making a run at Will Smith’s everyday job. On most teams, you’d just rotate at the designated hitter spot, but of course, the Dodgers aren’t most teams, so this is trending toward a 50/50 job share. Perhaps Smith will go back to his prospect days and bring a variety of gloves to the ballpark. Once upon a time, he could look comfortable at third base and left field, so it stands to reason he could relearn how to ride those bikes.
Giants 2B Luis Arraez is a solid defensive second baseman. Statcast says his range is in the 98th percentile this season. Pretty easy to see now why he held out for a chance to reestablish some value on that side of the ball. It feels a little silly in retrospect that a guy with some of the best hitting hands we’ve ever seen might struggle to surround a spicy grounder.
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Thoughts on Connor Prielipp? Must add?
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