Put Your Trust In Agustin

Marlins backstop slash heart throb Agustin Ramirez continued his impressive rookie campaign Friday night going three for five with his ninth and tenth home runs of the season, and now leads all rookies in bombs. This was an absolute shot that game in the first inning, and he added another 450-footer in the third inning just for funsies. He had been scuffling a bit over the past month, hitting just .219 over the past 30 days, but the power is still there. I gave you my Agustin Ramirez fantasy back at the end of April, and this is an unprecedented second lede I’ve given him this season. There is no precedent for this! I’ve never done it! But I need ya’ll to know how serious I am that AgRam is gonna be a star! Ha-cha-cha! The Marlins scored 11  runs with 17 hits in this one, so perhaps something was in the air, or perhaps, and stay with me on this one, Agustin’s power surge fueled his team’s bats? The kid is a leader! Catcher seems to be a stacked position in fantasy baseball these days, so I know your options are plentiful, but none of those options offer the power and swag that Augstin does. His rizz quotient is off the charts. And don’t get me started on his aura rating. The points have never been higher! Did I mention he plays basically every day in the heart of one of the worst lineups in the MLB? I mean that in a good way! He was slashing just .182./.200/.386 in June, but the super slugger broke an 0-for-18 slump with the first inning bomb, and the hits kept coming. He joined Pete Crow-Armstrong, Elly De La Cruz, and Tyler Soderstrom in an elite club of players under 23 with multiple multi-homer games, and he’s looking like a clear front runner for the NL rookie of the year. He’s obviously going to have his slumps as rookies are wont to do, but if this is the start of another streak, I’d want him everywhere while the weather heats up with his bat. With his power and opportunity, he could easily be a top 10 catcher rest of season. St. Agustin is Miami’s new patron saint of long balls, and he’s a bona fide star in the making. Marlins beisbol! Get hooked! Bless him!

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

James Wood – 3-for-5, 3 runs, HR (17), 4 RBI, slashing .287/.377/.548. Speaking of bona fide stars in the making there are few stars brighter than J-Dubs. Nats had 16 hits and 9 runs but none of them were bigger than this one. We all got wood for Wood, especially when he does that, 450 to the moon! Hammer that Wood JW! I think he hates that baseball. Also, he’s on pace for a 40-20 season with 110 RBI. No one in league has a higher HardHit% since the start of May. If there’s a knock on Wood its the high ground ball rate, but he hits the ball so stinkin’ hard it sometimes doesn’t matter. And all that means to me is he’s probably going to get even better when he figures out his launch angle and stops hitting so many balls on the dirt. Sky is the limit if he starts hitting everything in the sky but he’s a top five pick next year and he’s just 22 years old, folks. Yes, you should be excited.

Edward Cabrera – 3.0 IP, 2 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. So blame it on the rain if you want but he was pulled before the delay and this is now back-to-back weeks he was pulled with less than 70 pitches and I just can’t be having that when I’m trying to win imaginary beisbol games.

Calvin Faucher – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, K, SV (6). He’s the Marlins closer, which is at the very least better than the Rockies closer. Right?

Paul Skenes – 5.0 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, ERA at 1.78. Skenes stifled a scary Cubs lineup, but they did get him to throw 95 pitches in five innings, forcing him from the game early. The Bucs actually ended up winning this game in extras, giving them almost a winning record in Skenesies starts. Can I call him Skenesies? Seems right. Almost a winning record is actually a losing record, like Paul’s own 4-6 record. He’s allowed only four runs over his past seven starts (46.2 IP) with just one win to show for it. Nice baseball team you got there, Pittsburgh.

David Bednar – 1.0 IP, SV (10). That’s nine straight scoreless appearances for wet the Bednar, with a 13/0 K/BB, six saves, and a win in that stretch. Yes, please, and more of that, thank you. DB was actually sent down to the minors in April, he was so bad, but nothing a little time in the doghouse can’t fix. If that was the wrong side of the Bednar, this must be the right side of the Bednar. He should be a popular trade deadline target.

Cade Horton – 5.2 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, BB, 4 K, ERA at 3.41 ERA. The important information here is he outlasted Paul Skenes. Does this mean Livvy Dunne is Cade’s girlfriend now? How does that work?

Ranger Suarez – 7.0 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, BB, 6 K, 5th win. Ranger Danger is right! No surging team is safe. Ranger has more or less been one of the most dominant pitchers in the league since his shaky debut, where he gave up 7 ER to Arizona. Since then, he’s surrendered just six earned runs in 46.2 IP, with four scoreless appearances and five wins in that stretch! Five wins! I started seven different pitchers last night and got zero wins! Don’t look now, Zack Wheeler, but Ranger and his 2.32 ERA, and 1.07 WHIP are coming for your Ace status. Ranger looks like the Cy Young contender we thought he could be last season, and while he’s had a soft schedule, it gets even softer next week Miami on the slate. Giddy up!

Kevin Gausman – 5.0 IP, 4 hits, 4 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, 5th L. KG’s outing was ruined by a bad second inning where he gave up two walks and two extra base hits, one of which was a Schwarbomb. Outside of THAT though, he allowed just three base runners. Too bad we can pick and choose the innings.

Kyle Schwarber – 1-for-4, 3-run HR (22). Death. Taxes. And Kyle Schwarber hitting bombs in June. According to stat muse, Schwarbs has 63 career homers in the month of June, in 192 games. And just for fun, Aaron Judge has 51 homers in 150 June games and Shohei Ohtani has 56 homers in 146 June games. Seems like June is just THAT month.

Alejandro Kirk – 2-for-4. He was a BUY, and he’s hitting .522 with two homers in the past week with four straight multi-hit games! He’s firmly entrenched in the heart of the Jays lineup, what are you waiting for? He’s half off at the Kirk store! They’re running out of him!

Riley Greene – 2-for-5, HR (14), 4 RBI, slashing .279/.334/.498. He sent this ball yard, but also had a three-run double in the 6th. His 48 RBIs are top 10 in all of baseball. I know no one is scared of the Tigers lineup but maybe we should be?

Gleyber Torres – 2-for-4, 2 HR (7), 3 RBI. The best is this home run call for Gleyber in the first inning, where the broadcaster calls out his lack of power. He Torres the cover off that one, Mr. Broadcaster. Gleyber has been everything Detroit wanted Javy Baez to be in his first season with the Tigers.

Javier Baez – 3-for-4, 3 runs, HR (7), 2 RBI. Speaking of Javy Time, can you believe he’s slashing .284/.314/.443? Me neither! He hasn’t had this good a start to the season since 2019! He tends to get insanely hot for stretches, and this could be the start of one of those with back to back multi-hit games. Pick him up if you hate yourself.

Elly De La Cruz – 3-for-5, HR (14), 2 RBI. That’s back to back games with bombs for EDLC, this one 110 mph off the bat! Elly seems like he’s having a slow start, but outside of the steals, he’s on pace to best most of his 2024 numbers. When you look at where Gunnar and BWJ are at as far as shortstops go, you’re doing alright.

Clay Holmes – 5.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, 2 BB, 3 K, ERA at 2.87. Holmes was pulled from this one after just 79 pitches, perhaps Mr. Manager was trying to conserve the arm of a guy who has never pitched so many innings in his career. But the move backfired as the Mets pen immediately surrendered 6 ER. The thing about Clay is you can mold him into whatever you need. Closer? Starter? We don’t care, just keep rocking those delicious ratios.

Taj Bradley – 4.0 IP, 4 hits, 5 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 5 K. This was a tough assignment, even though Rays are a wagon right now. He was pulled in the fourth after loading the bases. All the runs against him were unearned, despite one of the errors being his own. You’d think if the pitcher owns the error the runs should be charged to him, but let’s not get into that right now. Taj gets the O’s next week, and I’m back in for that start.

Jonathan Aranda – 3-for-4, HR (8). Absolute moonshot heard Aranda world! Leads all AL first basemen in batting average. Dude could start the all star game! Is that crazy? I feel like that’s crazy, but he has as many homers as Vlad and more than Goldschmidt! Torkelson and Soderstrom are options, but they don’t have the BA of JA.

Bryce Elder – 3.1 IP, 7 hits, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K. Stream-O-Nator loooved this start. They absolutely gushed about it to anyone who would listen. Well, that’s why you can’t always trust robots. If we put too much faith in the machines and AI, they could ultimately teach themselves to overtake humankind. Someone should really make a movie about this.

German Marquez – 5.0 IP, 6 hits, ER, BB, 7 K. Bullpen gave up 11 runs and blew Marquez’s chance at his third win. Talk about a schadenfreude, German. The seven Ks were a season high. He’s got a 3.54 ERA over his past five starts, and I’ve heard some chirps he could be a possible deadline target. This is insane, not just because it could completely change his career trajectory going forward, but because he can never leave Colorado because he’s an absolute legend there. Ask Rockies fan(s) who the best pitcher in Rox history is and they will struggle for several minutes before ultimately offering up German or possibly Ubaldo Jiminez as an answer. I’m saying Marquez is one of the best pitchers in Colorado Rockies history. Sad but true!

Ryan McMahon – 3-for-4, HR (9), 3 RBI. I mentioned last week that there is nothing better to bust a player out of a slump than playing me in head to head fantasy. Ryan broke a 22 game homerless drought this week and is hitting .500 in the past week with three bombs including this one, which, if it was hit in Denver would still be sailing. My team makes Ryan McMahon look like Ryan Howard. Happy to be of service.

Michael Harris II – 2-for-4, HR (6). Marcell Ozuna also homered (11). Three run bomb-o in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game! If that doesn’t get you so hyppppe you need to lay off the CBD pen it’s making you comatose, sir.

Ronald Acuna Jr. – 3-for-4, 2 runs, SB (1). Los Bravos scored 11 runs (ELEVEN) with 15 hits the highlight of which was of course Ronnie’s first stolen base of the year. It’s hard to be upset with the lack of speed, it was just his first attempt in 20 games (he stole 73 in 2024), when he’s doing literally everything else i.e. hitting .478 in the past week with two homers. He’s on pace for 53 home runs and close to 100 RBI despite leading off and missing more than a month of the season! Oh and the 1.124 OPS! You really are the Tildaddy! Happy Father’s Day!

Dylan Lee – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, K. Was in line for the save opp but the Braves scored five in the bottom of the eighth. He still looks like he would-have-been the guy and might be worth the BUY. Buy with caution, however, Raisiel Iglesias had a mostly clean hold, and methinks the job is still his to win back if he can.

Josh H. Smith – 2-for-3, 3 runs, HR (7). The H must stand for home run! That’s why Jesus’ SLG% was so high. Josh is batting .417 with two homers in the past week and is somehow available in over 80% of leagues. He leads off for what has been a sputtering offense, but they have scored 46 runs in their past six games, though we mostly have the Twinks to thank for that.

Robert Garcia – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, 0 ER, 2 BB, K, SV (5). BUY. The three base runners don’t exactly inspire confidence, but when Mr. Manager Bochy picks a guy he goes with him until he absolutely cannot justify the decision to go with him any longer.

Luis Severino – 7.2 IP, 6 hits, ER, 2 BB, K, 2nd win. I had a handful of starters going yesterday across multiple leagues (I won’t say how many) and none of them made it through four innings, but Severino put on a master clas,s generating weak contact all night. Just the lone strikeout and a paltry 19% CSW, but hey, he got the dub. That’s showbiz, baby!

Mason Miller – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, 3 ER, 2 BB, K, ERA at 5.55 ERA. Me heading out of my draft with Mason Miller, Tanner Scott, and Justin Martinez thinking I’ve built one of the greatest pens in fantasy history. I am made in the shade, I said to myself. Shade indeed. It is a very dark time for me.

Maikel Garcia – 3-for-4, SB (14), slashing .309/.372/.478. “I was all-in on Maikel last year!” I shout at the top of my lungs in the hospital lobby as the attendants restrain me, tighten the straps on my straight jacket and wheel me back to my room.

Chris Paddack – 4.0 IP, 12 hits, 8 ER, BB, K. Sigh. I hate all the things that you choose to be. Grey said Monday, “If you pick him up, he will have the worst start you’ve ever seen, but if you don’t, my opponent will keep picking him up and getting great starts. So, what do you do, hot shot?” You picked him up didn’t you? Noooo. You can definitely drop him now.

Colton Gordon – 6.0 IP, 6 hits, 2 ER, BB, 5 K, 2nd win. Should you take the reins and tame this Colton? In a time where Misiorowski is throwing 103 mph heaters 10+ times a game and CoGo can barely touch 92 its nice to see a pitcher get by with pinpoint precision and command. He’s not going to strike out 10 a games, but he’s also not going to get pulled in the fourth, or walk four batters a game or blow out his elbow. I like it! He gets a rough match up in Sacramende next week, though, and 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!

Royce Lewis – 2-for-4, HR (2), slashing .194/.275/.296. His first home run since May 18th, and it was a shotski, but of course, he got injured in ninth after legging out a single. Did not look great either. He is the Byron Buxton of a new era. Eventually, he’s going to put it all together and stay healthy a decade after everyone forgot he existed.

Jeremy Pena – 4-for-5, 2 runs, RBI. JP hits all the baseballs! He’s slashing a beautiful .333/.386/.498 and if Jacob Wilson weren’t a thing he’d be a lock to start the all star game. He’s outperforming Bobby Witt and Gunnar, who both were drafted about 50 picks before Pena. He’s been a big part of the Stros surge, who’ve won 14 of their last 20 games, and I might be premature here, but are the Astros, kind of, sort of, a wagon, ya’ll?

Jose Altuve – 2-for-4, HR (10), 3 RBI. This home run was juuuuust in reach. I’m sure Jose hears that a lot! Speaking of all stars, second base is so bad Altuve might squeak in by default. I’ll still go with Gleyber for now!

Freddy Peralta – 6.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, BB, 6 K, 6th win, ERA at 2.60 ERA. Are we scared of what the Brewers are doing with their pitching staff, because we probably should be.

Corbin Carroll – 1-for-4, 2 runs, HR (20). The CC HR and it’s A-OK! It took him almost 150 games to get to 20 homers last year and 94 in his rookie campaign. He’s on pace for over 60 homers! Sweet sassy molassy! Meanwhile, Josh Naylor, who is twice Corbin’s size, hit his ninth homer.

Logan Webb – 7.0 IP, 2 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 6th win. Oh what a tangled Webb Logan weaves, and even Dodgers bats it deceives. I think we’re under appreciating how good Logan’s been. The 2.58 ERA and 1.12 are amongst the league best, and the 105/20 K/BB makes me want to get one of those permanent gold anklets with his initials on it like a good millennial.

Willy Adames – 1-for-5, HR (8). It’s hard to identify buy low targets sometimes but with three homers in his last four games (including this one) and a disappointing .204/.289/.346 slash, Willy seems like a good one.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto – 4.2 IP, 6 hits, 5 ER, 5 BB, 4 K. Couldn’t find the strike zone and outside of shutting down the Cards last week June has not been kind to Yoshi. Maybe he’s hiding an injury? I say that because every pitcher on the Dodgers is injured so it’s just the most logical first question to ask.

Teoscar Hernandez – 2-for-2, HR (12). Uncle Oscar says Father’s day is for suckers!

Casey Schmitt – 1-for-3, Grand Slam HR (2). A modest four game hitting streak with two home runs, including this monster. Watch him watch his home run and if possible, send me a video of you watching Casey watching his own home run. It was pretty I’ll give him that.

Charlie Morton – 5.0 IP, 5 hits, 0 ER, BB, 10 K, 3rd win. Joined the list of over 40s with 10+ K games. A list that includes Randy Johnson, Clemens and Nolan Ryan. Most impressive is Morton is not the least impressive on the list. That would probably be the legendary Dick Mountain Rich Hill. Back to C-Morts, he’s been alternating good and bad starts in June, so I would avoid the Rays in Tampa next week, but he’s still got it somewhat, every so often!

Ryan O’Hearn – 2-for-4, HR (10). Ramon Laureano also homered (8). But more importantly, both have more homers than Gunnar Henderson.

Carlos Narvaez – 1-for-3, RBI. Absolute hero-ball from Narvaez who walks it off in the bottom of the 10th against the team who traded him away for scraps. Narv-dog has been one of the more pleasant surprises of the Red Sox surprisingly unpleasant season to date, and of all the hot-shot rookies and uber prospects in Boston’s line up right now, Carlos has been the most impressive. And it’s not that close.

Garrett Crochet – 8.1 IP, 4 hits, ER, BB, 7 K. Crochet was two outs from the first complete game and/or shutout of his career, and all that was standing in his way was the reigning MVP. A towering man to be fair. He had struck out Judge in all three of his previous at bats and struck him out in seven straight plate appearances prior to this at-bat, but you know where this is going…Is the drama palpable, friends? Because IMO this was one of the best at bats of the year! Crochet was throwing 100 mph gas to Judge 107 pitches into this one. That’s an Ace! Well, you can only fool the best right handed hitter in baseball seven times in a row, apparently, because on the eighth try he hit a 115 mph game-tying home run over the green monster. The dinger was his league leading 26th of the year, and his 6.0 fWAR is two full points higher than the next closest guy. Carlos Narvaez said it was the “best pitcher in baseball versus the best hitter in baseball” and he’s not exactly wrong. The entire sequence was thrilling, every fan was on their feet, and we might have ourselves a rivalry again again, sport fans!

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!