Riley Greene is Detroit’s best prospect, and since his call-up, he’s been atop the lineup pretty much every game. While he’s only hitting .245 through his first 113 plate appearances, he’s doing so with a .345 OBP while maintaining an improved 23.9% K% (which is lower than most of his minor league career) and improving his BB% (13.3%, up from his typical 11% MiLB average). The one thing that’s been missing in his profile is some power, as he only had one meager HR in his career while sporting a .082 ISO. More power is coming, though, as evidenced by his 10% Barrel% (3% higher than MLB average) and his HardHit% is almost 43%, which is 7% better than league average.
Notice in the above paragraph I used the word “had” in reference to his home run total, because here comes the power. Greene went 2-5 last night with a homer and a 2-run, bases-loaded double to power the Tigers offense. I’m an admitted Tigers homer but this isn’t blue-and-orange-striped glasses I’m wearing over here–Greene is going to hit, and he’s going to hit for impact.
Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Harold Castro – 3-for-4, 2B, RBI. Hitting .280 on the year, but with only four HRs and 19 RBI. He’s like Yandy Diaz, except without the great organization, ownership, and muscles. Call him Handy Castro.
Josh Naylor – 0-for-2, 2 RBI. Those are Naylor’s 46th RBI on the year, and he’s also chipped in 12 HRs and a .500 SLG. He’s been as valuable on the Player Rater as Castellanos, and I’m not sure who that says more about at this point in the season.
Owen Miller – 1-for-2, 3B. When Cleveland’s Miller got to 3rd base on his triple, he found Ohio State football coach Ryan Day already standing there. Miller told Day he didn’t even know Day was in the lineup today, and Day responded with “I was born here.” #goblue
Andres Gimenez – 2-for-3, RBI. Gimenez stays hot, batting over .450 the last seven days, but I also wanted to point out he’s at 10 HRs/7 SBs right now while carrying a nearly .300 AVG (.299). You could be doing a whole lot worse from your middle infield position.
Sandy Alcantara – 8 IP (L), 12 Ks, 2 ER, ERA at 1.76. Alcantara is *so* good. Unfortunately for him, Miami is without all that Jazz (Chisholm) and their only other hitting sparkplug (Jon Berti) just went on the IL. That’s how Sandy can be dominant and still lose to this next guy.
Kyle Gibson – 6 IP (W), 5 Ks, 1 ER, ERA at 4.35. Gibson is dealing with his own lineup woes without Bryce Harper’s impact bat, but at least he can count on 8 Ks from his top three hitters (four from Schwarber, three from Castellanos, and one from Hoskins) to really set the table for him and give him some breathing room.
J.T. Realmuto – 3-for-4, 2B, RBI. The Phils had five hits, and J.T. had three of them. Last night’s Phillies starting lineup’s hitter with the best season AVG? Casty, hitting .251. And they *still* beat Sandy’s gem!
Alek Manoah – 7 IP (W), 1 ER, 6 Ks. He was my pitcher lede in my DFS article yesterday, and he did exactly what you needed/expected him to do vs. the Royals V-lineup (vaxxed lineup).
Matt Chapman – 3-for-4, HR (15), 3 RBI. Chat Mapman’s (my daughter’s nickname for him) days hitting for reasonable average are behind him, but 15 HRs and 45 RBI at this point of the season, along with the ninth-best UZR at 3B, must have the Jays thrilled with him so far.
Teoscar Hernandez – 2-for-4, HR (12), 3 RBI. The box score says Hernandez homered off of Grienke, but Chapman homered off Hernandez. Did…did Toronto give KC Teoscar for a few innings because of a lack of active players? That’s some serious Little League “all time pitcher” shizz right there. Props to the homey for taking care of his normal teammates, I guess.
Adam Duvall – 3-for-5, HR (12), 2B. Duvall hit his HR off of new Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan, so things are going just about as they should in that shitsuation.
Matt Olson – 3-for-5, 3 singles, 3 RBI. I hear there are establishments in ATL that really enjoy when you bring singles, but your fantasy owners are looking for something a little more high-dollar from you, Olson.
Austin Riley – 1-for-5, HR (26), 2 RBI. Always reminds me of one of the most annoying commercial jingles–the O’Reilly auto parts commercial. Aus-Aus-Aus-tin Rileyyyyyyyyyyy, hits ‘em far (YOW!).
Josh Bell – 3-for-4, two 2Bs, hitting .305. “Hey Alex Cora, if I change my walk-up music to ‘I’m Shipping Up To Boston’ will you convince your higher-ups to trade for me in a couple of weeks?”
Juan Soto – 0-for-2, three BBs, hitting .247. The KC Royals V-lineup may provide more protection for Soto than the actual Nats lineup gives him after Bell is almost surely traded.
Trey Mancini – 3-for-5, HR (9), hitting .285. The O’s are kind of fascinating right now. Mancini is in the final year of his contract and should be prime trade bait, but Baltimore is only 2.5 games out of the Wild Card. A lot can happen in the couple of weeks leading up to the trade deadline, but the O’s performance is one of the biggest storylines to follow in my opinion.
Ramon Urias – 2-for-4, 2 HR (9), 3 RBI, batting .250. A double-helping of taters gets you a blurb.
Brooks Raley – 1 IP, save (6). Raley is one of four members of the Tampa Bay bullpen with eight save opportunities, and his six saves ties him for the team lead with Collin Poche, but Poche doesn’t have the dominating stats that Raley does (39:9 K:BB, sub-1.00 WHIP). But it’s the Rays, so keep your coin ready to see if it lands on Raley next time.
Aroldis Chapman – 1IP, 1 ER, HR allowed. Pitched the 7th inning and gave up a HR to Bobby Dalbec. No reason for Clay Holmes to stress his neck looking over his shoulder at this time.
Rafael Devers – 1-for-5, HR (26), 2 RBI, hitting .326. Devers is seventh overall on the Player Rater; he’s so, so good. Jordan Montgomery dreamed of striking him out the night before, then apologized to him before the game for dream-disrespecting the hit gawd that Raffy is.
Giancarlo Stanton – 2-for-5, HR (24), 3 RBI. Stanton welcomed Nathan Eovaldi back from the IL by taking him oppo in the 3rd inning. In an article for The Athletic back in June, Eno Sarris provided data that opposite field HRs are down by 45% (almost half) from the juiced ball year of 2019. I can imagine Giancarlo reading that, smirking, laughing that deep, baritone laugh of his, then deciding to bring that stat back up to even on his own.
Robbie Ray – 6.2 IP (W), 3 ER, 12 Ks, ERA at 3.54. Robbie threw 74 of his 106 pitches for strikes, which I guess you’ll probably do when you get a dozen punchies. He also was victimized by a couple of HRs, but when you send that many guys on a slow walk back to the dugout and don’t walk anybody, you’ll live with the two longballs.
Julio Rodriguez – 2-for-5, HR (16, grand slam), 5 RBI. How early is too early to draft this guy next year? Top 10? Top 7?
Corey Seager – 1-for-4, HR (22), RBI. This is Seager’s 6th HR in his last 28 ABs. If he keeps this up, he may be the best baseball player in his family someday.
Leody Taveras – 2-for-4, HR (3), 2 RBI, hitting .346. Taveras has tantalized before and had plenty of opportunities at the major league level, but has never produced like this. Is this for real, or is he just a stick-tease? Grey, take it–it’s yours. Unless you’ve used it before, in which case, consider this my attribution.
Tim Anderson – 2-for-5, HR (6), RBI. He’s batting .312, which is classic Anderson, but boy is the rest of his profile underwhelming this year.
Adam Engel – 1-for-3, HR (2), 3 RBI. Replaced Luis Robert when LouBob left the game due to lightheadedness. I’m mostly including this blurb because my best buddy Masher, a die-hard White Sox fan, sent me a gigantic text consisting of many all-capped words absolutely furious that it’s the 7th inning of a close, divisional game and Engel is up in a key AB instead of a stud like Robert, with his own ridiculous guesses as to why Robert was lightheaded in the first place, and he said “God I loathe these Sox”…and boom goes the Engel for the three-run job. You fool, Masher. You deserve LaRussa. Oh yeah, hope Robert is good to go today.
Michael Kopech – 5 IP (W), 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 Ks, ERA at 3.36. The good news is Kopech recovered velocity in this game, routinely getting over 95 mph, with a couple of pitches reaching 96.7 and 96.8. The bad news is his Statcast page is still bluer than Eiffel 65.
Skye Bolt – 3-for-4, HR (2), 3 RBI. Bolt had a couple of singles early in the game, then faced Seth Martinez in the 9th inning. Martinez, you got ZAPPED. Can we make that a thing? Or is Bolt probably not good enough to have a thing? You’re right, he’s probably not good enough to have a thing.
Jose Urquidy – 6 IP (L), 3 ER, 9 Ks, ERA at 4.09. Urquidy got BABIP death by a thousand A’s dinks and dunks, as six different A’s only got one hit in this one. He threw 71 of his 97 pitches for strikes and didn’t walk anybody, so this was just one of those nights where he probably deserved a little better.
Hunter Greene – 5 IP (L), 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 Ks, ERA at 5.78. Greene needed over 100 pitches to get through his five innings. Walks and a HR to Nolan Gorman (9th of the year) were again the bugaboo for Greene, and strikeouts and 102 mph fastballs aside, you may wanna go Hunter elsewhere for some actual quality innings.
Brendan Donovan – 2-for-3, 3 RBI. Donovan knocked in three runs without the benefit of an extra base hit. His triple slash is .286/.391/.390, but Tommy Edman and his .257/.319/.377 gets the everyday leadoff spot. I guess Goldschmidt and Arenado like the challenge of driving in runners that aren’t on base. I’m looking at you, Tommy Edman and Dylan Carlson.
German Marquez – 6.2 IP (W), 2 ER, 4 Ks, 0 BB, ERA at 5.47. I don’t care if he was facing the Pirates: if you started him here, congrats on the decision, and I’ll Venmo you some money to buy you custom underwear for your absolute grapefruits.
Brendan Rodgers – 2-for-5, 2B, HR (9), 4 RBI. The box score says he and C.J. Cron (21) both hit homers off of D. Peters in the 7th innings. I’m assuming his first name is Dick, but I also don’t want to find out for sure and feel silly for laughing for the last 8 minutes.
Clayton Kershaw – 8 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.13. Took a no-hit bid into the 8th, before giving up a single. Been an absolute privilege as a baseball fan being alive to see Kershaw’s career.
Will Smith – 4-for-4 (stutterer!), 2B, 3 runs, 1 RBI. To get into the zone of focus before this game, Smith chanted “The ball is Chris Rock, the ball is Chris Rock” over and over.
Justin Turner – 3-for-5, 4 RBI (51). The Dodgers scored nine runs last night without the help of any home runs. Turner’s power days look to be in the past, but he can still produce just enough to keep Miguel Vargas in the minors.
Yu Darvish – 7 IP (W), 3 ER, 9 K, ERA at 3.41. Darvish was allowed to go 114 pitches last night to secure his 8th win, as I suppose the Dads figured he’d get plenty of rest after this start with the All Star Break and, even if his arm did fall off, a week+ is plenty of time to find a new one.
Ketel Marte – 3-for-4, HR (8), 2 runs, 1 RBI. A shot of Ketel is the way to kick off a weekend. Then you realize you’ve only gotten 8 shots of Ketel since baseball season started, and you kinda yawn at how impotent the stuff is.
Christian Walker – 1-for-4, HR (22), 2 RBI, batting .206. We’ll see analyst pieces all summer that continue to talk about all of the underlying metrics that say Walker should be hitting so much better than he is, and then the season will end and he’ll still be hitting .206.
Alex Wood – 4.2 IP (ND), 0 BB, 7 Ks, 0 ER (3 unearned runs), ERA at 4.20. Ticker shock! Wood didn’t last long (said my grandpa) (why are he and I talking about that? Weird.) but he’s certainly back on track. In his last 12 IP, he’s given up zero runs, has a 15:1 K:BB ratio, and a 0.69 WHIP. Great, now we’re going to talk about Wood some more.
Brandon Woodruff – 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 Ks, 5 BBs, ERA at 3.93. More walks than Ks? And we’re still talking about Wood(ruff) in this blurb too. Make it stop!
Austin Slater – 4-for-5, 1 R. Slater would’ve buckled down for that 5th hit in his 5th AB but he was running late to big brother A.C.’s big wrestling match against Valley’s top guy. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but Slater’s going to win.
Josh Hader – 0.1 IP, 5 hits, 6 ER, 3 HRs allowed, ERA at 4.50. All I can hear in my head is the “Press Your Luck” Whammy noise right now. What a box score line. Hader had a 2.73 ERA heading into yesterday’s game, but Mike Yastrzemski’s grand slam (9th HR) walked-off the Giants and erased a half-season’s worth of ERA goodness from him for your fantasy squads. Still Ks everybody and has given you a ton of saves, so no reason to panic, but certainly didn’t need to see the Whammy come across your screen and wipe the ERA off of your board.
