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Please see our player page for Luis Pena to see projections for today, the next 7 days and rest of season as well as stats and gamelogs designed with the fantasy baseball player in mind.

It’s been a long time since I’ve shared my own moves in this space. I know nobody cares about anyone else’s fantasy teams, but I figured a mid-season check in could give us a slightly fresh way to discuss the game. 

I traded Padres 2B Luis Arraez for Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt in a 20-team league a couple weeks back, so that’s been fun. Solid starters are rare there in the Highlander Dynasty Invitational, so . . . good thing I benched two-win Wrobleski for the only Schmidt start I got: a three-inning, four-run loss. I’ve been in fifth place for quite a while. It’s a weekly league, so it’s hard to hustle your way up the categories. I had acquired Arraez along with Drew Rasmussen for Luis Robert in something of a sad, sell-low moment considering I’d drafted Robert 7th overall when the league began. Now I’ve got nothing to show for that whole sequence. Well, I’ve got Rasmussen’s couple innings a week, and I’ll be happy to have him next year, but this has been a lesson in chasing innings. Just Don’t, is the lesson. I’ve figured that out in the daily leagues, but the weeklys make me feel stuck sometimes. Plus the rosters are only 40 deep and the Injured List holds only five. The IL thing is a constant irritation for me. I lost Luis Gil before the season got going and haven’t gotten an inning from Rhett Lowder. I’ve also got Justin Martinez, Anthony Santander, Christian Moore, and Alek Manoah. so I’m down to 39 spots. Doesn’t feel like it’s gonna be my year, but my offense leads the league in At Bats and is near the top in everything, so I can’t exactly tank.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

I’m rearranging the rankings this week, so I figured I’d highlight the players that are rising so fast it’s hard to place them.

10. Padres SS Leo De Vries

11. Brewers SS Jesus Made

12. Giants 1B Bryce Eldridge

It’s more than just attrition: these guys have locked in their place among the top ten prospects in baseball until proven otherwise.  

De Vries has a 132 wRC as an 18-year-old in High-A, which puts him on track to join the Double-A club this summer before he turns 19 in October? Sorry, that’s not a question. I just . . . it’s hard to put a period there. That means he’s 19 in Triple-A to open 2025 if everything just stays peachy keen? Short list. Wouldn’t find many failures on that one, I’d guess. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?

At the risk of overstating the reality, I’m happy to see the Zac Veen era is underway in Colorado. My bold predictions article says he’ll steal 40 bases this season, so that’s pretty much a lock at this point. Or perhaps he’ll be back in the minors a month from now. I’m betting against that, obviously. I think it’s more important for the organization to get Veen right than it is for them to, for example, get Jordan Beck right. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Reds OF Rece Hinds has splurted out of the big league gate like catsup that’s been sitting upside down on a warm summer’s day or a chocolate bar in the hands of a toddler on that same summer day. They’re having a picnic, maybe, and listening to the Cincinnati Reds game because this is the 1970’s in middle America we’re talking about now through the power of sentences. In that era, a guy like Rece Hinds might hang around on the strength of 30 home run thump with the sort of off-the-bus skills that played well in those days, but which I mean he looks good getting off the bus, or sitting on the plane, or taking batting practice on the field. It’s hard to predict how free swingers will react to advanced scouting, but everything we’ve seen so far suggests pitchers will figure out they don’t have to throw strikes against Hinds, and that’ll put the squeeze back in the bottle real quick, as the kids say. Hinds struck out 38.4 percent of the time in 77 Triple-A games this year in part because he can’t catch up to the high cheese, and he can’t lay off the sauce down and out. Ingest at your own risk. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?