As is the on-trend thing to do this season, Mike Yastrzemski joined the 3-homer club Friday night smashing three long balls in one night including his 16th of the season, a go-ahead solo shot in the 11th inning. The three-dinger-day!?! Yaz queeen! That kind of feat is something his hall-of-fame grandfather Carl, who will ALWAYS be mentioned whenever Mike does anything of note, only accomplished once in 3,308 career games. But this is 2019. We have Monster energy drinks and super baseballs and over 15 players who have had a 3-homer games this season alone. Friday’s Giants/DBacks match up was a perfect illustration of this with both team’s combining to hit 12 home runs. Just the second time two teams have combined to hit this many homers. Kevin Pillar had his own double-dinger day, hitting his 16th and 17th of the year, the second a go-ahead in the 10th. But the Snakes countered with homers from Wilmer Flores (his second of the game) and Nick Ahmed to tie it up before Yaz’s game-winner. Brandon Belt, Ketel Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Adam Jones also chipped in their own bombs. Yeah so, basically, everyone was dinging dongs Friday night at Chase. Still, Mike Yasztremski deserves his credit, and his credit is due. The hat-trick is a special thing and he’s now rocking 5 homers and a .333 average in the past week. His .272/.324/.548 slash is nothing to sneeze at and he’s also slugging .755 in August with a 1.088 OPS. He’s a 30+ homer hitter across a whole season, folks. Yeah, you’d own that! And Yaz is criminally still available in about half of leagues at this point. Sure, Vlady and Bo and Cavan are cool, but grand kids are where it’s really at and Mike Yastrzemski needs to be owned everywhere. Yaz more please!
Here’s what else I saw Friday night in fantasy baseball:
Aristides Aquino – 1-for-4, HR (10). ALL HE DOES IS HIT HOME RUNS! That’s 10 in 16 games which is the record or something…yes, I can confirm. Is Aquino is going to be the Adalberto Mondesi of 2020 where you’re hoping he flew under the radar since he didn’t debut until August and you’ll be all excited about drafting him until someone nabs him in the third round just as you were ready to make your move! Ugh, sad flashback is painful and sad. Here’s hoping Aristides slows down so we can all own him next year!
Luis Castillo – 4.1 IP, 9 hits, 8 ER. 3 K. Oy vey iz mir. How u gon do me like dat, Luis. It’s not like you’re my ace and I’m counting on you to NOT do this so I can make my fantasy playoffs. This start shot his ERA up from 2.69 to 3.10 and Castillo hadn’t allowed more than 2 runs in a game all season! So I guess he was due. I guess.
Adam Wainwright – 6.2 IP, 7 hits, 3 ER, BB, 6 K. That’s now four straight quality starts for Waino and he gets Milwaukee next. I still don’t trust him!
Dexter Fowler – 3-for-6, HR (14), 4 RBI. Well, cock-a-doodle-doo to you, too!
Paul Goldschmidt – 2-for-4, HR (27), 3 RBI. Aww shizzz. And that’s me quoting Grey!
Kolten Wong – 4-for-5, HR (9). Cards had 12 runs on 18 hits and Wong is just one homer shy of his career high. He’s hitting .500 in the past week with a homer and a steal and not much else. He can be kind of a head case though. Pick him up if you like the drama.
Charlie Morton – 7.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, 10 K. C-Mort is rocky the sick 2.77 ERA and 1.06 WHIP, but don’t worry everyone. I drafted Blake Snell.
Travis Demeritte – 2-for-3, run. The rookie’s hitting close to .400 in the past week and has got some speed to spare! Counting stats? Nah, not really but he’s also hitting in one of the worst line ups in all of baseball. I’m really selling it I know!
Joe Jiminez – 1.0 IP, 1 hit, BB, 2 K, SV (3). He’s def the closer. Can confirm. I don’t know what more you want, but you’re probs not gonna get it from Jiminez.
Mookie Betts – 2-for-5, HR (21). Sawx scored 9 on 12 hits to win their fourth in a row. Mookie’s gotta go zero to 100 if Boston has any chance of getting the wild card. Mookie is still upset I don’t own him this year. I’m with you, friend. You know who I got to replace you? Giancarlo Stanton. And owning him hasn’t been even close to the sexy fantasy I envisioned when I drafted him. Sigh.
Rick Porcello – 6.0 IP, 4 hits, ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 11th win. First game since June that he hadn’t given up a home run. I hate so much the things you choose to be.
Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. – 2-for-4, 2-run HR (14). Vladdy daddy! He likes to party!
Jacob Waguespack – 5.1 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, BB, 5 K, 4th win. Just mentioning him because his name is so great and the Jays are actually playing OK. He gets the Dodgers next week. So pick him up if you hate yourself.
Randal Grichuk – 1-for-3, HR (23). BUY. That’s now four homers in his past seven games and five in his past ten. He was a BUY! Click on the link to keep our bounce rate low and sponsors happy!
Kyle Hendricks – 7.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, BB, K. Talk amongst yourselves for a sec. I’ll give you a topic: Would you trade five more Ks for two more earned runs? Discuss.
Joe Musgrove – 7.1 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 9 K. I think I wrote my first lede of the year about Joe Musgrove. It only took five months for him to live up to my hype.
Patrick Corbin – 6.0 IP, 7 hits, ER, 4 BB, 8 K. Corbs hasn’t lost a start since early June and his 3.34 ERA and 180/49 K/BB are three times flame emoji. The Nats have got to have the best 1-2-3 in all of baseball, right? Maybe Houston is better? IDK!
Adrian Houser – 7.0 IP, 2 hits, ER, 2 BB, 4 K. Houser diagnosed this start in Washington. It was Lupus! He gets the Cards next week and I am considering the prospect of maybe thinking about mulling over the possibility of contemplating whether or not I should review the option of potentially streaming him. We’ll see.
Gio Urshela – 3-for-4. Slashing .342/.383/.587. Two weeks ago I had to decide between picking up Gio or Mike Tauchman and obviously I went with the wrong guy because of who I am as a person.
Jose Ramirez – 3-for-4, HR (20). His fourth homer in the past week and 15th in the past 38 days! Sweet sassy molassy! If his owners weren’t already out of contention in June they’d be loving the surge from JoRam right now!
Yasiel Puig – 1-for-4, (24). He’s hitting .353 with two dingers with the Injians and a Puig who cares is always the best Puig. Look at him try, ladies and gentlemen, have you ever seen anything like it!? Let’s give him the chop!
Vince Velasquez – 5.1 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 5th win. Vinny Velasquez can be scarier to own than a Jordan Peele film but he’s been uncharacteristically consistent over the past few weeks. He gets Miami next week. Heck yeah, I’d stream that!
Bryce Harper – 2-for-5, HR (26), 3 RBI. Four homers in the past three games. Say what you will about Harper’s season, he does tend to carry in the stretch and he’s one of the hottest hitters in baseball right now. Just when you need him to be. See, I don’t just notice the negative stuff!
J.T. Realmuto – 3-for-5, HR (18), 2 RBI. His third homer in the past four games and hitting close to .500 in the past week! Battling Bryce for most popular new guy, perhaps? It’s gonna get ugly. Thankfully, Jean Segura dropped out.
Francisco Mejia – 2-for-3, run, RBI. BUY. Is it me or is the catcher pool this year better than its been in like, 10 years? I know you guys are happy! What-a great year to own catchers! Might even own two! OK, let’s not push it.
Josh Naylor – 2-for-3, 2 runs. Hmm. All of a sudden, this team really sucks without Tatis.
Jon Gray – 8.0 IP, 5 hits, 0 ER, 7 K, 11th win. Gotta love the Mmmarlins. I trust Jon Gray about as much as I trust Spirit airlines to get me places on time but dude loves himself some Coors Field. 3.46 ERA at home vs. 4.22 on the road. I can’t explain it! He gets the DBacks next week on the road so there’s no telling what could happen.
Scott Oberg – 1.0 IP 1 hits, K, SV (5). Hey, it’s a closer! And he’s unowned in a lot of leagues still! You guys might be interested in that, no?
Ryan McMahon – 1-for-3, HR (15). His third dinger in the past four days and the Rox play a lot of home games over the next month. I’m saying you should McMahon Up and grab Ryan before someone else does.
Nolan Arenado – 1-for-3, HR (28). I wrote the perfect Arenado blurb, you guys. I just left it safely by an open window while I went to grab a kombucha and a scratcher at the corner store. NOOO! Unfortunately, while I was gone my house burned down and I lost everything, including the Arenado blurb!
Mike Montgomery – 6.0 IP, 5 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2nd win. Nope.
J.D. Davis – 2-for-4, run. BUY. He was a buy and his 10 game hit streak continues! He did leave this game with a tweaked calf but he’s currently listed as day to day. Stay tuned for updates from someone who’s probably not me!
Noah Syndergaard – 6.0 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K. Can I just say that casting Natalie Portman as the new Thor is so eerily reminiscent to a recurring fantasy I have I’m convinced someone has stolen my dream journal. If I write that I need Giancarlo back next week and to hit 20 homers ROS can you make that happen too?
Mike Minor – 7.0 IP, 8 hits, 3 ER, BB, 5 K. Minor is sporting a real pretty 2.94 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 164/52 K/BB. I would list Lance Lynn’s stats here, too, but I don’t want any heads exploding I just got this carpet shampooed.
Jake Odorizzi – 5.2 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. Look, I want the Twins to win as much as most Minni fans. They are a hard team to hate. But it’s hard to see some of these starters like Odorizzi and Perez that got them to this point being able to hold their own against a line up like the Yankees or Astros in October. I’m just saying I’m concerned.
Lucas Giolito – 6.0 IP, 6 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, 11 K, 13th win. His second straight double digit strikeout game and his fourth of the season. Something has clicked for Lucas in a big way, and he went from breakout to bonafide Ace in about three weeks. Outside of a Trout homer (obv), Giolito produced 23 swinging strikes, and threw 70 of his 113 pitches for strikes. IMHO (<—the H stands for handsome) he is a top 10 pitcher next year.
James McCann – 3-for-4, Grand Slam HR (14). So many catchers to buy in the same week. That’s gotta be a goocher. It’s your lucky day, folks. Go HAM.
Mike Soroka – 6.2 IP, 7 hits, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. He is fighting off the regression fairies hard core, possible at the cost of his Ks and Ws totals. Still he’s got a 2.41 ERA and 1.10 WHIP and a juicy match up with the Marlins next week. Yes please just be good a little bit longer.
Mike Trout – 1-for-4, HR (41). Has now homered in back-2-back games! His third in the past week! His 13th since the all star break! He now leads the league in homers for the first time in EVER! How is that even possible? If he’s out there on waivers, I wouldn’t hesitate to add. He could win your league!
Tanner Roark – 6.0 IP, 6 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. Roark has been fan-heckin-tastic with his new club and as tempted as I am to hold onto him and ride it out, he gets the Yankees in NYC City next week and I’m not that brave. Best of luck to you though, Tanner! Hope we meet again soon.
Justin Verlander – 7.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 11 K. He leads the league with 228 strikeouts and the 2.81 ERA, 0.84 WHIP are pretty good, too. Maybe it’s just me, but for me, Verlander is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Just my opinion, man!
Will Smith – 1-for-3, HR (10). BUY. He’s a catcher AND a buy! He’s also played several super heroes none of which are in the MCU. That’s a rare! Which means he needs to be owned.
Cody Bellinger – 2-for-4, HR (41). His fourth in the past week, slashing .319/.417/.672. Max Muncy and Justin Turner also homered. Because of course they did. It’s what the Dodgers do. Except for Cody Bellinger who in fact does everything.
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!
