Bettor Sports Betting September 1: MLB Picks Today & College Football Week 1 Bets

Acuña logged six innings in right field during his third rehab contest. There’s no official timetable for the 27-year-old fantasy superstar to make his season debut, but the widely-held expectation is that he’s going to need at least another week or two of rehab games to continue knocking off some rust and getting back up to game speed following an extended layoff recovering from knee surgery. There’s a strong possibility he’s ready to return by the end of May or early June.

Moncada missed time earlier this season with a right thumb sprain, so this is definitely a massive concern for the Angels. The 29-year-old appeared to re-aggravate the issue on a ninth-inning swing during Friday’s contest at Dodger Stadium. There should be an update on his status at some point this week. It’ll likely be Tim Anderson or Kevin Newman taking over at the hot corner if he hits the injured list.

Marte was back atop Arizona’s fearsome lineup following an early exit from Wednesday’s series finale against the Giants for precautionary reasons due to hip tightness. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo downplayed concern about the issue earlier this week and it didn’t seem to be bothering him at all during Friday’s one-sided win.

Kirby, who is working his way back from shoulder inflammation, faced some real adversity on Friday evening, surrendering a whopping 10 hits, including two homers, during his – rehab outing. The encouraging news for fantasy managers is that the velocity was there as he topped out at 97.5 mph on his four-seamer and he threw 48 of 64 pitches for strikes. His signature pinpoint control remains firmly intact as he’s yet to issue a walk to any of the 21 batters he’s faced on his rehab assignment. It seems likely he’ll require another tune-up outing to build up his pitch count into the 75-80 range, but there’s a strong possibility the Mariners decide to bring him back later next week for his season debut, especially given the state of their rotation, which took another hit this week with Bryce Miller landing on the shelf with elbow inflammation.

Eldridge has gone deep in back-to-back games and is now up to five round-trippers in just 20 games this season at the Double-A level. The 20-year-old slugger’s massive frame hasn’t resulted in astronomical strikeout totals and he’s hitting .306/.383/.583 this season for Double-A Richmond after missing time at the outset of the year with a wrist injury. He figures to be a potential late-season call-up option for the Giants in a few months. He’s one of the most promising power-hitting prospects for dynasty purposes and could reach the big leagues in the second half.

Shaw flopped in his first opportunity at the highest level earlier this season, but he’s started to really get his groove back recently at the Triple-A level, putting together his second consecutive multi-homer performance on Friday evening. The -year-old top prospect launched a leadoff homer before adding a two-run blast in the sixth inning, just for good measure. He’s gone deep five times in his last 18 at-bats and is now hitting .302/.423/.593 over 23 games since being demoted to Triple-A Iowa. It’s probably time for the Cubs to seriously consider giving him another chance in the big leagues, especially since they’ve been rolling with veteran speedster Jon Berti at the position for the past few weeks.