DFS PLAYBOOK PRO – An exciting offering from the Alarm is the DFS Playbook Pro. I will be doing a daily breakdown of the hitters – Hitting Coach – while Howard Bender looks into the Pitchers (Pitching Coach). You can find the link to the Hitting and Pitching articles under the DFS Playbook pro tab at the top right of the screen.
OTHER LINKS TO BOOKMARK
NOTE: Trades are not complete until medical records are checked, both teams like what they see, and the league approves the deal.
HAMELS HEADED TO RANGERS
Rangers receive: Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman
Phillies receive: catcher Jorge Alfaro, outfielder Nick Williams, and pitchers Jake Thompson, Alec Asher and Jerad Eickhoff as well as Matt Harrison.
Hamels goes to the AL to pitch in a hitter’s park.
He is working on a 6th season in a row with 200-innings pitched.
His numbers this year are strong: 3.64 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 9.58 K/9, 2.73 BB/9, 1.57 GB/FB
He’s a borderline ace who reminded everyone of that fact during his no-hitter. Slight downgrade for him, but still a rock on the bump.
Phillies take…
Alfaro is a catcher who hits for power. Could hit .300 one day.
Asher, Eickhoff and Thompson are all close to helping in the big leagues.
Harrison’s back is ok at the moment, though he’s only made three starts this season.
No one is exciting for NL-only leagues.
Hamels is worth a huge bid in FAAB in AL-only leagues, though Johnny Cueto would be worth a bit higher bid.
PRICE HEADING NORTH
Blue Jays receive: David Price
Tiger receive: Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd, Jairo Labourt
Price is an elite arm, and SP1 with zero doubt. He’s 9-4 this season with a 2.53 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 8.51 K/9 and 1.79 BB/9. Those numbers are elite. He moves to a more offensive environment in Toronto which is gonna help, but he’s David Price. He should be fine. The only time his HR/9 has been above 0.95 was in 2009, so it’s unlikely that the move to Rogers Centre is going to lead to an inflated ERA.
Norris (2015 rank: Baseball America 18th, Baseball Prospectus 34th, MLB.com 17th) is an elite talent. Just the way it is. He struggled early this season with the Jays posting a 1.50 WHIP and 4.6 BB/9 ratio over five starts. In 16 outings at Triple-A this season he’s 3-10 with a 4.27 ERA, 1.51 WHIP and is walking 4.1 batters per nine. He certainly needs more seasoning but it sounds like the Tigers will look past that and let him start (see below).
Boyd is a 6’3”, 215 lbs lefty with a bright future as well. He’s made six starts this season at Triple-A and through 112.2 innings at Double and Triple-A he’s gone 9-2 with a 1.68 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and has 107 Ks with only 24 walks. He might not be able to help this year as a starter though the Tigers did debate allowing him to start Sunday before settling on Norris.
Boyd deserves a small-to-moderate FAAB bid in AL-only.
Norris deserves a moderate FAAB bid in mixed leagues.
MOSS MOVES TO CARDINALS
Cardinals receive: Brandon Moss
Indians receive: Rob Kaminsky
The Cardinals lost Matt Adams (quad). Matt Holliday is hurt and it sounds like he is headed right back to the DL with a strained quad. Mark Reynolds isn’t doing much. They need offense. Is Moss the answer?
Through 94 games Moss is hitting .217 with a .407 SLG. He does have 15 homers and 48 RBIs, decent, but the guy is a pretty deficient slugger right now for a guy who averaged 28 homers and 84 RBIs the last two seasons. His walk rate is the lowest it’s been in four years. His K-rate is a three year high. His .190 Isolated Power is a 4-year low. His 13.3 percent HR/F is a 4-year low. Maybe things will return to “normal” but give the across the board fade I’m not overly hopeful. Still, worth a healthy bid in NL-only leagues for the power.
Kaminsky is only 20 years old, but he has a 2.15 ERA for his career and this season he has 79 strikeouts over 94.2 innings at Single-A ball.
GOMEZ STAYING PUT
Mets receive: Carlos Gomez
Brewers receive: Zack Wheeler, Wilmer Flores
Oops. Not so much. After further review the deal was scuttled after a review of the medical records of the players. Sounds like the hip issue Gomez is dealing with is more significant than he is letting on though, predictably, his agent (Scott Boras) says that the hip is fine. Regardless of the truth there, the deal wasn’t consummated and the teams will move on without an exchange of players.
Here’s a very interesting article from Ken Rosenthal about how the whole scenario that played out last night.
PINEDA TO DL
Michael Pineda will head to the DL with a grade one forearm strain.
Shocking.
Wait it’s not. Here’s what I wrote in his preseason Player Profile. “In the case of Pineda we have a fella who has thrown 76.1 big league innings in three years… The guy has been a professional pitcher for nine years. He has one season of 140-innings pitched.”
Why did that not matter to so many of you?
He’s currently at 118 innings pitched.
The over/under at the moment is Pineda being down for about a month.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday at 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).