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
INJURIES
Normally I list injuries at the end of the piece… but with the two whoopers we have today they lead the way.
TWINS
Byron Buxton – hurt again. Shocker. Dude has not proven he can stay healthy and play a full slate of games. Not even close. That’s a huge concern. Has he been unlucky? Is he going to turn into Desmond Jennings? Have all these injuries killed his short-term outlook? Buxton is on the DL with a thumb issue, and early reports suggest that he could miss a month of action. Through 11 games this season he’s hit .189 with a .501 OPS while striking out 15 times in 37 at-bats. Awful. Buxton’s outlook, at least for 2015, is very muddled. I would expect he would return to the Twins when healthy but if he goes out on a rehab assignment and struggles a bit… perhaps his minor league time could be extended? Just a thought.
Who will replace Buxton in the outfield of the Twins? The club recalled Danny Santana who hit over .300 after his demotion so he could get some work after his solid effort in 2014. Shane Robinson could also be in the mix as could be Aaron Hicks who begins his rehab assignment Friday as he battles back from a forearm issue. I’d say Robinson is on the outs with Hicks/Santana likely to see most of the work. The Twins needs to find out what they have in Hicks so if I was them I’d let him rip for a while. Santana is just a guy despite what we saw last season. A nice speed threat, his approach is poor and he could struggle for consistency at the dish.
NATIONALS
Anthony Rendon… piece of crap. From a near 20/20 season in 2014 with dual position eligibility to becoming Brett Lawrie, we’re witnessing the transformation right before our eyes. Rendon hurt his knee but was supposed to be fine for Opening Day. Total lie. He then took f o r e v e r to rehab the injury in the minors. On the cusp of a call up he hurt his oblique and missed even more time. Rendon ended up making his season debut two months late on June 4th. Since then he’s hit a solid .290 with a strong .375 OBP. Alas, he had no homers and no steals in that time. No matter. He’s been placed back on the DL with a strained right quad. Panty waste. Dude is killing fantasy squads the world over. Blow something out, get surgery, we mourn and move on. This slow burn, the up and down roller coaster ride, that’s just a killer. Who knows how much time he will miss but can you think it will be just two weeks at this point? I know I certainly cannot.
The club has called up Manny Burriss to take his roster spot but you have to think that Danny Espinosa will be the man seeing the majority of time at second base. Espinosa is batting .286 in June and has been particularly effective when facing a lefty (.333/.396/.521). Don’t forget that in 2011-12 Espy was nearly a 20/20 guy both seasons. He doesn’t run anymore but he has the bat to be a mixed league option at second for however long Rendon is out.
ASTROS CALL UP SLUGGER
Jon Singleton is one of the better power hitting prospects in baseball. Still short of his 24th birthday, Jon is blocked at the big league level by Chris Carter and 
Evan Gattis who fill the first base and designated hitter spots for the Astros despite the fact that Singleton hit 13 homer with 44 RBIs in 95 games with the Astros last season. Times are a changing though as Singleton has been promoted to the bigs as Chad Qualls heads to the DL (Qualls has a pinched nerve in his neck and should be back as soon as his 15 days are up). So let’s talk the three sluggers.
Singleton had appeared in 70 games at Triple-A this season batting .280 with 17 homers and 66 RBIs. His approach has still yielded 63 strikeouts but he did walk 47 times showing that, unlike so many young sluggers, he wasn’t afraid to take a walk. Moreover, in his last 124 games at Triple-A Singleton had hit 31 homers with 109 RBIs. Granted he was hitting .275 with 115 strikeouts, but those are impressive numbers nonetheless. In short he’s… very similar to Gattis and Carter as a power hitting first baseman who is going to strike out a ton (despite the solid work at Triple-A it has to be noted that Singleton was crushed by big league pitching last season with 134 punchouts in 310 at-bats).
Carter had six homers and 21 RBIs in 28 games in May. In June he’s hit .216… his best mark of the three this season (unfortunately). He does have a solid .459 SLG in June but how about this… his OBP is .372 for the month. That’s a good number. Look, the guy is what he is. A streaky power hitter who is a strikeout machine. He’s the same guy he’s always been. The one difference? After posting a 21 percent HR/F ratio the last two seasons the mark is just 17 percent this season. Totally in the realm of the expected though. Could still easily crank it up as the season moves forward. He is what he is.
Gattis is batting .232 with 13 homers and 45 RBIs through 71 games. That’s exactly what the Astros should have been hoping for when they acquired him from the Braves. In fact, that effort puts him on a season long pace for 28 homers, 95 RBIs and 70 runs scored. That’s stupendous work for a fantasy catcher, and certainly impressive even for a 1B/DH.
So why the call up of Singleton? Beats me. Here is what Astros GM Jeff Luhnow had to say about the playing time of the trio of sluggers. "He’ll probably eat into a little bit of Carter’s playing time and probably eat into a little of Gattis’ playing time," Luhnow said. The main advantage for Singleton is that he swings left-handed whereas the other two are righty swingers. Ultimately the call up of Singleton simply muddles the situation. I have a hard time recommending Singleton in a mixed league, just can’t see how he plays enough for that, but his ascension to The Show certainly takes both Gattis and Carter down a peg. Remember, Singleton was crushed by big league pitching last year so it’s far from certain that he will be able to produce at a rate that’s any different from what we saw last season.
MR. Z IS ROLLING
Ben Zobrist started the year late because of injury. He wasn’t very good the first 20 games he played. He’s been much better of late as over his last 22 contests he’s hitting .260 with a .380 OBP and .506 SLG. He’s also driven in 17 runs while scoring 20 times in those 22 contests. Better yet. Look at his most recent work. Over his last 10 outings Zobrist has driven in 11 runners while scoring 13 runs. He’s only attempted one steal all season, but his bat is hot, hot, hot right now and there’s little reason to think that the multi position guy we’re used to seeing isn’t going to be the guy we see the rest of the year. A strong middle infield option is he.
WHO KNEW?
Joe Mauer stinks… we all know that. But did you know that while he’s hit just .194 with the bases empty that he’s destroyed pitches when there have been men on base posting a .346/.451/.467 slash line. Seriously.
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).