The matchups for September 16th, Tuesday are in the Daily Trends piece. But Ray is branching out. He's talking ace like pitchers, batters who are hot, guys who are going under the knife. This is your Swiss-army knife of fantasy baseball reports.
Norichika Aoki has a .349 batting average in 43 at-bats in September. He's only hitting .271 on the year, a bit below his norm, and he's only stolen 15 bases- also below his average the past two years (25 steals). High note to finish though.
Billy Butler has zero hits in 14 at-bats. He's falling apart. Just not getting it done. He's batting just .265 with nine homers and 59 RBIs. He just never came around this season after being so consistent the last five years.
Andrew Cashner's complete game took 92 pitches last night. The fewest a Padres hurler has thrown since Clay Hensley tossed 91 on 5/14/2006. He's only made 17 starts but he's been stupendous with a 2.20 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. He's also walked a career low 2.20 walks per nine. The only negative is a mere 6.69 strikeouts per nine. Lost the strikeout ball he has but if he pitches like this who cares?
Jacob deGrom tied a major league record when he struck out 8-straight batters to start the game before pitcher Jarred Cosart got a hit. He ended the game with 13 punchouts over seven innings. Is he going to win the Rookie of the Year award. He's only 8-6 but he has a 2.68 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 134 Ks in 134.1 innings. Hell of a season.
Martin Prado had emergency surgery for an appendectomy procedure. He will end a somewhat disappointing season hitting .282 with 12 homers, 58 RBIs and 62 runs scored. Honestly though, his push with the Yankees got his numbers pretty much back to “normal.”
Anthony Rizzo returned from a back issue Monday, and he hit a game winning homer off Pedro Villarreal. Rizzo has hit 31 homers with a .280 batting average and .376 OBP. He could explode in 2015.
Mark Trumbo hit a grand slam Monday. He now has 10 RBIs in his last five games. He's still hitting .239 with a .303 OBP and .389 SLG. He's been absolutely atrocious. In 53 games in the second half he's hit two homers. Two. The last three years this guy averaged 32 homers a year, and he has nine in 77 games. Don't know how you would trust him right now, but let's hope he has a real push to the finish t help remove the stain of the season.
* NOTE: Players are listed in alphabetical order for the sake of making them easily sortable/findable. The matchups are also generated based on Batter vs. Pitcher data.
DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
Allen Craig has 11 hits in 24 at-bats against Charlie Morton. That's great. He stinks since he joined the Red Sox however.
Yunel Escobar has six hits in 12 at-bats. Two homers and five RBIs too. That's against Michael Pineda.
Kevin Frandsen has seven hits in 13 at-bats when Aaron Harang takes the bump.
Freddie Freeman has five hits in 12 at-bats against Tanner Roark.
Matt Holliday has a .444-2-5 line over 18 at-bats. Matt Carpenter is also 8-for-18, the same .444 average.
Lyle Overbay has a .361 average over 36 at-bats against John Lackey.
Buster Posey has nine hits in 14 at-bats against Josh Collmenter. He also has two homers and seven RBIs.
Colby Rasmus has a .370-1-2 line with a steal over 27 at-bats against Ubaldo Jimenez.
DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day
Jose Bautista has a mere two hits in 24 at-bats against Ubaldo Jimenez. That .279 OPS is not good.
Michael Cuddyer has a .172/.200/.276 line over 30 plate appearances against Dan Haren.
Ian Desmond has two hits in 16 at-bats against Aaron Harang. That .125 batting average is five points better than Jayson Werth who has three hits, and 11 strikeouts, in 25 at-bats.
Ryan Howard has gone 2-for-15 against Ian Kennedy.
Adam Jones is 3-for-18 off Drew Hutchison. Nelson Cruz is 2-for-15. Neither has an RBI.
Hunter Pence has three hits in 21 at-bats, along with eight strikeouts, against Josh Collmenter. Pablo Sandoval has hit .167 over 18 at-bats.
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MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target
Josh Collmenter has two wins in his last four starts. He's allowed two earned runs in his last four starts. He's not allowed a homer. He faced the Giants who he threw six shutout innings against in his last start.
I feel like it's cheating to go Johnny Cueto – but I'm lazy today. He faces the Cubs having allowed three runs in his last three starts – all wins.
I feel like it's cheating to go Corey Kluber, but as you know, lazy day. He's got 15 wins, a 2.45 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 230 Ks. Blow up did this man. He face Houston who he held to two runs in their last matchup.
Jake Peavy faces the D'backs whom he held to one earned run over 5.2 innings in his last start. He's won his last three outings allowed a total of three runs. Moreover, over his last six starts he's allowed two or fewer earned runs ever time out. In nine outings with the Giants he has a 2.29 ERA and 1.08 WHIP.
MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid
Ian Kennedy has an unimpressive set of ratios at Petco this year (3.99 ERA, 1.33 WHIP). He's been bad in the second half (4.42 ERA, 1.61 WHIP). His last two starts he's lost and allowed 20 hits in 11.1 innings. He faces the Phillies who he allowed five runs over seven innings against in the only matchup this season.
Wily Peralta has faced the Cardinals four times. He's gone 3-1 with a 2.08 ERA and 1.08 WHIP. He's also rebounded to allow four runs over his last two starts, after two horrible efforts. The start on September 4th was against the Cardinals and he allowed three runs over six innings.
Michael Pineda lost his last start, September 11th against the Rays. He faces the Rays Tuesday. That outing on the 11th was his first this season allowing more than two runs (4 ER over 7.1). His last three starts he's struck out a total of nine batters (20.1 IP). I just get a feeling...
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