DFS DIAMONDS
*The follow list of players are guys that Ray recommends as daily plays. He will try to avoid the obvious, so you will rarely see the best of the best listed – well mostly.
CATCHER: Jonathan Lucroy is 10-for-24 leading to a .417/.500/.583 slash line versus Jeff Locke. Lucroy has a hit in 7-of-8 games and as noted yesterday, Lucroy has a strong .303/.352/.489 slash line versus lefties in his career.
FIRST BASE: Albert Pujols has gone 9-for-22 against Tommy Milone. Seven of those hits have been doubles leading to a .727 SLG. Pujols has a hit in 4-straight games and in his career he’s the owner of a .600 SLG against portsiders.
SECOND BASE: Enrique Hernandez, you might know him as Kike, has hit .367 against the Giants over 12 games. He’s also produced two hits in his last three starts. In one of those games he had two hits against Madison Bumgarner who he is now 7-for-13 against.
THIRD BASE: Yunel Escobar has a hit in 5-straight games including a double in each of the last three. He’s gone 4-for-8 against Tommy Milone in his career and has hit .287 with a .363 OBP against lefties.
SHORTSTOP: Xander Bogaerts has a hit in each of his last six games. He’s hit knuckleballer R.A. Dickey well with a homer, seven RBI and a 1.006 OPS over 32 plate appearances.
OUTFIELD: Jose Bautista has blasted Rick Porcello with three homers and nine RBI in 28 at-bats. He’s also produced 13 total hits leading to a massive .464/.545/.786 slash line over 33 plate appearances.
OUTFIELD: Jon Jay has always hit righties with a .288/.356/.392 slash line. He’s hitting .320 over 25 at-bats against Zack Greinke. In two outings this season, lasting 10 innings, Greinke has allowed 16 hits, four walks and 11 runs.
OUTFIELD: David Peralta is batting .300 over 30 at-bats against righties this season. Last season he hit .325 with a .936 OPS against righties. He’s 4-for-8 against James Shields.
ROOKIE ROUNDUP
BAEZ UPDATE
The Cubs have called up Javier Baez, actually they activated him from the DL, while sending Munenori Kawasaki to Triple-A. Baez, a top-10 prospect in all of baseball heading into last season, appeared in 28 games with the Cubs hitting .289 with a .325 OBP and .408 SLG last season. The problem for Baez is his massive swing and miss propensity as he’s whiffed 119 times in 289 big league at-bats. He’s also walked only 19 times leading to a pathetic 0.16 BB/K ratio. He’s got nothing left to prove in the minors though, having hit .324 with 13 homers and 17 steals in 70 games at Triple-A last season. A 20/20 talent, Baez will have an impossible time reaching those levels if he functions, as expected, as a super sub with the Cubs. If an injury occurs though, and he finds himself in the lineup daily, you will want him on your fantasy squad in all formats.
BUXTON UPDATE
Byron Buxton injured his left hand when he was hit by a pitch Thursday. He should be fine after x-rays were clear, but he could miss a few days. In 8-of-9 games Buxton has hit 9th, and that’s not helping anything. However, his performance is the real concern. Buxton has stolen a base, but that’s pretty much all the positive you can find as Buxton has struck out 13 times in 24 at-bats and he’s yet to take a walk. He simply must improve, and quickly, or he could lose his gig, perhaps even ending up with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate. Remember this. Of all the players being called up, all those hot shot rookies you want to add, NONE of them is more talented than Buxton. He still possesses the skills to be a fantasy star, though for the moment he looks lost.
MAZARA UPDATE
Nomar Mazara has been an outright star for the Rangers in his week in the bigs as he’s produced eight hits in just 20 at-bats. A terrific start for Mazara. As exciting as hitting the ground running in the production
department is the fact that the Rangers have hit Mazara second in each of his five games. He doesn’t profile as a second hitter long-term, but hitting second certainly has the short term benefit of putting him ahead of the big boppers which could, theoretically, lead to more fastballs. For more on Mazara check out his Scouting Report.
RUSSELL UPDATE
Addison Russell had three hits, two runs and an RBI Thursday. That’s three straight outings with an RBI for Russell who is settling in nicely. Don’t fixate on the .250 batting average. Take a closer look at his .368 OBP and note that he’s upped his walk rate 50 percent from last season when it was 8.0 (it’s currently 13.2 percent). It’s too early to draw anything completely meaningful from that, but who doesn’t like to see that growth in the early going? Russell has also cut his strikeout rate a bit which has led him to a 0.56 BB/K ratio, literally double what he posted last season (0.28). Russell isn’t going to be a batting average booster, nope, but a 15/10 season is doable, and he certainly has the skills to push 20 homers. Unfortunately, the Cubs are hitting him in the lower third of the order as he’s hit 7th three times, 8th five times and 9th once. Going to be hard for him to be a big time producer in RBI or runs hitting in the lower third, but there aren’t many middle infielders that stand out in those categories anyway once you get past the elite options.
SANO UPDATE
I warned that there could be issues with Miguel Sano back in the preseason in his Player Profile. The biggest concern is the punchout. In 80 games last season Sano struck out 119 times. That’s a full season pace to set a major league record for whiffs. This season he’s struck out 15 times in nine games. Let’s put that in perspective. Last season he had a K-rate of 35.5 percent. This season that mark has skyrocketed to 44.1 percent. That’s Scarytown folks. He’s still walking, upping his impressive 15.8 percent mark from last season up to 17.6 percent, but he’s just not hitting the baseball enough. Until he cuts down the strikeouts he’s going to have long stretches in which he doesn’t produce. Don’t worry the power is massive, despite the lack of big flies through nine games, but the batting average may be in the Mark Trumbo, Jay Bruce zone this season.
SMITH UPDATE
With the off the filed legal troubles of Hector Olivera, it seems like Mallex Smith could get a lot of rope to prove himself as a full-time player at the big league level (I gave a full Scouting Report on Smith earlier this week). Unfortunately for Smith he’s not doing anything at the moment to engender much faith. It’s been four games, so keep that in mind, but it’s been a very rough start for Smith who looks overmatched. He’s struck out five times in 14 at-bats and produced just a single hit. He’s also been caught on the bases twice in three steal attempts. He should start daily until Ender Inciarte gets back from his hamstring issue, and at the moment there is zero clarity with Olivera, so I would anticipate Smith getting a long leash… that is provided he finds the spark he seems to have left in the minors.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 6 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).