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 superstars of the world listed.
CATCHER: Yan Gomes hit .208 against lefties last year, but he’s taking on John Danks who stinks. Gomes is 6-for-12 with four doubles against Danks who was bashed by righties last season (.294/.349/.424).
FIRST BASE: Adrian Gonzalez has faced Matt Cain 85 times. In the matchup AGone has hit .297 with a .376 OBP and .554 SLG. He’s gone deep four times as well. Cain hasn’t been himself in a couple of years, and has a lot to prove.
SECOND BASE: Logan Forsythe has hit .320 with a 1.003 OPS in 34 games against the Orioles. He’s also hit .300 over 20 at-bats against Chris Tillman. Another exciting move for Logan is that he’s hit leadoff in all four games he has played giving him that extra plate appearance over those that hit in the bottom third of the order.
THIRD BASE: Evan Longoria has faced Chris Tillman 54 times. He’s hit .327 with a 1.164 OPS in that time. He’s also gone deep six times with four doubles. #Winning
SHORTSTOP: Brad Miller is hitless thus far, but no worries. He hit .266/.350/.453 last season against righties with 11 homers, and he faces Chris Tillman who just isn’t impressive with career marks of 4.19 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and 2.11 K/BB ratio. Tillman, in 20 starts against the Rays, has a 4.30 ERA and 1.19 WHIP.
OUTFIELD: Starling Marte hit .398 with a .347 OBP against righties last season. He faces Alfredo Simon who was one of the worst pitchers in baseball last season. That’s all I need to know.
OUTFIELD: Drew Stubbs can hit lefties. Just take a look at his career numbers versus portsiders (.276/.350/.454 with 32 homers in 790 at-bats). Stubbs is also hitting .310 with a .842 OPS in 33 plate appearances against Jaime Garcia.
OUTFIELD: Michael Conforto is 4-for-8 with a homer against Jerad Eickhoff. In his young career against righties Conforto has performed very well with nine homers in 165 at-bats to accompany a .279/.349/.533 slash line.
KYLE SCHWARBER INJURY UPDATE
Kyle Schwarber hurt his leg in a collision with center fielder Dexter Fowler.
You can watch the video for yourself, but this kind of looked like a catcher trying to play in the outfield. Sometimes we think it’s easy for players to change positions because we are so used to playing video games and fantasy baseball that we forget that there is significant work that needs to be done in order to wear a new hat. It’s not that easy. “The ball was literally in no man’s land,” Schwarber said. “We both thought that (the other guy) wasn’t going to get the ball. So you only call it if you know you can get it. We both went at it, and I stuck my glove up. I was pretty close. But then he dove for it, too. We were playing hard. I have no regrets about playing hard and getting hurt.”
How long will Schwarber be out in this developing story? We don’t know yet. Here is what we know.
Schwarber’s left leg is hurt, nadly. He has a full tear of his ACL and LCL. His 2016 seaon is over.
So what will the Cubs do now?
It’s all Jorge Soler all the time, right? Maybe.
It sounds like Joe Maddon will turn to Soler the majority of the time, but he left open the possibility of moving Kris Bryant to the outfield, putting Tommy La Stella at third base, and leaving Soler on the bench at times.
Soler is a 6’4”, 220 lbs outfield with tons of talent. Everyone sees the talent when he takes the field. There are also tons of issues here. His defense is spotty. He’s the owner of a .265/.323/.427 slash line that is barely better than the league average in all three measures. He’s also hit 15 homers and stolen four bases in 464 at-bats, far from standout production. None of that impresses. Then there is the fact that he also has 148 strikeouts in those 464 at-bats leading to a terrible 29.0 percent strikeout rate. He’s also hit just two homers in 99 at-bats against lefties and that .364 SLG is terrible. There is lots of talent here, but it’s yet to come together.
La Stella doesn’t own any stand out skills. Through 438 plate appearances over two seasons all he has don’t is bat .252 with a .654 OPS. Two homers, four steals and a 0.87 BB/K ratio paint La Stella as what he is – the 24th or 25th man on a big league roster.
Soler is an add in pretty much every league. Of course, until we get clarity on how much time Schwarber will miss it’s completely unclear as to how aggressive you should be in adding Soler. He’s got the talent to be a significant performer, but with playing time concerns you would best be served being cautiously optimistic without going all in with Soler. Oh yeah, La Stella, still just an NL-only play.
ZACK WHEELER INJURY UPDATE
It’s just not that easy to return from Tommy John surgery. We know that that surgery is about 90 percent effective, that’s right some folks who have the surgery will never pitch in the big leagues against, and 
there is always a chance of setbacks. Welcome to that party Zack Wheeler. Expected to return in July this season, it sounds like that timeframe will need to be adjusted. Wheeler will have to undergo a minor procedure to remove a stich that hasn’t dissolved as expected. In the grand scheme we’re only talking a two week delay, but it’s still a two week delay that means he may not return this season until August. An MRI reportedly looked great so there is not an ounce of panic with this news. Still, this is yet another example of why folks counting on guys coming back from TJ surgery in that first season are in a group that I simply don’t want to be a part of.
LINEUP TALK
The Yankees are sitting Alex Rodriguez, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran Friday. All are fine, but isn’t it a bit odd that all three are sitting in the same day? Starlin Castro will move up to third in the order for the day after his hot start (eight RBI and seven hits in 12 at-bats) while Mark Teixeira moves to DH with Dustin Ackley sliding in at first base. For updates like this in real time, for reports on the weather, for a look at the cost of the players in the DFS game, please make sure to check out our MLB Starting Lineup page. Bookmark it.
HEATING UP – JEAN SEGURA
Don’t really know if “heating up” is the correct phrase. How about – Jean Segura keeps on hitting. The D’backs leadoff hitter crushed it this spring with a .469 batting average and 1.196 OPS. Through four regular season games Segura is batting .444 with a 1.529 OPS. He’s out of control right now. Enjoy riding that wave folks. It won’t continue much longer, but boy has it been impressive. A top-10 season at shortstop is possible, but read his Player Profile before getting to far out ahead of things.
HEATING UP – Ubaldo Jimenez
I watched Ubaldo Jimenez pitch last night. He looked really sharp. He allowed two runs, one earned, over seven innings against the Twins. He struck out nine and didn’t walk a batter. He looked really, really good, and I normally would run from such a statement with Ubaldo. In fact, according to Inside Edge he threw 71.0 percent of his pitches for strikes last night, better than any game he threw in 2015 (his high last year was 69.6 percent). Don’t buy in. We all know who Ubaldo is at this point. He will break your heart if you depend on him, but it was promising what he was able to do last night.
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).