THE HITTERS

Brandon Belt has an .889 OPS. Freddie Freeman is at .871. Eric Hosmer is at .852.

Ryan Braun is over his dizziness. He’s back in the lineup Thursday.

Joey Gallo has 32 at-bats this season. He’s struck out 15 times and hit two homers. Fifty three percent of his at-bats have ended with him walking back to the dugout after a homer or strikeout.

Paul Goldschmidt leads baseball with 48 walks. That’s 10 more than Miguel Cabrera. It’s 20 more than Mike Napoli.

Dee Gordon has been caught stealing eight times to lead baseball. Peter Bourjos has been caught six times… he’s only been successful four times.

Just stop it. The Brewers are without Carlos Gomez Thursday so they are trying to jump start their offensive with… Jonathan Lucroy batting leadoff. Does that make any sense to you? Me neither. Normal leadoff man, Jean Segura, is batting seventh.

THE PITCHERS

J.A. Happ is regressing. Not surprised. He recorded seven outs but allowed four runs. He’s gone 3-2 in 12 starts with a 3.72 ERA. His walk rate is also in the high 6’s with a 1.32 WHIP. The dream is dead.

Shaun Marcum did it again Thursday as he tossed seven scoreless innings with no walks and five strikeouts. That’s 33 innings of the work for the righty this season with a 4.09 ERA and 1.09 WHIP with an impressive 8.18 K/9 rate. He’s not holding on to the WHIP or the K-rate, but he’s looking like a decent streaming option in mixed leagues.

Let’s let the pretty lady speak…

 

THE INJURED

Zack Cozart is done for the year. He tore multiple ligaments in his knee and it sounds like he could be sidelined for up to nine months. He was having his best offensive season to date, even with a .258/.310/.459 line that included a surprising nine homers. The Reds have called up Eugenio Suarez from Triple-A Louisville.to take over. The 23 year old Suarez has a .276/.361/.417 line during 570 minor league games. That’s a solid OBP indeed, but boring otherwise. Suarez has little power, 41 career homers, and though he stole 21 bases back in 2012, he only swiped nine bags last year. Suarez is nothing other than an NL-only option.

The largest Great White ever filmed is massive. 

Corey Dickerson is back after missing three weeks with plantar fasciitis. Through 33 games he was a mighty productive hitter with a .306/.342/.523 slash line with five homers. He should return to hitting as he’s done for his career. Note that over his last 547 at-bats Dickerson has 29 homers, 93 RBIs, 89 runs scored and a .917 OPS.

Miguel Gonzalez is headed to the DL with a groin injury. The hope is that he will be ready in three weeks. He’s been really solid this season with a 5-4 record, 3.33 ERA and 1.12 WHIP. AL-only leaguers sigh.

Ryan Zimmerman is heading to the DL with plantar fasciitis. Clearly dude just isn’t right. Over 211 at-bats Ryan has hit .211 with five homers and a .611 OPS. Just awful. The last three seasons his OBP is .345. This season his SLG is .346. Hard to know how much time he will miss but you just read about Dickerson with the same injury, and he missed three weeks. In the meantime the Nationals will turn to Tyler Moore with Clint Robinson potentially picking up some scraps. Moore has a pathetic .196 BABIP right now, so that should rise. Moore has a couple of minor league seasons with 30 homers, but he’s struggled to find his game over parts of four big league seasons with a .693 OPS over 527 plate appearances. He does have 21 homers and 74 RBIs in that time. 

 

 

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).