Derek Dietrich has been placed on the DL with a knee bruise by the Marlins. His playing time has really been curtailed with the return of Dee Gordon but Double D has had a rather impressive season for the Fish given expectations posting a .369 OBP through 360 plate appearances. He wasn’t very valuable in 5x5 leagues though (.276-4-32-29-1). His teammate Justin Bour has been transferred to the 60-day DL cause of that pesky ankle issue. The Marlins still hope he will return in September but his season has completed stalled out after a very productive 68 contests (.268-15-46). The move was made so the Marlins could add Oswaldo Arcia off waivers.
Brian Dozier leads baseball with 14 homers in the second half (he also lost one due to a game being called cause of rain). Dozier’s .698 SLG is third in the game behind Yasmany Tomas (.709) and Joey Votto (.708) in the second half. You can read more about Tomas in this edition of the Daily Trends column.
Danny Espinosa has pulled 59.7 percent of his batted balls in the second half, the 4th highest mark in baseball, yet he has a mere 4.8 percent HR/FB ratio. His days of fantasy relevance are in the rearview mirror.
The Orioles are on pace for 30 steal attempts this season. The record is 464 by the 1976 Athletics.
Kevin Pillar has been activated from the DL after missing 15 days with a sprained thumb. He will take back over in center field which means playing time for Melvin Upton could dry up a bit.
Adrian Gonzalez is still proving he is a force at first. Corey Seager continues to impress us with his offense. Gary Sanchez is off to a great start to his MLB career. Check out the BIG 3 VIDEO.
I know Martin Prado is just a guy with seven homers, 59 RBI and 58 runs scored, but how about that .320 batting average? The guy has hit at least .282 each of the past four years, and in eight of nine seasons. At least you know you will get stability in that category, those of you that play in league specific setups.
Two men are batting .400 in the second half: Joey Votto at .450 and Jose Altuve at .420. Votto (30/32) and Nolan Arenado (30/34) are the only two players in the second with 30 RBI and 30 runs scored).
Yangervis Solarte has seen his batting average dip to .270 over his last 31 games, but he’s still hit five homers, driven in 17 and scored 19 times. He’s had one heck of a season for the last guy on a roster with his positional flexibility and all.
The post season schedule has been released. This review touches on how bullpens might be utilities in the playoffs.
Steve Souza has 13 homers, five steals, a .243 batting average and a sickly 132 strikeouts over 354 at-bats. He has not shown any growth from last season, and dreams of him evolving into a 20/20 big league threat appear to be of the pipe variety at the moment, you know, as in pipe-dream.
Ryan Lochte is an idiot. Someone has had some fun with his unfortunate situation creating a heck of a song.
Mark Trumbo is still blasting homers. Good thing since his second half BABIP of .151 is the worst in baseball, just ahead of Jay Bruce at .188. I get that Bruce has stunk as a Met, but I’m really surprised so many folks are asking me if they should drop him. Dude has 27 homers and 86 RBI, holes and all, and those are tough numbers to find. Only seven men in the game have a 27-86 pairing.
Jonathan Villar has been a dynamo this season on his way to becoming the 7th player since 2000 to post a season of 10 homers and 50 steals. He’s kept his average up too. After batting .298 in the first half he’s inched that mark upwards to .301 in the second half. He’s been a stupendous waiver-wire, or reserve round 
addition. A true difference maker.
Have you been paying attention to our tremendous 2016 NFL Fantasy Alarm Draft Guide? It’s fully completed and ready to download, peruse, check out etc. If that’s too much for you to swing you might want to check out the NFL Draft Book, a condensed version if you don’t have the time to go through our nearly 400 pages of work.
TWO ARMS…
Rich Hill is going to start for the Dodgers Wednesday, that is if he doesn’t get hurt before tomorrow. Totally possible that he could as well. Hill last threw a pitch on July 17th and he’s missed five weeks with a blister. I had a blister on my foot when I played high school basketball. It was painful. I didn’t miss a practice, but that’s just me. The bottom line with Hill is that he’s thrown 12.0 innings since May 29th. Good luck with that if you plan on starting him Wednesday.
Does the special lady in your life deserve this?
Taijuan Walker returns to start for the Mariners to start Tuesday. He posted a 3.60 ERA in the minors in three starts and looked pretty good after a lot of uneven work in the big leagues. A great talent who owns strong skills, his performance has been very hit or miss in the bigs this season. Proceed with some caution.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 11 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).
Player News
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told reporters that Zach Eflin (lat) is likely to return and start Sunday against the Angels
It was assumed that Eflin would be back this weekend, but now we have a concrete date. The 31-year-old may not be at full strength after throwing fewer than 60 pitches in his rehab start, but the Orioles feel confident enough to have the right-hander back on the bump for the series finale against the Angels.
Riley Greene is not in the lineup for the first game of a doubleheader against the Rockies on Thursday.
Greene will get a break and likely return to the lineup for the second game of the twin-billing. Zach McKinstry will get the start in left field while Greene rests.
Yu Darvish (elbow) is facing live hitters on Thursday.
Darvish has been throwing bullpen sessions and traveled to the team’s complex in Arizona to face live hitters on Thursday. It will be his first time facing live batters since a spring training appearance on March 13th. He will likely need a few sessions like this before the Padres can map out a rehab appearance timeline for him.
Adael Amador is starting at second base and batting ninth for the Rockies on Thursday.
Amador has now started three of the last four games at second base for the Rockies. He’s gone just 7-for-43 this season with 15 strikeouts in 16 games. He’s just 22 years old, so there is plenty of time for him to adjust to the MLB level, but he doesn’t need to be on redraft radars right now.
Jackson Holliday is playing second base and batting second for the Orioles on Thursday against the Twins.
With Cedric Mullins sitting out on Thursday, Gunnar Henderson will bat lead off, and Holliday will jump up from sixth in the order to second. Holliday is riding a hot streak right now, and the Orioles are taking advantage. This is likely just a one-game sample with no Mullins or Adley Rutschman in the lineup, but Rutschman has been struggling, so perhaps it could become a more permanent spot in the lineup for Holliday moving forward.
Endy Rodriguez (finger) had his splint removed this week.
Rodriguez suffered a lacerated right index finger on April 14th. Now that he is out of his splint, he “is playing catch and doing a slightly modified swing.” Once he can progress to taking full swings, we’ll have a better sense of the timeline for his return.