It’s an exciting time for fantasy baseball owners as the MLB rookie market is going through the roof. Not enough to see a major change in the current fantasy baseball rankings, but enough to pique the interest of all fantasy baseball players, regardless of where you are sitting in your league’s fantasy baseball standings.  Major League Baseball’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) has incentivized teams to bring up their rookies faster and, for the most part, service time is no longer an issue. We say “for the most part” because you still have clubs like the Baltimore Orioles taking their time with youngsters like Adley Rutschman, but with the Cardinals calling up both Matthew Liberatore and Nolan Gorman, fantasy owners are sitting in a rookie bull market right now and if you’ve stashed any of them, the buy low sell high fantasy baseball trades are going to be abundant.

Let’s get to the details

 

 

Fantasy Baseball News

 

St. Louis Cardinals Call Up 2B Nolan Gorman and LHP Matthew Liberatore

 

 

If you’ve been playing fantasy baseball for a few years, you should already know who both of these youngsters are by now. If you’re new to the space, here’s the quick sum-up: Gorman is a 22-year-old former first-round pick in 2018 (19th overall) who has tremendous raw power and could be capable of being a 30-homer bat over the course of a full season. There’s a slight mix of speed, but nothing worth getting amped up for. The problem with Gorman is the plate discipline, as evidenced by a 34-percent strikeout rate at Triple-A this season. He’ll handle the work at second base while Tommy Edman shifts over to shortstop and should be an immediate add if he’s still available. Just don’t expect a high average, something that has seemingly lost its importance in the modern-day game anyway. With Tyler O’Neill on the 15-day IL, Edmundo Sosa banged up and Paul DeJong still languishing in the minors, Gorman should get an extended look so be patient.

Liberatore is another 22-year-old former first-round pick from 2018, acquired by St. Louis in the trade that sent Randy Arozarena and José Martínez to Tampa Bay back in 2020. He’s got a four-pitch arsenal, but is often criticized for a lack of spin on his fastball which means that, while the velocity is great, big-league hitters aren’t going to have trouble seeing it. He does have a plus-curve which he gets massive spin on and his use of that as an out-pitch could be where he finds his success. Overall, his command is still developing, but we’ve seen an uptick in swings-and-misses from him this season and he should enjoy a debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Might as well line both him and Gorman up for this weekend and see how things go.

Seattle Mariners Rookie Julio Rodríguez Continues to Dominate

 

 

We always like to give a shout-out to the rookies when they perform well and while we haven’t been vigilant on a home run count for Bobby Witt Jr. (he’s up to four with five stolen bases – YUM!), we would loke to share in the joy that is Julio Rodríguez’ bat. After a 3-for-5 night at the plate, the 21-year old now has three multi-hit performance in his last five games, has three home runs with 14 RBI and 15 runs scored and a league-leading 11 stolen bases. Those of you who stuck with him through his early-season slump are now reaping some massive benefits here and it looks like we’ll be seeing much more of this in the future.

Side Note: You had to expect Mariners’ rookie hurler George Kirby to hit a bump or two in the road. He wasn’t going to be lights-out all year. Don’t give up on him after allowing five runs over five innings. He’ll be fine and he gets Oakland next.   

Your Buy Low Window on Trevor Story Has Closed

 

 

We have literally been warning you of this for the past two weeks. There was simply no way, Trevor Story was going to struggle all season long. The Boston Red Sox have had their ups and downs this season, but successful hitting, like winning, is contagious. Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts were holding down the fort early, J.D. Martinez then went on a 17-game hit streak and now Story, after this mammoth three-homer game, has hit safely in six of his last nine games with one double, four home runs, 13 RBI and four stolen bases. His slash line is now sitting at .230/.317/.413 for the season and any attempt you were thinking about making to buy low on him in a trade is now an exercise in futility. He would need a pretty significant slump again for his value to drop enough to make him an acquirable target. You have to act fast, people. The weather is warming up and those slumping hitters are all starting to break out.

Other Fantasy Baseball Shout-Outs:

Tim Anderson, SS CHW – Everyone eyeballs the home runs from guys like Luis Robert, but my attention was grabbed by Tim Anderson who went 2-for-3 with two walks, two RBI and two stolen bases yesterday. He’s now slashing .346/.386/.483 with four homers, 17 RBI and seven steals. I’ll take that all day long from my shortstop.

Pete Alonso, 1B NYM – In a time where New York Mets fans are lamenting the loss of Max Scherzer for the next 6-to-8 weeks, Alonso came up big in the clutch yesterday with a 3-for-4 performance and the game-winning home run in the 10th.

Juan Yepez, OF STL – His 3-for-5 with a home run (his third of the season) yesterday pulled him out of a 3-for-22 slump, so let’s hope he can build off this momentum. 

 

 

Fantasy Baseball Closers 

 

Arizona Diamondbacks Stick with Mark Melancon as Their Closer

 

 

There’s been a lot of talk regarding who was earning the saves in Arizona as the 37-year-old Melancon went through a rough patch where he picked up three losses and one blown save after allowing a total of 10 earned runs over just 3.1 innings. Ian Kennedy stepped in for a bit while Melancon was considered “unavailable,” and even Joe Mantiply was being considered. But with the Diamondbacks up by two, manager Torey Lovullo didn’t hesitate to use Melancon in the ninth. The reliver tossed a perfect frame for his eighth save of the season and Lovullo declared afterwards that Melancon would remain the team’s closer. Phew! Just make sure you’ve got a back-up plan because we know how fickle managers can be with closers.

 

 

MLB Injuries

 

José Ramírez is Day-to-Day with a Leg Injury

 

 

It’s never good news when your superstar third baseman gets lifted from a game, especially when it’s due to fouling off a ball into your own shin. That’s what happened to Ramirez in the Cleveland Guardians’ win over the Cincinnati Reds yesterday afternoon. He actually finished the at-bat and knocked an RBI-single, but was swapped out for a pinch-runner. Ramirez will undergo an MRI on Friday to ensure there is nothing more than a bruise, so check back here for updates throughout the day.

Yoán Moncada to Receive Treatment on His Leg

 

 

Though he was never removed from the game, Moncada is now being considered day-to-day after feeling a “tug” in his leg. Moncada missed a significant portion of the season with a hamstring issue, so the team is likely to be extremely cautious with their third baseman. Nothing crazy right now, but if you are in a league with daily roster moves, you’re going to want to check the MLB lineups today to make sure he’s playing.

 

 

Friday MLB Best Bets for Today

 

Yesterday’s Best Bets: 2-0

MLB Season Best Bets: 36-23-1

 

 

I don’t often like to bet on my favorite teams, but when the New York Yankees are lineup up against lefty Dallas Keuchel, my heart gets all aflutter. The Bombers have the seventh-highest team wOBA against southpaws (.327) this season with the fourth-highest OPS at a .742 mark. They’ve won nine of their last 11 games and have outscored their opponents 64-40 in that span. Keuchel managed to hold them scoreless through five in their last match-up, but few pitchers, especially ones like Keuchel, find success against an opponent in back-to-back appearances. There’s no value on the money line, but I think the Yankees, behind the efforts of Nestor Cortes, put up enough runs to handily win this one.

Pick: New York Yankees -1.5 Run Line (-110 on BetMGM)

 

 

There’s plenty of buzz surrounding the St. Louis Cardinals as they bring up two of their top prospects this weekend for their series with the Pirates. They may have dropped three of four to the Mets this past weekend, but I don’t see them having trouble against a Pirates team that’s been overachieving against soft opponents lately. Adam Wainwright takes the mound for St. Louis in Game 1 and there’s not a single active Pittsburgh hitter who has an average over .230 against him. He should have an easy run at this. While there’s a little bit of juice on this one in the main books, you can actually find a slightly lower money line on the DK Sportsbook.

Pick: St. Louis Cardinals Money Line (-145 on DK Sportsbook)

 

 

While Cleveland Guardians hurler Aaron Civale has been struggling, I still have faith in him to limit the bats of the Detroit Tigers, a team that’s posting just a .265 wOBA with a 0.95 ISO and near-24-percent strikeout rate against righthanders this season. Civale does have good stuff and normally throws with a 4-45-percent ground ball rate. His current mark of 24.7-percent is a stat waiting to be corrected and a team like Detroit and it’s 44.3-percent ground ball rate should help him get to where he needs to be. On the other side, how do you not love Tarik Skubal? The 25-year-old southpaw has 13 scoreless innings with 16 whiffs in his last two starts and now faces a team struggling to put runs on the board. I think the score stays down in this one.

Pick: Guardians/Tigers Total Runs UNDER 9 (-115 on Caesars Sportsbook)

 

 

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