The fantasy baseball community is going to have a busy weekend given the latest rash of fantasy baseball news affecting rosters left and right. Another rash of MLB injuries is going to shift the fantasy baseball rankings once again, your fantasy baseball closer rankings continue to change and starting rotations are changing which affects your fantasy baseball streamers. No matter if you play in a free home league on Yahoo Sports or in a high stakes league in the NFBC, you’re going to need to make moves to keep pace. We won’t waste your time with any more pleasantries. Let’s get to it.

 

 

Fantasy Baseball Highlights 

 

Carlos Correa Injury Forces Twins to Call Up Royce Lewis

 

 

The biggest piece of news to land on the fantasy baseball injury report is the possible fractured finger for Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa. He has hit by pitches twice during Thursday’s game and the second one forced him out and into the clubhouse for x-rays. Initial reports supposedly came back clean, but the team sent him for a CT scan Friday morning. We’ll await official results, but the belief is that Correa may have suffered a non-displaced fracture in his right middle finger which could lead to a lengthy absence. 

There are a few different directions the Twins can go right now as they do have the players up with the big club to cover what is needed. Nick Gordon could see an uptick in playing time now and recent call-up Jose Miranda should stick even when Alex Kirilloff (wrist) and Luis Arraez (illness) return. But they are also expected bring up shortstop prospect Royce Lewis from Triple-A Wichita. The 22-year-old prospect missed all of 2021 after suffering a torn ACL during the spring, but is off to a hot start in the minors, slashing .310/.430/.993 with three home runs, 11 RBI and eight stolen bases in 87 at-bats. Twins beat writer Dan Hayes of The Athletic says the move will happen today and Lewis could make his debut, so you may want to add him if you’re looking for stolen base help.

Will George Kirby Replace Matt Brash in the Seattle Mariners Rotation?

 

With the new CBA in place and teams having more of an incentive to bring up their top prospects, we’re getting a lot of MLB rookie names thrown around, George Kirby being one of the latest. After a run of poor starts, the Mariners finally sent Matt Brash down to Triple-A in the hopes of him correcting his command-and-control issues. In the meantime, that has sparked the fantasy baseball prospect hounds into asking if Kirby, a 24-year-old righty who is currently at Double-A Arkansas, is next to arrive. Kirby has made five starts this season and is sporting a tasty 1.82 ERA with a 0.82 WHIP and 32 strikeouts over 24.2 innings. He does not necessarily need to move to Triple-A to get called up here, but you also have to see if the Mariners are a bit gun-shy with the youngsters after having watched both Brash and Jarred Kelenic struggle with their promotions to the majors. You can put Kirby on a watch-list for now, but he seems low enough on the radar for you not to have to make a stash move weeks in advance.

Boston Red Sox Expected to Add Jarren Duran to Big-League Roster

Everyone loves their shiny, new toys, right? Well, if the Mariners and Twins are going to play this game, why not the Red Sox? Duran struggled during his first call-up last season as she struck out more than 35-percent of the time, but after watching him post a 1.084 OPS through 15 games at Triple-A Worcester, the team feels like he should be given another shot. Kiké Hernández, Alex Verdugo and Jackie Bradley Jr. have all endured their struggles this season and the Franchy Cordero experiment isn’t exactly off to a great start, so perhaps the influx of youth here can help kick-start this team. Add him now if you need help with some speed, but temper your expectations as a slow start is certainly possible. I’m not adding him over guys like Ramón Laureano who is a popular fantasy baseball waiver wire add right now, but I’m willing to give him a shot in deeper formats.

Shohei Ohtani Fans 11 Over Seven Scoreless Frames

 

 

What an outing for Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels yesterday. The Boston Red Sox had no answer for what he was throwing as he scattered six hits, walked none and punched-out 11, en route to his third win of the season. It would seem that the groin issue that bothered him in his last start is nothing more than a memory. To add to it, Ohtani also went 2-for-4 with one RBI and a run scored. If you have Ohtani in a league with daily roster moves and can shuttle him back and forth, you were probably able to take advantage of the outstanding start. Those of you in weekly leagues, well, this is the problem with playing in weekly leagues. The Angels six-man rotation significantly limits the number of two-start weeks, so you have to decide if the one start is more valuable than the five or six games of offensive stats. As someone who used Ohtani as a hitter this week, I can say that it sucks to miss out on a start like this, but given the fact that you never really know when one of these is coming, you have to stick with him as a hitter primarily. You should have already baked this in to your value for him before drafting, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t suck to watch it go by. Hopefully, he powers up this weekend and maybe swipes a bag or two to make us feel better. 

Multi-Homer Game from Willy Adames Allows Fantasy Owners to Feast

 

 

Is there anything better than the multi-homer game? The double-dong, if you will? We expect days like that from guys like Ryan Mountcastle and Manny Machado, both of whom produced a pair of long balls yesterday, but when Willy Adames does it, fantasy owners stand up, beaming with pride. Adames continues to prove that his move to Milwaukee, not only allowed him to level up on the offensive front, but that maybe we express more concern for that batter’s eye in Tampa Bay. Since moving over to Milwaukee, Adames has gone from being a 15-20 homer guy to a 20-25 guy. That may not seem crazy significant, but look at what an extra 10 home runs can do for you in the standings. The .235 batting average sucks, but in this era where most of the league is plugging away at a .250-clip, it’s really not that damaging. Last season he hit .285, so even if he settles in around .260 or .265, it’s going to be a serious win. His eight home runs, by the way, have him on-pace for 49 on the season and while he’ll never come that close, we can dream of a potential 30-homer year, can’t we? Especially since they still have a ton of games against the Reds left.

 

 

Quick Hits

New York Mets fans went bonkers with the team’s seven-run ninth inning comeback against the Phillies and celebrated throughout the night. Corey Knebel owners went bonkers too, but for all the wrong reasons as three earned runs in two-thirds of an inning is a disaster.

Nick Castellanos left Thursday’s game with a bruised wrist after being hit by a pitch. X-rays were negative but he may need a day off to rest.

Byron Buxton hit his eighth home run of the season and fifth in his last 10 games. Trade him now for a king’s ransom and thank me in the morning. 

The Oakland A’s finally put Cole Irvin on the 15-day injured list with shoulder soreness. Huge bummer as shoulder issues tend to be extremely problematic.

Houston finally activated closer Ryan Pressly from the injured list so get him back into your lineup immediately.

 

 

Friday’s MLB Best Bets for Today

We ended up with our first sub-.500 day yesterday, but it wasn’t entirely our fault. We still haven’t learned why the Giants scratched starting pitcher Logan Webb, but as I said on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio, the late scratch had me reversing my decision to take the under in the Cardinals/Giants game. I was right to change as the bullpen game pushed the total to the over, but since I was unable to change my actual bet, I took the loss. It happens. Nothing we can do but move on and do better today.

Yesterday’s Best Bets: 1-2

MLB Season Best Bets: 25-10

 

 

We’ve got lots of great pitching today, but we’ll start where the match-up is a bit on the lopsided end and that’s with Logan Gilbert of the Mariners squaring off against the Rays. Gilbert has looked strong this season, posting a 0.64 ERA with a 0.93 WHIP and 27 strikeouts over 28 innings. The Rays have been a middle-of-the-road team against righties this season and are striking out almost 25-percent of the time against them. The Rays will use Matt Wisler to open but then turn it over to southpaw Josh Fleming. The Mariners have a .316 wOBA against southpaws this season and have also shown tremendous plate discipline against them. We just need the win here and I think we get it.

Pick: Seattle Mariners Money Line (-125 on BetMGM) 

 

 

Sorry, folks, but as great a name as Beau Brieske is, I just can’t back him against the Astros tonight. Yes, he limited the Dodgers to one run over five innings last week, but the guy pitches to a ton of contact and he only had three swinging strikes on 90 pitches in that outing. The Astros bats haven’t exactly been lighting up the scoreboard this season, but they’ve won four in a row and outscored their opponents 17-4 in that span. There’s no value on the money line here at minus-200, but I’ll bank on the experienced bats in this lineup to put up some extra runs.

Pick: Houston Astros -1.5 Run Line (+100 on Caesars Sportsbook)

 

 

This last one is just me going with my gut and hoping for the best with two of my favorite pitchers this season. We’ve got Sandy Alcantara starting for the Marlins tonight in San Diego against Yu Darvish and while the Padres bats have been solid over the last several games, I’m going to lean on the arms instead of the bats. The Marlins may still be a little travel weary as we saw last night and Alcantara, while he can be victimized by the long ball at times, can also stifle some of the best offenses in the game. The under is a little low, so maybe if you parlay it with something else and raise the total, you can help your chances. For the sake of a straight bet, I’ll say pitching wins out.

Pick: Padres/Marlins UNDER 6.5 runs (-105 on BetMGM)   

 

 

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