Fantasy Football Weekly Match-Up Report

Winn was pulled from Friday’s game after one inning due to spasms in his lower back. While it’s encouraging to hear that he’s unlikely to require a trip to the injured list, it sounds like fantasy managers are going to be without him for at least the rest of the weekend. Thomas Saggese slid over and covered shortstop when Winn exited on Friday night and is likely to see increased action there while he is shelved.

Diaz really needed a game like this. Hit-less in seven of his nine games this season, he teed off on the Angels bullpen in this one. His fifth inning grand slam broke the game open and his sixth inning double was tattooed as well. Hopefully he can build on this because he’s had one of the worst starts for any hitter in the league and he still has a lowly .432 OPS even after this huge performance. In the end, the Astros pulverized the Angels and reminded them who the top dogs still are in the AL West.

This was Blanco’s best start of the season results wise by far, but he still faced some of the same challenges that have caused him to start slow. The Angels had plenty of traffic on the bases as Blanco struggled to spot his slider against this right-handed heavy lineup. However, he worked his curveball well as a pitch he could consistently throw in the zone and stole seven called strikes with it and then mixed his pitches well when ahead in the count to set down what was a red-hot Angels lineup. This was a huge step in the right direction and he’ll look to build on it in his next scheduled start against the Cardinals.

Don’t look now, but Trout tied the major league lead with this blast. At the time, it pulled the Angels to a 1-1 tie early in this game before the Astros unleashed their wrath on Jack Kochanowicz and the Angels bullpen. Nevertheless, it’s amazing to see Trout healthy and mashing for the time being. Fingers crossed he can stay on the field and we get one more vintage season from Trout.

After reducing his sinker usage significantly in his first two starts, Kochanowicz must have heard it calling to him like the Green Goblin mask because he threw it a season-high 69% of the time in this one. It did its job early, forcing 14 ground balls on the 19 total balls in play by the Astros, but they wound up getting around on it during their third time around the order and chased Kochanowicz after five straight batters reached base with two outs in the fifth inning. Then, Yainer Diaz blasted a grand slam and added three more runs to Kochanowicz’s ledger. He will probably need to find a way to throw slightly fewer sinkers if he wants to succeed at the major league level. He’s scheduled to face the Rangers in his next start.

Pallante worked around loads of hard contact to keep the Phillies off the board in this one. They had 10 hard-hit balls in total, but just two of those 10 were hit in the air. Half of their 18 balls in play were hit on ground, which is exactly what Pallante is out there trying to accomplish. Sometimes those balls find holes, and sometimes they practically all find a glove like they did in this game. He’s scheduled to face the Astros in another tough matchup next time out.