Jacob Parry's Features
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Ceddanne Rafaela went 1-for-3 with a double on Saturday in a win over the White Sox.
Rafaela has been mired in a season-long slump at the dish, hitting .219 (14-for-64) with one homer and four steals in 19 games. The 24-year-old has struggled to make hard contact this season with his average exit velocity (88.1 mph) ranking 186th out of 276 qualified hitters, per Statcast data. The plate skills have been better so far as he’s striking out only 17.1 percent of the time, but it seems to only be leading to more weak contact. The problem for Rafaela from a fantasy standpoint is that he’s the most likely to lose playing time once top prospect Roman Anthony arrives in the big leagues, which figures to be coming in the next few weeks, if not sooner.
Matt Chapman hit a two-run homer to help the Giants to a win Saturday over the Angels.
Chapman got the Giants off to a nice start with a two-run blast off Kyle Hendricks in the first. The 31-year-old third baseman has homered four times while driving in 14 runs over the first 20 games; putting him at over a 100-RBI pace. Chapman has been known for his ups and downs as a hitter, but an .865 OPS over his first 72 at-bats would count more towards the former than the latter.
Mike Trout hit a pair of solo homers in the Angels’ 3-2 loss to the Giants on Saturday.
Trout passed Tim Raines for 68th place on the all-time homer list with the pair of roundtrippers. He’s already up to eight blasts on the season, and he’s plated 16 in the first 19 games of 2025. Trout’s batting average is still an issue, but the talent is still obviously there. It’s fun to see after his injury-riddled past few campaigns.
Ryan Walker allowed one hit and no runs while completing a scoreless ninth to get a save Saturday against the Angels.
Kyle Hendricks worked five innings while allowing three runs and taking a loss Saturday to the Giants.
Lander Roupp worked seven innings while striking out nine and allowing two runs in a win over the Angels on Saturday.
Roupp, 26, allowed only five hits in the contest,a nd the 6-foot-1 right-hander issued just one free pass. Both runs came off the bat of Mike Trout, as Trout took Roupp deep twice for solo shots. When he wasn’t facing the future Hall of Famer, things went swimmingly as no other hitter for the Angels was able to get an extra-base knock. Roupp has fanned 17 over his last two starts, and he’ll get a chance to keep missing bats against the Brewers on Thursday.