Taking a look around the league, here’s a recap of last night’s action and suggestions for your fantasy baseball team.
Mr. Clutch (pitcher) – C.J. Wilson was dominant last night against the Athletics, allowing zero runs scored and scattering four hits over 8.1 innings. C.J. Wilson seems to have found his groove as of late, allowing only two earned runs in his last four starts. He gets Oakland again next Thursday and is a must start for that game. C.J. Wilson owners should be using this recent string of success as bait to flip him. He is sporting a 1.28 WHIP, a 3.37 FIP, and a 3.80 xFIP. If anything, C.J. Wilson should regress from what we have seen these last four games.
Mr. Clutch (hitter) – Alex Rios, one of the few bright spots on the White Sox, had a monster game last night, going 3-for-5 with a grand slam. He ended the night with five RBIs in all. Rios is having another solid year and is on pace for 20 home runs and 30 steals. The runs and RBIs are low due to the team he is on, but if he gets traded to a contender (Texas, perhaps), then his value would increase that much more. If I am looking to acquire a bat, Rios might be a guy worth trading for.
Surprise, surprise! – Somebody ripped up poor Justin Verlander, and it happened to be young Mike Moustakas. He has been a huge disappointment this season, but going 3-for-4 with a solo home run will definitely have prospective owners intrigued. Can’t say I buy this all that much, but Moustakas is definitely worth monitoring.
Here comes the heat – Daniel Murphy has been hot as of late, and that continued last night as he went 2-for-4 with a steal. Murphy is on a 10-game hitting streak with a slash line of .319/.312/.426 combined with two steals, eight RBIs and six runs. He’s no Chris Davis, but he is still good enough to be a top-10 second baseman.
Left out in the breeze – Is Verlander going to be a mainstay in this section? Verlander has been feast or famine this past month, and that has to have owners very frustrated. Against the Royals last night, he just did not have it. He gave up six runs (five earned) off eight hits in 5.2 innings of work. His advance stats don’t really scream buy-low as much either now. I still believe in Verlander, but he is more like a top-20 starting pitcher for me instead of top five.
Who’s trending? – Rex Brothers is in as the closer for the Rockies. Let’s see what rotowire.com has to say.
Brothers is expected to take over closing duties with Rafael Betancourt (appendicitis) landing on the disabled list, Troy Renck of the Denver Post reports. Spin: Brothers proved more than capable of handling the ninth-inning job when Betancourt went out earlier this season, picking up four saves and tossing 13 scoreless innings from May 22 to June 27. The left-hander is now set to get another chance, but once Betancourt heals up, look for Brothers to slide back into the setup role.
Bench me, please? – Paul Maholm was a trendy sleeper this season and has been anything but trendy. Maholm lasted just three innings before he went out with a sprained wrist (Brandon Beachy time?). But before he left, he allowed seven earned runs off seven hits. The Braves were looking for ways to make room for Beachy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Maholm lands on the DL so the Braves can get a look at Beachy. Maholm may not have a starting job to come back to if Beachy picks up where he left off last season.
The Streamer – A lot of big dogs out Sunday, leaving the streaming options very bare. Chris Archer, coming off of his complete game shutout, is ripe for the picking, but I don’t like taking pitchers the game after they killed it. Instead, I’m taking Wily Peralta against the Marlins Sunday. He has been smoking hot in the last five games and I look for that to continue tomorrow.
Links of the day – What time? Link time.
- This is a good question to ask, and I am glad someone is looking into it. Jason Kipnis the new top dog at second?
- These guys have come up with very unique guys to grab off of the waiver wire. Check them out.
- You know what I like? Cold beer by the pool on a hot summer day. Not these guys. They like numbers and they are coming in hot.
- These guys didn’t just go digging deep, they are scrapping the bottom of the barrel to find interesting waiver-wire pickups. Check out who they scraped up.
- I like stocks, I like bulls and I like bears. If you like those things too, check it all out here, and see how it relates to Mat Latos and Hyun-Jin Ryu.