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) – Adam Wainwright went the distance against the Athletics, allowing just one run on five hits while striking out eight. Wainwright, Matt Harvey and Max Scherzer are virtually in a deadlock for the best fantasy pitcher this season. The way Wainwright is pitching, it is his title to lose. Going forward, he is the best available option.
Mr. Clutch (hitter) – Chris Davis gave us two more reasons why he is one of the best fantasy players of the season when he blasted homers off of David Phelps and Ivan Nova respectively. He now has a whopping 30 home runs in 338 plate appearances! Could he hit 60? Could he catch fire and hit 70? Right now that’s in play, and for him to do it in the “clean” era of baseball would be remarkable. For now, it’s a nonstory, but if he can get to 50 soon, it will be “the” story of the season.
Surprise, surprise! – In picking the “streamer” option for yesterday, I had the right game just the wrong pitcher. Jacob Turner had a complete game, just allowing one run off of seven hits while striking out seven. He’s not striking out a ton of hitters, but he has been very effective this season with a 2-0 record in six outings and is a good streaming option. He takes on the Braves next Thursday, a game I would not want to start him, but if he shuts the Braves down, we might need to push him up to “start him every outing” status.
Here comes the heat – Matt Cain has been a bit of a disappointment this season, given his lofty draft status, but is he turning it around? Here is what Rotowire.com had to say about last night’s performance.
Cain allowed one run over eight innings but did not factor in the decision Saturday against the Rockies.Spin:Cain gave up three hits while walking one and striking out five. This marks his fifth straight quality start, and over those five outings, he has allowed just seven earned runs, while recording 30 strikeouts. His record on the season remains at 5-4 to go along with a 4.29 ERA and 101 strikeouts.
Who’s trending? – Forget making playing time for Oscar Taveras, the Cardinals need to find more playing time for Matt Adams. Against Oakland, he belted a couple of home runs helping his team crush the Athletics. In his limited playing time, Adams has a .320/.365/.577 slash line to go along with six home runs, 20 RBIs and 13 runs in 104 plate appearances. If something opens up to where he gets regular at-bats, Adams should be an immediate pickup. Keep your eye on this young player.
Bench me, please? – Is it time to move on from Alex Gordon? Against the Twins yesterday, Gordon went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, bringing his average down to .286. Though his overall average is solid, the last 100 plate appearances have been rough for Gordon. He is 18-for-99 with only one home run in the past month. Keep him benched until he breaks out of his slump.
The Streamer – Andrew Cashner faces a Marlins team that is batting just .236 against right-handed pitching and is dead last in home runs, runs and RBIs respectively. Though they handed it to Stults yesterday, do not think lightning will strike twice for this Marlins team. Look for Cashner to go out and dominate a bad team.