Taking a look around the league, here’s a recap of last night’s action and suggestions for your fantasy baseball team.
Clutch Performers – Despite missing the first part of the season, Francisco Liriano has become a top-20 pitcher on the season, and it’s because of performances like last night. Liriano dominated the Padres, throwing seven innings of shutout baseball. He allowed just four hits and had season-high 13 strikeouts. It’s hard to make the argument that Liriano is not for real this year. Going forward, he could be one of the hardest pitchers to rank next season.
- Jeff Samardzija — 8 IP, 6 H, ER, 5 K, W
- Jarod Parker — 9 IP, 8 H, ER, 8 K, W
- Elvis Andrus — 2-for-4, 3 R, RBI, BB, 2 SB
Surprise, surprise! – Dillon Gee just gets no respect. Owned in less than 20 percent of leagues, all he does is go out and dominate the Twins last night, scattering six hits over 7.2 innings while striking out nine. According to ESPN’s player rater, over the past 30 days, Gee has been the 17th best pitcher in fantasy ahead of guys like Felix Hernandez, Stephen Strasburg, Cole Hamels and Adam Wainwright. I am not saying drop these guys for Gee, but make room for this guy. He has been lights-out in the second half of the season and should be on your roster.
- Nate Schierholtz — 3-for-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 6 RBI
- A.J. Pierzynski — 4-for-5, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI
- Kolten Wong — 2-for-5, R, 2 SB
Left out in the breeze – These were the not-so-great performances of the night:
- Jordan Zimmerman — 5 IP, 7 H, 8 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, L
- Tim Lincecum — 5 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, L
- Hanley Ramirez — 0-for-4, 2 K
- Yasiel Puig — 0-for-5, 2 K
- David Ortiz — 0-for-5, 2 K
- Will Venable — 0-for-4, 3 K
Trending developments – Brandon Belt has been one of the hottest bats in fantasy these past few weeks and should be added if he’s available. In the past two weeks, Belt is batting .345 with four home runs, 16 runs and nine RBIs. Belt seems to be living up to the hype he had as a prospect. He definitely becomes an interesting name going forward in keeper leagues and could find his way into the top-10 first baseman discussion next season.
- Since coming back from Tommy John, Brandon Beachy is 2-0 with a 1.08 WHIP, a 4.50 ERA and a 19/4 K/BB ratio. He takes on the Mets tonight.
- Mark Trumbo has now hit a home run in each of his past three games. Despite only batting .242 this season, Trumbo has 29 home runs on the year.
- Despite going 0-for-6 last night, Alfonso Soriano is batting .339 with seven home runs, 13 runs, 22 RBIs and three stolen bases over the past two weeks.
Prospect Watch – Highly touted prospect Xander Bogaerts will more than likely make his debut tonight against the Giants. Here is what rotowire had to say about Bogaerts’ call-up:
The manager said Bogaerts will fill in at both third base and shortstop, and that the young prospect will not be in the lineup everyday. He’ll likely see his most consistent time subbing in for Stephen Drew against left-handed pitching. Drew has both an on-base percentage and slugging percentage more than 100 points higher against righties than against lefties.
Head-2-Head– It is amazing the Alex Cobb is still out there in leagues and is available in nearly 20 percent of leagues. If he is available, Cobb should be picked up and kept for the remainder of the season.
If you are in need of a streamer and Cobb is not available, turn to the young arm out of Oakland, Sonny Gray. He and his nasty curveball have looked good since being thrust into the starting rotation, and he has a favorable matchup, at home against the Mariners. Gray could wind up as the top pitcher when it is all said and done for tomorrow.
Links of the day – It’s link time!
- David DeJesus got traded; see how that could affect your fantasy lineup.
- Stephen Strasburg disappointed fantasy owners this season, find out why here.
- Do you hold the number one waiver priority in your NL-only league? Well here are some potential September call-ups that should be on your radar.
- Here are some players to catch, to cut and to keep going forward.
- Wondering if your first baseman is a top-five first baseman going forward? These guys have your answer.
