| | | | Thursday, June 6, 2024 | | And another one goes down. | | Corey Seager was forced to leave Wednesday's game against the Tigers with a hamstring injury while running the bases, and while the team downplayed the injury after the game, it seems reasonable to be pretty concerned about yet another hamstring injury for Seager. He grabbed his left hamstring while rounding first base, and that's the same one that landed him on the IL for five weeks last year; it's also the same one he missed four weeks with during the 2019 season. | | For what it's worth, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told reporters after the game that it was a precautionary removal, and Seager isn't yet set for an MRI – the team will take the off day Thursday to determine the extent of the injury before determining a timetable if there even is one. So, maybe there's no reason to worry; maybe it's nothing that a few days off can't fix. | | But the way this season has gone, I don't think we should make that assumption. So, before we get to the heart of today's newsletter recapping the rest of Wednesday's action, here are a few shortstops to consider adding in case you need to replace Seager: | | | | JP Crawford, Mariners (65%) – Crawford hasn't been great this season, but we're talking about just a 38-game sample size after Crawford was a legitimate difference maker in points leagues last season. He finished as a top-110 player in both formats but was the No. 12 shortstop in points leagues. He can still be a starter there if you need one. | | Jose Caballero, Rays (64%) – And, if you're in a category league, go see if Caballero is available in yours. He's the No. 11 shortstop and a top-70 player for the season in Roto, in large part thanks to his AL-best 20 steals. | | Masyn Winn, Cardinals (54%) – Winn has been terrific this season, and assuming the back injury he missed Wednesday's game with is nothing to be concerned about, he should be more rostered than he is. He has the contact skills to be a factor in points leagues, and projects to continue to be a solid source of batting average and steals for Roto leagues; and, with his recent move up the lineup, the counting stats could start to pile up. | | Zach Neto, Angels (30%) – Neto has been a disappointment so far this season, but I still think there's a decent amount of upside with Neto, who hit his seventh homer Wednesday. There's 20-20 potential here if he gets going. | | David Hamilton, Red Sox (15%) – Hamilton is playing pretty regularly for the Red Sox and sports a .273/.339/.404 line for the season. He'll be a decent source of speed and could hit in the .260-.270 range, making him a decent option in Roto, if not a great replacement for Seager. | | There's no replacing a player like Seager, who has been hitting .326/.434/.730 since his OPS slipped below .600 for the last time on May 5. Hopefully this ends up being as minor as the team hopes, but given the tricky nature of hamstrings, I'm not going to hold my breath. Let's hope for the best, but prepare for an absence. And now, let's get to the rest of Wednesday's action: | | | | Thursday's (other) top waiver targets | | | | Cade Povich, SP, Orioles (24%) – Povich wasn't viewed as a top-100 prospect entering the season, but he's put himself on the Fantasy map with a terrific run at Triple-A, sporting a 3.18 ERA and 1.11 WHIP with 75 strikeouts in 56.2 innings to open the season. Control has been the biggest issue for Povich as a prospect, as he walked 12% of opposing batters last season, but he's cut that to a much more manageable 9% so far this season. He's expected to make his MLB debut Thursday for the Orioles, and while I'm not convinced he's a difference maker, pitching in that home park half the time, with that lineup backing him up, he could be a very viable Fantasy option if he sticks around for more than just a cup of coffee. | | Zack Gelof, 2B, Athletics (55%) – It's been a truly disastrous season for Gelof, who still has a sub-.600 OPS a week into June. And yet, you don't really have to squint too hard to see how he can still be a pretty useful Fantasy option. After homering and stealing a base Wednesday, he's now up to five and six respectively, giving him a 162-game pace of 18 HR and 22 SB. That's not going to cut it when he's hitting just .193 with a 33% strikeout rate, so there's obviously plenty of work to do. But if he gets back on track, Gelof can still be that impact player everyone liked as a breakout candidate coming into the season. | | Justyn-Henry Malloy, 3B, Tigers (8%) – I wasn't too excited about Malloy when he got the call for the Tigers, because I'm just not sure he's ever going to be someone you can rely on for batting average in the majors and I don't buy him being a Max Muncy-esque power threat to make up for it. But he has started each of his first three games since getting called up and homered for the first time Wednesday, so credit where it's due. He's worth a look in 15-team leagues just in case he outperforms my expectations. | | | | News and Notes | | Kyle Tucker has missed two straight with that bruised right shin and might not be ready by Friday, either. It doesn't sound like this will require an IL stint still, but if the injury continues to linger, they may opt for that path, so keep an eye out for reports ahead of next week's lineup locks. | | Ranger Suarez has been cleared to start Saturday against the Mets in London. | | Edwin Diaz will begin a rehab assignment at Single-A on Thursday. He's eligible to return on Tuesday, June 11, and assuming he avoids any setbacks with his shoulder, should be back next week. Whether he'll return right away to the closer's role is a different question, though I do remain pretty confident he'll get back there before long. | | Manny Machado exited Wednesday's game with an apparent leg injury. | | Christopher Morel was removed after fouling a ball off his left foot. | | Alex Bregman was scratched from the lineup due to lingering left hand soreness. He was hit by a pitch Tuesday. | | Blake Snell was officially diagnosed with a mild left groin straining following an MRI. I'd be surprised if we saw him before July at this point, but I'm still stashing him wherever I have him, as Scott White says in his IL stashes piece. | | Triston Casas said he should be cleared to swing a bat by the end of this week and indicated he's hoping to be activated right around July 1. | | Masyn Winn was out of the lineup Wednesday due to a lingering back issue. | | Starling Marte was scratched from the lineup due to a right knee issue. | | Kutter Crawford's next scheduled start will be pushed back to early next week, which means he's no longer a two-start pitcher this week. | | Tyler O'Neill made his return to the Red Sox, was in the lineup batting fifth. He finished 2-4 with a run and RBI | | Robert Gasser was officially placed on the IL with a left flexor strain. The Brewers recalled Aaron Ashby who started on Wednesday, but he continued to struggle with his command, as he did in the minors. I think there could be some upside with Ashby, but he needs to show serious improvement with his control before I buy back in. | | The Giants optioned Luis Matos back to Triple-A. He was 2-for-22 in his last six starts before this move, so while it's a disappointment, it makes sense. | | Adam Mazur will make a second start this Sunday against the Diamondbacks. | | Kenta Maeda was removed from his start after just two pitches with abdominal discomfort. | | Josiah Gray has been cleared to begin a rehab assignment with the first start likely to come this Sunday at Single-A. I'll need to see something impressive from him on the rehab assignment before I buy in. | | The Astros announced that Jose Urquidy had season-ending elbow surgery on Wednesday. | | Wednesday's standouts | | Aaron Nola, Phillies vs. MIL: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K – It's kind of funny how Nola was the ace nobody really wanted this spring, and he's putting together his best run prevention numbers since 2018, with his ERA down to 2.77 and a 0.97 WHIP at the one-third mark of the season. He's doing that despite his lowest strikeout rate since 2015 and his highest walk rate since 2020. I think the strikeouts will come – his changeup has been weirdly ineffective so far, which I think explains most of his issues with strikeouts – but I think there might also be a sell-high window, given Nola's issues with homers in the past. | | Paul Skenes, Pirates vs. LAD: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K – Skenes came out of the gates hot, throwing eight pitches over 100 mph in the first inning, including three straight past Shohei Ohtani for a strikeout. He got a bit too cute and tried to pull the same trick the next time around, and Ohtani turned on a 100.1 mph heater for a homer. That's the distinction between throwing and hitting, though it's worth noting that Skenes didn't seem to have the rest of his arsenal in this one, generating one swinging strike with his non-fastballs. It wasn't an incredible result, but given the matchups, it's hard to complain too much. | | Carlos Rodon, Yankees vs. MIN: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K – Rodon had the slider working well yet again in this one, but the changeup and curveball also joined the party, combining for seven swinging strikes. The slider is the most important pitch for Rodon, and it's been excellent for him for a while now. Anything more than that tends to be gravy here, and I'm pretty much past my early-season concerns at this point. | | Nick Pivetta, Red Sox vs. ATL: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K – For the most part, Pivetta has picked up where he left off last season, as he continues to put up huge strikeout numbers on a regular basis. He's going to struggle with homers from time to time, but as long as he can limit the damage and keep that ERA below 4.00, you're going to be happy to have him around. | | Zach Eflin, Rays @MIA: 4 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K – Eflin reinvented himself as an above-average strikeout pitcher last season, but he hasn't been able to rediscover that form so far. His curveball usage seems to be the biggest change, which is weird because it remains his best putaway pitch. His xERA remains in the 3.50 range, and I have faith that Eflin and the Rays will figure things out before long, so I'm viewing Eflin as a buy-low candidate at this point. | | Jordan Hicks, Giants @ARI: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 7 K – Hicks remains really good at limiting damage on contact, and I remain surprised at how good his control has been since rejoining the rotation, this start notwithstanding. However, he hasn't finished six innings in a start since the end of April, and isn't a consistent source of strikeouts, so it remains pretty hard to get excited about him. He's useful in H2H points leagues where his RP eligibility matters, but he's not going to win many games or contribute many strikeouts, so he's probably just a fringe option otherwise. | | Luis Severino, Mets @WAS: 8 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K – Severino deserves a lot of credit for reinventing himself as a ground ball specialist, and his results speak for themselves in that regard. Do I buy him as a low-to-mid-3.00s ERA guy? Probably not, but that doesn't mean he can't be a useful pitcher – Marcus Stroman is usually pretty useful for Fantasy, after all. But these kinds of starts are the exception, and I still think he looks more like a streamer than someone you want to rely on moving forward. | | Ronel Blanco , Astros vs. STL: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K – The key question with Blanco is how much you buy him as an elite quality of contact suppressionist. When you look at his various ERA estimators, you've got a 4.22 FIP and 4.19 xFIP that suggest he's a pretty fringe-y Fantasy option; then you've got that 3.26 xERA that suggests his success this season is mostly for real. Seeing as quality of contact takes an awfully long time to stabilize for pitchers, I think I tend to lean more toward the numbers that suggest an ERA over 4.00 moving forward, though I wonder if Blanco's struggles lately have closed the buy-low window before you could take advantage of it. | | Braxton Garrett, Marlins vs. TB: 2.2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 K – I tend to be pretty confident that Garrett is going to be a useful pitcher moving forward, but it's not like his upside is so high that you necessarily need to hold him when things are going poorly. A 3.66 ERA like he had last season is nice to have around, but it's easy enough to drop Garrett when he isn't performing – I don't think anyone is going to see him with a 5.81 ERA for the season and run out and add him. If you see something interesting on the wire, dropping Garrett is probably fine. | | Jordan Montgomery, Diamondbacks vs. SF: 2 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K – I pretty much feel the same way about Montgomery as I do about Garrett. I think he'll figure it out and be a pretty useful Fantasy option in the long run, and there will be a point this season where he's 100% rostered and deserves it. But he hasn't found his curveball yet, and until he does, it's hard to see how he finds success. | | James Paxton, Dodgers @PIT: 1.2 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K – Just drop Paxton. We've been telling you to drop him for a while and he somehow remains over 80% rostered in CBS Fantasy leagues. He has three more strikeouts than walks right now, and it's not like his walk rate is particularly low. Paxton is a streamer at best, and I don't know how many matchups I would view him as a must-start against at this point. | | | | | | | | The First Cut | | Canadian Football League | The First Cut takes you inside the ropes of the golf world, on the PGA Tour and beyond. Tournament previews and picks, deep dives into the players and storylines that matter in the sport of golf.
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