Nomar Mazara- OF- TEX- Idea- Mazara has definitely been doing all he can to show that he is ready to stick in the major leagues. He has an average above .300 against both LH and RH pitching but his .319 average against RH pitching is better despite his BABIP of .316 being well below the .407 against southpaws. He has also hit all 4 of his homers against them. Knuckleballer R. A. Dickey has had problems against RH hitters this season, with a slash line of .290/.372/.507 against them. In this instance the rookie has an edge over the veteran. Value play- Draft Kings salary $3500
Alex Gordon- OF- KC- Hot- Gordon went 2-for-4 with a homer yesterday, adding 10 points to his average to bring it up to .239. It's not a case of regression to the mean as Gordon has a healthy .333 BABIP which didn't change yesterday. It was the 2nd time in his last 4 games that Gordon got multiple hits and a homer. It was also the 2nd time in his last 4 games that he didn't strike out. Is career K% is 21.0% while this season it stands at 30.6%. Gordon's Contact% has dropped from 78.3% last season to 66.4% this year. There was a more precipitous drop in pitches he swings at outside the zone, from 60.8% to 39.4%. If Gordon can improve his contact numbers he will bounce back. If not, we'll see a rapid decline for the 32-year-old.
Justin Upton- OF- DET- Cold- Upton is hitting just .221 despite a .346 BABIP. His K% is up to 37.5% from 25.6% last year while his BB% is down to 4.9% from 11.0%. Upton is being pitched differently since coming over to the AL. He is seeing fewer straight fastballs, sliders and changeups while being thrown more cutters and curve balls. Pitchers seem to have made an adjustment that works against him. Upton will have to counter to regain production. Overall, he has been in a decline since 2011. This may be too tough for him.
Steven Souza- OF- TB- Stats- Souza has turned into quite the all or nothing hitter. He has 8 homers for the season, already half of what he hit in all of 2015 in only about a quarter of the PAs. Souza has 3 so far in May after hitting 5 in April so his power has been consistent. However, when he doesn't hit it out he often doesn't hit it. Souza's BABIP of .339 shows that he has gotten good luck when he gets the bat on the ball. His 37.4 K% shows that he doesn't get the bat on the ball often enough to take advantage of that good luck, leaving him with a .252 average. The K% has gotten worse this month and is a whopping 41.7%. Souza's RBI total is only 15, extremely low since more than half of them are the result of him knocking himself in via homer. Unless Souza can make more contact his value will go down in both fantasy and real life.
Jose Ramirez- 2B- CLE- FYI- Ramirez has been making the most of his playing time this season. He is currently hitting .304 in 85 PAs with a .339 BABIP. Although that BABIP is far above his career mark of .271 given his speed it's not necessarily that high on the luck range. Ramirez has only stolen one base so far after swiping 10 in 97 games in 2015. It may be a result of some nagging hand injuries he's had (which can impact a player's desire to slide) so when he returns to full health his steals could rise. With Ramirez you have to pay attention to daily lineups to get the most out of him.
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