Aaron Blair, Atlanta Braves - Aaron Blair was crushed by the Pirates for the inning and a third that he was able to stay on the field giving up nine runs with all being earned. This start could have been much different if AJ Pierzynski was able to hold onto the ball on a ball at the plate on a fielder's choice. The start ballooned his ERA to 7.59 over his first 21.1 innings and he's yet to strikeout more than three batters in a start this season. While he's never been a "strikeout pitcher" in the minors he still averaged around 7 per nine of the course of his minor league career. In terms of all the Braves pitching prospects, Blair probably had the lowest fantasy upside due to that lack of strikeouts. Only worth an NL Only stash at the moment.
Gregory Polanco, Pittsburgh Pirates - Gregory Polanco continues to have his breakout season with a 3-for-5 game with three doubles, his 13th, 14th, and 15th of the season. He also drove in a run which was his 20th of the season and he's up to 28 runs scored after crossing the plate twice Tuesday. His hard hit rate continues to climb and climb and is up to 34.3% without sacrificing much from his hard hit rate but shaving more off his soft contact rate. His LD% has also jumped 7% from last season with 5% of that coming off of his GB%. The last portion of his jump that's notable is his walk rate has nearly doubled while cutting down on his strikeouts by 16.9%.
Vince Velasquez, Philadelphia Phillies - Vinny Velasquez dominated the Marlins over five innings to get his fifth win of the season while allowing three hits and striking out 10. As great as it's sounded like he's been this season, this is the first time that he's fanned more than six in a game since his 16 strikeout game against the Padres in his second start of the season. If you throw out his first two starts he's been fairly mediocre in his five starts between his 10+ K games posting a 4.13 ERA, 3.94 FIP with a 7.62 K/9. You can try to sell high on him because while he's going to have games like these, he's also going to have stretches where he is just an average fantasy arm.
Jamie Garcia, St. Louis Cardinals - After back-to-back 7.0 inning, no run performances, Jaime Garcia came back down to earth a bit with three earned runs over five innings with an uncharacteristic 4:3 BB:K rate. However he's in the midst of one of the best seasons of his career with a 2.86 ERA and 2.78 FIP while posting a K/9 that's over two full strikeouts higher than his career average. Diving into his swing stats to see if we should see some regression coming but all of those look good as well. Batters are swinging at less pitches overall and are also swinging and missing at more pitches, leaving the whiff per pitch rate very high. His swinging strike rate has also jumped by 2% from last season . The injury bug is always a threat with Garcia, so it seems like it's more likely we see that strike again but rather than suffer some serious regression stats wise.
Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals - $5,000 vs Bartolo Colon Welcome to May 2016, we're now living in a world where Jackie Bradley Jr costs most in DFS than Bryce Harper. I realize that Harper has been struggling as of late and that pitchers literally have no reason to throw to him, but there becomes a point where his price gets low enough to where you have to play him. He has moderate success against Bartolo Colon with a .231/.214/.462 triple slash and a homer in 13 at bats. The Nationals actually hit Colon at a decent rate, so here's to hoping that some other Nats players can get on so Harper can get some pitches to hit.
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