Salvador Perez was 3-for-3 with a walk and a game winning grand slam in the 8th inning against the Sox. Perez now has an .855 OPS for the season with 15 HRs, making him an excellent catcher option. In his age 27 year, the improvements to his game are all real; more flyballs and less strikeouts (than 2016) can go a long way. His Hard% is also at a career high 42.1% (career 30.3%). He's flat out crushing the ball.
Mallex Smith was 2-for-5 yesterday with his 9th SB of the season. He has less than 80 PA on the year so the sample is too small, but buckle up if you're in need of SB because he's stealing and getting on-base at excellent rates. His contact rate (72%) leaves quite a bit to write home about so the average will certainly fall, but we'll still see top 5 SB production rest of season if he gets consistent at-bats at the plate, though he could lose out on those opportunities if he starts to struggle.
Steven Souza was 3-for-5, bringing his average up to .272 with an .884 OPS. The biggest improvement to Souza's game is plate discipline; his BB% is up to 14.4% (from less than 7% last year) and he's striking out 28% vs. 34%. This has translated into a solid #3, fringe #2 OF production. He should keep this pace and put up some solid numbers for all fantasy squads rest of season.
Drew Pomeranz was effective against the Royals in a no decision yesterday, going 6.1 innings allowing 2 ER with 5 strikeouts. He threw 93 pitches in the game and 53% of batted balls were on the ground. I'm on the Pomeranz bandwagon; he gets a tough reputation in Boston because he's extremely inefficient and struggles to work late into games, but his SIERA of 3.82 is respectable enough, and he's striking out over 10 batters per 9 innings. He'll have some poor outings, but he makes for a great back of the rotation arm in my opinion. His ERA is currently just under a half a run higher than it should be; buy low if you can.
Andrew Benintendi hit his 10th HR of the year yesterday and collected his 40th RBI. After a hellacious May where he batted just .204, Benintendi is batting .300 in June with 5 roundtrippers. His Hard% is 44.2% in June, which is even higher than the 35.1% he posted in April, so good things should continue for the Sox slugger. His stock is rising.
