Jose Bautista (3B—Blue Jays) Jose Bautista knocked a couple of more home runs on Tuesday which brings his season total up to twenty. Did anyone see this coming pre-season? Because, I'm stupefied by how he keeps knocking them out of the park. Bautista has now surpassed his previous career high in how runs by four and I'm now sold that he will be continuing to try to do his best Babe Ruth impression for the rest of the season. He's obviously made a believer out of the pitchers around the league because they are showing him much more respect judging from his BB rate of 15% which also represents a career high. Because of the higher walk rate, his EYE is looking pretty solid at 0.73. But don't expect much from the average. With a FB% of over 54% Bautista is obviously shooting for the moon so the average is going to take a hit as he is only batting .232 on the year. If it gets any higher it would probably peak at .250 if that. Seems like the home runs will be there for the remainder of the year but there will be some trade off on the average.
Brennan Boesch (OF—Tigers) Brennan Boesch has been on a pretty nice tear as he hit his 11th home run of the season on Tuesday with 3 RBI and is now batting .343 on the season. The rookie has been doing everything right but as good as he has been there are those nasty warning signs ahead. Boesch has a very high BHIP of .380 which is just terrific but when you see that his LD% is just 15.8%, it should give fantasy owners a lump in throat. That line drive percentage is not enough to sustain that high BHIP and Boesch has a poor EYE of 0.35, so you can expect his batting average and other numbers to drop. For now, Boesch is batting .366 for June so get the most of him while he is doing so well. But as soon as you see some slowing, and you will, you may want to try to sell high on Boesch and see if you can get some good value in return.
Jason Vargas (SP—Mariners) Not sure where the Mariners would be without Doug Fister and Jason Vargas but they have been keeping the Mariners ship afloat for a good part of the season. Jason Vargas took center stage on Tuesday and pitched 7 scoreless innings and lowered his ERA 2.66 on the year. Vargas has reinvented himself with batters hitting just .225 off of him this season. His WHIP is excellent at 1.11, but he does have a high FB% at 50% and not a great K/9 of 5.6 to support that fly ball percentage. Fortunately his LD% at 14% has been his saving grace. However, I'm a little wary that Vargas will continue this good fortune as he has a xFIP of 4.84 which is about 2 runs higher than his ERA. The high FB% is reflected in that xFIP. I suspect that those fly balls will eventually find the stand and we will see that ERA climb closer to his xFIP. Caution ahead Vargas owners.
Nelson Cruz (OF—Rangers) It's been a while but Nelson Cruz finally made it back into the Texas lineup on Tuesday after an absence that lasted almost a month. Fantasy owners will obviously want to get the slugger back in there lineups right away as Cruz was pounding the baseball prior to his injury. It looks as though Cruz may take a little time to get going again as he was only able to muster an RBI sacrifice fly and went 0-for-3 on Tuesday. But once he does get going the fireworks should start as Cruz was showing off an ISO of .402 and an OPS of 1.134 prior to the DL. He's been one of the top fantasy superstars this year. Just hope for no more hamstring injuries and Cruz should produce the big numbers.
Trevor Cahill (SP—A's) One of the unnoticed pitchers in the AL this season who isn't getting a whole lot of attention is Trevor Cahill. Cahill has been quietly going about his business getting the job done with effective pitching. He has notched 7 quality starts out of 11 and only twice has allowed more than 4 earned runs in a game. He doesn't have a lot of flash with a K/9 of just 5.6 but he has a very good WHIP of 1.13. He also has a terrific GB% of 51.8% and a low LD% of 15.7% which should help to keep innings from getting out of hand. And finally to top it all off, batters are hitting just .225 off the guy and he has not lost a game since May 15th. Cahill is definitely worth a pick up in mixed leagues as he is putting together a solid season.
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Also you can follow Richard all season long on Twitter at @rsgross
