Juan Miranda (1B--Diamondbacks) With Russell Branyan having been signed by the Angels, Juan Miranda only has Xavier Nady to split time with at first base. But having come back from a wrist injury on Thursday when he went 0-for-3, Miranda broke out in a big way on Friday. Miranda swatted two home runs, his fourth and fifth and picked up four RBI. He's been hitting pretty well of late despite the 0-for-3 on Thursday. Over the past seven games Miranda has played in he is hitting .440 with three homers and he may be finally staking his claim to the first base position that the D'Backs had been hoping for. At 28, there may not be a very high ceiling on him or much room to grow, but he can be a decent low-end option even at an extremely deep position.
Andrew McCutchen (OF--Pirates) Pirate manager Clint Hurdle has opted to move Andrew McCutchen back down into the third spot in the batting order. McCutchen had started the first part of the year batting in that slot but was only able to hit .200 (9-for-45) with two home runs. Batting leadoff McCutchen has done somewhat better hitting .261 (35-for-134) with six home runs. However, with a limited number of at-bats, he's been fairly productive in that role. For his career, batting in the third spot, McCutchen has a slash line of .282/.376/.423. We should see a boost to McCutchen's run production and it shouldn't affect his stolen base production too much either. McCutchen's season has been a series of hot and cold spots with the most recent being a bit of a cold spell going 0-for-9 in the last four games. Hopefully, this batting order change will get McCutchen to focus more and increase his consistency as he seemed to have taken too it very well on Friday. McCutchen went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and an RBI.
Homer Bailey (SP--Reds) The Reds got some bad news with Homer Bailey landing on the 15-day DL Friday. Bailey was diagnosed with a sprained posterior capsule in his right shoulder. The good news is that the MRI showed that no surgery would be required so hopefully his stint on the DL will just be limited to the 15 days and no further than that. However, this is the same shoulder that has been a source of trouble for Bailey in the past that kept him on the DL for five weeks. Bailey had been pitching overall very well with a 3-1 record and a 3.00 ERA through five starts. He was putting up a solid 4.40 K/BB ratio and average less than a hit per inning and less than a home run per game. The Reds are hoping that some R&R will do the trick but owners should expect the Reds to proceed with caution here as this is a reoccurring problem that they probably don't wish to aggravate. Bailey's got great upside but whether fantasy owners will want to wait around for him to come back will really be based upon lineup depth. If you can afford to sit him and see what happens, he'd be worth holding onto.
Alfonso Soriano (OF--Cubs) Alfonso slugged his twelfth home run of the year against the Pirates in a losing effort on Friday. It was Soriano's first home run in 70 at-bats and hopefully will break him out of his long ball dry spell. But he has been hitting much better of late extending his hit streak to eight games with a .355 average. On the season overall Soriano is batting a respectable .276. At 35, fantasy owners have been skeptical with regards to Soriano. The trend is that he is generally overlooked at the start of the season with expectations that his production will fall. Only until he proves himself does his ownership go up. And while he isn't the player he used to be for sure, he still is good for 20 homers or more. But currently Soriano is on pace for a 37 home run year and with Marlon Byrd out of the lineup, Soriano will most certainly see his fair share of playing time.
R.A. Dickey (SP--Mets) News came back on Friday that Mets' pitcher R.A. Dickey has a partial tear of the plantar fascia in his right foot. And I thought that was a plant found in the deep jungles of the Amazon. Nevertheless, Dickey may miss some time although it hasn't been determined that the injury is severe enough to land him on the DL. After Dickey's unlikely career year in 2010, he has come back down to earth. Hitters are batting a very healthy .296 off Dickey this year and he hasn't been able to induce the amount of swings of pitches out of the strike zone as he did last year and batters have been able to make more contract overall. On the plus side, Dickey's BHIP has been higher than his career norm at .323 and his line drive rate has been very good at 14.2%. So my guess is that going forward Dickey is probably better than he has been pitching this year but won't be able to repeat his numbers from last season. With the injury though, Dickey is a risky start for now even if he proves healthy enough to make it to the mound for his next start. Have him take a seat for now.
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