Ezequiel Carrera- OF- TOR- Idea- Carrera has put up decent but far from spectacular numbers against RH pitching with a slash line of .275/.338/.348 and 2 steals in 81 PAs (after topping 40 steals in each of the last 2 minor league seasons.) He will be facing rookie RH Mike Wright which increases the chances of a solid game. At his price you can spend more on higher profile players. Value play- DraftKings salary $3100
Eduardo Nunez- SS- MIN- Caution- Nunez may have gotten a vote of confidence from manager Paul Molitor, who is continuing to play him at SS while he is hot, that may not last too long. Nunez's hot streak is a matter of good luck. His BABIP dropped 13 points after he went 0-for-3 yesterday. It is still at .351, giving plenty more room for negative regression. Nunez saw his average fall from .323 to .309 yesterday.
Carlos Perez- C- LAA- Rookie- Perez has exceeded expectations for the Angels and has been taking more and more time from Chris Iannetta. Perez has a distinct edge defensively and with Iannetta having a very unlucky year at the plate (.218 BABIP driving a .169 average) the .264 average posted by Perez looks pretty darned good in comparison. His .361 average for AAA Salt Lake this season was boosted by a .381 BABIP, so that kind of production isn't reasonable. On the flip side, Perez's Batting EYE of .111 since his promotion is far below what he has done at every minor league level. So his current BABIP of .309 and an improving Batting EYE could combine to keep him in the lineup and productive. He was thought to be likely to end up as a backup long term with an outside shot at a starting role but may be on the path to beating the odds.
Asdrubal Cabrera- SS- TB- Hot- Cabrera went 2-for-4 with a run last night. It raised his average over the Mendoza line to .204. Cabrera has suffered bad luck this season with a .257 BABIP. That rose 5 points last night so he could be seeing the start of some regression to the mean. Cabrera has hit at least 14 homers and stolen at least 9 bases in each of the past 4 seasons. He is currently on a pace below the minimums of each of those but a hot streak could get him back in line to get to double digits in each of those categories before the season is over. He has tended to be fairly consistent between the first and second halves over his career but with this bad luck starting out could be a second half sleeper in 2015.
Kyle Crockett- RP- CLE- Rise Value- Crockett was recalled from AAA Columbus where he had a dramatic turnaround after getting hammered badly in his first few outings. He allowed 10 runs in his first five appearances covering 5.1 IP after being sent down in April. Crockett walked 4 and struck out 2 in that stretch. In his 16 appearances since May 3rd he has allowed only 4 runs in 16 IP. Crockett has struck out 17 while walking only 2. He is back to the form that had him tagged as the potential closer of the future. Crockett could be a sleeper for the second half.
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