Jose Fernandez, Miami Marlins - Jose Fernandez dominated the Nationals with 8.0 shutout innings and 13 strikeouts. In his first full season back from Tommy John surgery he's been incredible throwing 182.1 innings while striking out 253 batters (12.49 per 9). His walk rate has jumped a bit to 2.71 but that's the only knock on Jose that I can see. He has a near career best 14.1% swinging strike rate and despite the lowest swing percentage that batters have against him, he also has the lowest contact rate of his career against him. So batters are being smarter at what pitches they swing at and still can't touch him, that's the mark of a true ace.
Freddie Freeman, Atlanta Braves - Freddie Freeman is in the midst of a career season at 1B as he laced his 42 double of the year Tuesday. Since hitting .259 and .245 in March/April and May respectively, Freeman has hit .346,.280,.313,.403 over the remaining months of the season. Since the addition of Matt Kemp on August 2nd, Freeman is triple slashing .348/.467/.696 (202 wRC+) and has 13 homers and 41 RBI in addition to a greatly reduced strikeout rate (21.3%). Whether you believe in lineup protection or not there's no denying Freeman and the Braves as a whole have been much better since the Kemp acquisition.
Ender Inciarte, Atlanta Braves - Like Freeman, Ender Inciarte has been one of the hottest players in baseball with a hit in 54 out of his last 58 games. Since the Kemp acquisition for the Braves, Inciarte has hit primarily out of the leadoff spot owning a .410 OBP and scoring 40 runs in 45 games. An improvement that he can make to be a better fantasy asset would be improving his stolen base percentage as he's stolen 15 bags along with being caught 7 times. Inciarte is a fantastic baserunner so I believe that he can improve on that in 2017.
Jon Lester, Chicago Cubs - Jon Lester picked up win 18 on the year allowing one run and striking out five over 7.0 innings. Lester has made a huge jump in year two of his contract with the Cubs improving across the board (minus strikeout rate which dropped by .30). The huge jump in ERA helping him shave a ful run off his ERA is his strand rate which is 10% higher than his career average. That can be linked to his BABIP that's .050 lower than 2015 which helps limits runners coming around to score when batters can't get hits to drive them in. Because of the crazy strand rate he may end up over drafted come next spring with owners hoping he can repeat this.
Chad Kuhl DFS vs Milwaukee - Chad Kuhl could be a nice tournament SP throw-in against the Brewers Wednesday. He started against the Brewers at the end of August and tossed a quality start allowing two runs over 6.1 innings. Milwaukee has the fourth worst average against righties in all of baseball, making Kuhl that much more appealing to me.
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