Jose Berrios flexed some muscle yesterday, going 9 innings with 10 Ks while allowing just 2 ER to the White Sox. It was Berrios' 7th win of the season and he reduced his ERA to 3.66. His ERA is right in line (slightly higher) than his SIERA, and his K/9 should continue to improve due to a higher SwStr% than last season. He certainly isn't at the elite level that he's ultimately capable of, but we've seen big improvements since last season, making him very fantasy relevant with upside.
Eddie Rosario went 2-for-3 with a walk and 3 RBI, including his 14th roundtripper of the season. So far, Rosario has taken last year's impressive campaign to another level. We're seeing improvements to his K%, LD%, Hard%, and even stolen bases. For those reasons, I think the results are legitimate. He looks like a draft day bargain.
One of the season's biggest unknown surprises is Eduardo Escobar, who hit his 12th HR of the year yesterday for the Twins. Escobar's wRC+ was 134 even before yesterday. Escobar is squaring up on the ball better than at any point in his career, and hitting more fly balls. That said, I would be skeptical of him keeping this pace the rest of the season. He's swinging at 40% of balls outside the zone with a 12.7% miss rate, all while maintaining a 25% LD rate. That is difficult to do. He's been on a long hot streak, but I'd expect it to fizzle soon.
Yoan Moncada was 1-for-4 with his 22nd RBI on the year. Moncada has been a bit of an enigma. In April, his struck out 39.2% of the time, which he's reduced to 29% the last two months - however, April was his best month of the year! Since then, he's been quite average. You expect young guys to struggle a bit out of the gate, and Moncada is no exception. The question will be - can he break out in 2018? I still think so. His ceiling is high enough that I'm willing to take a chance on him if an owner in your league is getting frustrated. While he strikes out too much, he'll at least get you some SB (7 on the season) and runs (batting leadoff consistently). And if the gamble pays off, you have a top 50 player.
Jalen Beeks' major league debut couldn't have started much worse yesterday as he allowed 5 ER in just the first inning for the Red Sox. He did settle down and allow just 1 ER over the next three innings, but overall a poor start. Beeks flat out dominated 10 starts in AAA with a 2.56 ERA and 35% K rate, so there is some reason to believe he may make some noise in the majors, but yesterday wasn't a step in the right direction.
