Domingo Santana was 3-for-5 with 5 RBI and 2 HR on the day, raising his average to .279 in the process. Santana raised his OPS above .800 for the first time as he's putting together a solid fantasy season, on pace for 30+ HR. He seems poised to continue his current pace, as his BABIP is well supported by his excellent 29.6% LD rate. He's also improved upon his strikeouts a bit from last season, so there is reason to believe the best is yet to come for the 26-year-old.
Mike Trout remains pretty good at baseball; he had 3 hits, 2 HR, and 7 RBI on the day. He continues to be absolutely insane, but that's obvious, so I will make one quick note: his .301 BABIP is presently the lowest of his career (career average is .351). So yes, there is more upside to his current 186 wRC+ (before yesterday).
Aaron Sanchez lasted just 3.2 innings, allowing 9 hits on 6 ER in the shellacking from the Angels. Sanchez is quite far removed from showing an even modicum of fantasy upside; his SIERA sat at 5.32 before yesterday, his K% has declined since last year, and there's just nothing that shows he should be rostered in any format right now.
The corpse of Jason Kipnis hit his 4th and 5th HRs of the season yesterday. Kipnis sported an impressive 54 wRC+ entering yesterday - impressive because of how bad it was. Once one of the game's premier second basemen, Kipnis has underperformed for three straight seasons. He is hardly a shadow of his former 5-tool self; I don't see any potential fantasy upside despite last night's strong effort.
Alex Gordon was 0-for-4 on the game with an RBI. Gordon's wRC+ is down to 111, which is still meaningfully better than last year's 89, but a far cry from what we saw early in the season. He sported a 146 wRC+ in April, a 112 in May, and now just a 39(!) in June. That said, this regression was expected as Gordon hasn't put together a solid year since about 2015. Still, it serves as a great reminder that even if a player is off to a hot start (with great peripherals), it's important to look at the full picture, including the last several years, before coming to a conclusion.
