Domingo German (SP-NYY) - After showing diminished velocity amidst a 6.86 ERA over his last four starts, German showed better zip on his fastball Tuesday in limiting the Orioles to a pair of runs in seven innings to become MLB's first 16-game winner. German entered the game fifth in baseball in run support among starting pitchers, helping him to be on track to win 20 with ease (it seems) this season. A 3.96 ERA doesn't put him in contention for a Cy Young, but his fantasy owners certainly appreciate a 16-2 W/L record, and his 124:26 K:BB in 116 innings is excellent. Not so excellent is a 1.9 HR/9, which accounts for the relatively high ERA, but seems like most hurlers are allowing a lot of home runs these days. Overall, German's fastball is down about a full mph over last year, but we'll still take these results. We talk a lot about swinging strike % as a measure of dominance, and with 21 swinging strikes (that's a ton) Tuesday, his one-game rate was 22.6%, which is about double the league average.
Hanser Alberto (INF-BAL) - Rightfully so, the Orioles don't get much in the way of fantasy consideration, but Alberto at least is making an effort. He was 1-for-4 with a double Tuesday, leaving him at a surprising .320/.342/.427 in 372 at-bats, including seven home runs and four steals. For a guy who is 26 and had a pre-2019 MLB slash line (192 PA) of .192/.210/.231, he's been a revelation. Alberto is a career .309 hitter in exactly 1000 PA at the Triple-A level, so he's shown the ability to hit for average. He won't walk much (2.7% BB%), but in deeper leagues, he'll provide sneaky value in batting average and at least marginal production in other categories. Useful guy to have around.
Kyle Seager (3B-SEA) - Kyle's brother Corey homered on Tuesday for the Dodgers, but older Kyle tripled that feat, going deep three times against the Tigers and driving in six runs. The monster game took Seager to .237/.311/.466 for a whopping 53-point improvement in his OPS in just one game. After entering August with just nine home runs, Seager now has 14 on the year in 236 at-bats and is putting himself back in the 12-team mixed league conversation after dropping to a .186 BA as recent as July 22. Seager's OPS dropped to .673 last year, a 100-point decline from 2017, but at least recently, he's looking like he's recaptured something. Now we'll see if he can keep it up.
Rowdy Tellez (1B/DH-TOR) - Tellez was recalled from Triple-A on Tuesday after spending about a month there and crushing it to the tune of .366/.450/.688. Tellez appeared in 78 games with Toronto before that, but batted just .227/.280/.436 with 14 home runs while striking out in 29% of his PA's and walking just 5.9% of the time. He has legitimate 30 home run power, but the question will remain whether he's a .230 hitter or whether he can get up to .270. Tellez probably wasn't brought up to sit on the bench, as the Blue Jays, looking towards 2020, will likely give him regular playing time at first. That would shift Justin Smoak to a DH role and possibly cut into his playing time, as Smoak will be a free agent after this season and probably won't be re-signed. Tellez makes for a nice speculative pickup.
Matthew Boyd (SP-DET) - Boyd was lit up for seven runs (six earned) in 5.1 innings Tuesday by the Mariners. He walked two, fanned four, and surrendered four home runs. It's been a tale of two halves for Boyd, who through his first 12 starts spun a 2.85 ERA. In his last 13 however, he has a 5.89 mark and isn't exactly improving his offseason trade value. Boyd still has an excellent 11.8 K/9 for the year to go with a 2.2 BB/9, and he's even striking more hitters out (12.9) in those last 13 starts. It's the home runs that's killed him, as in his last 73.1 innings, Boyd has allowed a whopping 23 home runs after allowing just seven long balls in his first 72.2 innings. Whether he can make adjustments remains to be seen, but while he's probably better than he's shown lately, he still had just a 5.07 career ERA coming into the year.
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