Salvador Perez- C- KC- Stats- Perez has put up extreme reverse platoon numbers over the past two seasons. Before that his lefty/righty numbers weren't that far apart. So far in 2021 Perez has yet to get a hit against southpaws in 24ABs and is 20-for-53 for a .377 average against righthanders. In the shortened 2020 season He slashed .257/.297/.600 against LH pitching in 37 PAs. In 119 PAs against RH pitching he slashed .357/.370/.643. Given the sample size we are looking at and his .250 BABIP against LH pitching last year (his BABIP against them this year is .000 because math) while there has been a trend there isn't enough data to write Perez off against southpaws or count on him dominating righthanders.
Chris Flexen- P- SEA- Rookie- In 2020, while most professional US pitchers were toiling in a shortened MLB season, working out at an alternate training site, or on their own at home, Flexen was in Korea pitching 140 IP between the regular season and playoffs for Doosan. It helped him develop after a couple of brief appearances in the majores for the Mets in 2018-2019. Flexen posted an ERA of 3.01 in the regular season, with a K/9 of 10.10, BB/9 of 2.31, and WHIP of 1.09. Seattle signed him in the offseason and the early returns are encouraging. Yesterday Flexen threw 7 IP, his longest outing of 2021 so far and allowed 1 run on 4 hits and a walk while striking out 7. He threw 88 pitches and 61 were for strikes. Flexen allowed no more than 1 run in 3 of his 4 starts so far. In the other one Flexen was tagged for 5 runs but his ERA is still at 2.74. That is actually worse than his FIP of 2.62 and despite just giving up 1 homer his xFIP is 3.58. Flexen's opponents have been BOS, HOU, MIN, and SF. That's 3 of the 4 who have been considered strong teams either currently or in preseason estimates. His fastball (low-90s), cutter, and changeup mix has been effective. The more standard workload last season probably is helping him improve as he looks at turning 27 on July 1.
Yordan Alvarez- DH- HOU- Hot- Alvarez went 2-for-3 with a walk and his first career major league triple. After bursting on the scene in 2019 with 27 homers in 87 games and slashing .313/.412/.625 he missed almost all of the already short 2020 season with knee surgeries. Alvarez started 2021 in a solid but not spectacular fashion, and then spent time on the COVID-19 IL. Now he has hits in three consecutive games. Alvarez has also walked in 2 of his last 3 games after only drawing 1 in his first 12 games. His Exit Velocity of 88.2 is down from 90.2 in 2019 and his HardHit% of 35.7% is well below the 48.4% he posted in 2019. Those are quite possibly a residual effect of injury and illness. Alvarez got a late start in spring training. He should be considered a candidate to improve his performance, which isn't horrible right now at a slash line of .293/.344/.517.
Jonathan Loaisiga- RP- NYY- Rise Value- With Aroldis Chapman having appeared in two of the previous three games and Chad Green pitching in the previous two games, Loaisiga came into the game with a 2-1 lead and 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th. He retired all 4 batters he faced to earn his first save of his career. Loaisiga has assumed a prime setup role with the Yankees, picking up a 2-0 record and a hold as well as the save. He only threw 12 pitches yesterday, 9 of them strikes. Although Loaisiga didn't strike out a batter yesterday his K/9 in the 13 innings he has pitched this season is 9.00. He is now a key part of the Yankee bullpen and should be picking up holds on a regular basis as well as the occasional win and save.
Amed Rosario- SS- CLE- Cold- Rosario went 0-for-4 in his 4th time leading off for Cleveland this season. It dropped his average down to .176. Rosario has a BABIP of .200 that is greatly impacting that average. His Exit Velocity of 88.4 is slightly better than his career mark of 88.8 while his HardHit% of 43.2% is well above his 34.3% norm. Rosario has improved his FB% from 26.6% last season to 29.7% this year and his GB% dropped from 57.8% to 51.4%. Will regression to the mean be enough to make Rosario valuable even with some flexibility in position (SS and OF?) If he was looking like the player who swiped 24 bases in 2018 and 19 in 2019 the answer would be yes. However, Rosario's last steal was on 9/24/2019. He has gone 69 games without a theft. That decreases any interest in him, even if his average starts to bump up.
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