Lance McCullers Jr, Houston Astros - Lance McCullers spun a gem on Tuesday with nine strikeouts over eight innings, allowing just the hits, two walks, and a single earned run. McCullers has seen an interesting pitch mix change over the last few starts, shying away from the curveball heavy approach and he's been leaning on his sinker more and more. His curveball has long been one of his top two offerings but the last outing he was at 8% and then this start was at 11%. His slider was his second most used pitch and that generated a 50% whiff rate for the game, and overall, he had a 36% CSW. McCullers' ERA is down to 3.10 for the season as his return from Tommy John has gone as well as could be expected.
Vlad Guerrero Jr, Toronto Blue Jays - Vlad Guerrero Jr hit homer number eight on the season on Tuesday and pushed his RBI total to 26 for the year. His slash line remains a ridiculous .322/.456/.576 and 1.028 OPS. His batted ball data remains off the charts, and the hope that most of the fantasy baseball community had coming into the season is coming to fruition. His barrel rate of 12.4%, a launch angle of 9.8 degrees, and his walk rate have spiked to 17.7% this year compared to the 8.5%-ish rate that he posted in the prior two seasons. He's very easily becoming one of the top first basemen in all of fantasy.
Mitch Haniger, Seattle Mariners - Mitch Haniger homered twice for the Mariners Tuesday night and has nine homers to go along with a .261/.306/.530 slash line. It's great to see Haniger back to being healthy and mashing baseballs again. His batted ball data looks extremely similar to back before all his injuries, and the Mariners lineup is going to get significantly better around him once Jared Kelenic joins the club on Thursday.
Aaron Judge, New York Yankees - Aaron Judge hit homerun number eight on the season while going 2-for-4 at the plate. Judge's batted ball data is some of the best in baseball and we could see some positive regression head his way as his .298 xBA is far above his current.254 average. Strikeouts are up a bit for Judge, but he's always going to run a 30% strikeout rate, and strikeouts across the board are up with the ball changes that were made this year.
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels - Shohei Ohtani shoved against the Astros with 10 strikeouts across 7.0 innings with one run, and most importantly, just one walk. Walks have been a huge struggle for Ohtani this season so the command he showed was a huge step. His 39% CSW was incredibly elite, and every pitch of his was at 35% or higher. He hit second in the order for this game as well, and even stayed in to play the outfield after being relieved in the 8th. If he's able to stay in games after he pitches, his value as a fantasy player will remain astronomically high. I still have concerns over how that kind of workload can hold up over a full season, but I'm going to enjoy it for what it is.
