Shohei Ohtani (minor deity - LAA) - Ohtani only managed one hit in 5 trips to the plate on Monday, but that one was his 26th HR of the season. We were talking about him on the Fantistics Insider Baseball show this weekend, and I made the comment that I think he's a 1st round pick in 2022 at this point, which seemed to surprise people. I'm not sure why, since he's on pace for 50 HR and 20 SB, 105 R and 120 RBI with a decent average....and we didn't even talk about the pitching, where he's probably a top-30 SP. Still just 26 years old, he is likely a top-8 pick next year for me at this point.
Eddie Rosario (OF - CLE) - Rosario was 1-3 with a double and 2 RBI on Monday, extending his rather quiet hitting streak to 14 games. He hasn't really been killing it this month, as he only has 6 doubles and 2 homers to his credit, but he came into Monday hitting 301/330/434, which is a huge step up from the first few months of the year. It's been an odd year for him to be sure, with career bests in LD rate and swinging strike rate (his 3rd straight year dropping that figure by 1%), a likely impending career high in SBs, but power numbers that are more like his 2015-16 seasons than anything since. I feel like one of two things are going to happen the way he's been hitting the ball: either the AVG is going to keep moving up fairly quickly because his BABIP does not mirror his batted ball dispersion at all, or the power is going to be coming back soon and the AVG will remain in the range that it typically has been. Either way, I feel god about Rosario's prospects now that I see him coming out of his April/May slump.
Myles Straw (OF - HOU) - Straw was 2-4 with a walk on Monday in the 9-7 loss to Baltimore, continuing a solid month for which entered the game hitting 342/413/456 with 5 steals. Straw cannot, will not, should not provide any power to speak of, but I'm actually surprised his AVG is this low (.273). He has excellent strike zone judgment, superior contact ability, and speed that places him in the top 5% in the game (and likely in the top 10 in SB). Where he hits in the Houston lineup minimizes a bit of his SB and R upside, but he still should be a 3-category player, and that absolutely has value, particularly in a world where overall batting average has slipped.
Harold Ramirez (OF - CLE) - It's really rare that I regret dropping someone in my largest dynasty league....I'm typically overly patient instead of overly aggressive with my cuts. Ramirez is a guy that I think I'm going to regret cutting bait on though, as I never expected this type of power from him (I know, it's less than 50 G, but his exit velo is 92.4 on 126 BIP). Ramirez had 3 more hits, including his 9th double of the season, in the 13-5 drubbing of the Tigers on Monday, extending his hitting streak to 7 games. He came into the game hitting 323/348/565 in June, and with a BABIP of only .283 for the season despite a low FB rate and low pull%, he's probably being hurt a little by batted ball luck even with that line. He's gone right back to being the extremely aggressive hitter that makes decent contact that he was in 2019 with the Marlins, but he's hitting the ball so much harder now than he was then that you can see massive potential if he can cut the GB rate a bit more. He's gone from 23% FB in 2019 to 28.6% so far this season, and another 3-5% probably would only help him....if his exit velo is truly 90+, there are massive potential gains to be made here, and he already seems like a useful bat if nothing changes. I think he should be owned in all formats right now, and started in most.
Jorge Soler (OF - KC) - Continuing the Royals "trying something new" theme, Soler was moved up to the #2 slot in the order on Monday. He promptly singled twice, so maybe they're onto something here (I have my doubts). I have two warring thoughts regarding Soler, personally. #1 is that when you look at his 7 year career, the outlier (2019) is the year that we keep expecting. Yes, it's the only year he's been fully healthy, but something like last season (30-HR pace over a full season with a subpar AVG) is much more in the realm of reasonable expectations. #2, though, is that he's been really unfortunate this season. Best exit velo of his career combined with the 2nd worst BABIP and 2nd worst HR/FB rate. Something is wrong about that, and he is likely to improve. How much is the question, especially when they're talking about rethinking the way a FB/pull hitter approaches his ABs (taken verbatim from an interview with manager Mike Matheny). I'm skeptical that it will work the way Matheny is thinking, but it might get him some more fastballs and pitches in the zone, which will help a different way. I do see more reason for optimism here than I did over the weekend to be honest, and I think he's still worth holding in deeper leagues for the time being. Just please don't expect anything like 2019 from him ever again.
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