Billy Hamilton, Chicago White Sox - So Billy Hamilton has a .203 ISO. That's actually a thing that's happening in 2021. He doubled on Tuesday and advanced to third on the throw home, and then scored after the ball kicked away from the catcher. Hamilton has a pair of homers this year, three doubles, and three triples on 15 base hits. In normal Hamilton fashion, he's also swiped five bags on the year. His playing time is pretty sporadic right now, but he's not the complete fantasy zero that he's been in most seasons.
Tyler Glasnow, Tampa Bay Rays - Tyler Glasnow struck out eight batters over seven innings against the Yankees Tuesday. Glasnow generated a 35% whiff rate, but his CSW was a pedestrian 30% for the outing as he didn't have a ton of called strikes. He's still featuring his slider as his #2 offering over his curveball, and it generated an absolutely absurd 78% whiff rate in the start. His fastball didn't miss nearly as many bats though with just four whiffs on 27 pitches. He should get one more start this week against the Rangers on Sunday.
James Karinchak, Cleveland Indians - James Karinchack allowed two runs in the ninth against the White Sox but held on to secure the win for Cleveland. Karinchak is in a tough spot right now as he's allowed run in five of his last six appearances, and three of those outings were multi-run efforts. He's still one of the elite strikeout arms in all of baseball with 43 punchouts in 24 innings, but he's been getting barreled at a decent rate. An area where Karinchak could use some improvement is his lack of getting batters to chase, which could also help with his walk rate. He generated an absurd amount of whiffs, but everything comes on pitches in the zone. If he can get batters to expand more, there's no telling where the ceiling is.
Robbie Ray, Toronto Blue Jays - Robbie Ray struck out nine batters over six innings to pick up the win over Miami. Ray sat exclusively fastball/slider in this outing, continuing his pitch mix change that started in the middle of May where he's basically tossed his curveball and changeup in the garbage. Since that switch, he's allowed six runs over 17.2 innings, and four of those runs came in a start against the Yankees last time out. In this same span he also has 20 strikeouts, so relying on just two pitches hasn't allowed batters to focus in and make more contact.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr, Toronto Blue Jays - Lourdes Gurriel Jr went 3-4 at the plate with his fifth homer of the season. Gurriel had a strong month in May with a .260 average, but a mediocre slugging percentage led to a sub-par .667 OPS. His slugging percentage has steadily grown over the back half of the month going from a .309 mark on May 16th to the current.392 he's at now. While his hard-hit rate in April was pretty even across the board, his hard-hit rate against breaking pitches dropped to 5%. Getting that back in line will be huge for Gurriel going forward.
