Jose Abreu (1B - HOU) - Abreu doubled and homered to help the Astros come back and win a 12-11 slugfest on Monday, giving him a 10-game on-base streak. I apologize for doubting the power of the calendar! After 2 months of a .530 OPS, Abreu hit 292/311/510 in June, and has been getting hotter with the weather just like always. He is 36, and the peripherals do seem to be deteriorating enough that one day the calendar alone won't save him, but it looks like today is not that day. I still see him on the wire in a few formats, and that just shouldn't be with as hot as he's been.
Bryan Woo (SP - SEA) - After a very rough debut at Texas, Woo had rattled off 4 solid starts in a row coming into Monday, where he managed his first QS with a 6 IP, 2 ER performance where he allowed just 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7. Woo once again generated a CSW of over 30% while relying heavily on his fastball, and while he does allow some hard contact the combination of solid control and a well above average swinging strike rate makes it palatable. The biggest issue here is that the Mariners are already discussing when they have to shut he and Bryce Miller down for the season. Miller is a much more minor concern, as he's on the IL now with a blister and is probably still 70 innings or so away from a potential cap. Woo, though, is much, much closer. He's already above last year's innings total by 10-15...it's very possible that Monday's outing could be his last for Seattle for quite some time. I wouldn't panic though, and the reason for that is George Kirby. The same stories surfaced last year regarding Kirby, who pitched 10 more innings in 2021 than Woo did last season. The Mariners didn't pitch Kirby for almost 3 weeks around the ASB, but aside from a few abbreviated outings down the stretch they used him almost normally the remainder of the year. Kirby finished with 130 innings, logging 5 starts apiece in August and September (plus 1 in October). If we use that as a guide, Woo probably has 40-50 innings left before any "cap" might be applied. I think it's likely that he won't pitch again for a few weeks right now, similarly to how they treated Kirby. 10 more starts or so probably is a reasonable expectation. I don't go through all this so you'll run out and sell Woo everywhere, but understanding that even at his best his value is probably only 60-75% of what you might think is important. I'm likely holding in redraft leagues, but if someone wants to pay full price for him I would advise taking it.
Anthony Volpe (SS - NYY) - Volpe singled and homered on Monday against the O's, and he's now hit in 8 straight and reached base in 13 straight. It's very easy to be skeptical of stories like the now-infamous "chicken parm dinner", but the fact remains that Volpe is 21-55 with 5 2B, a 3B, and 2 HR since that dinner with his family and Austin Wells. He's hitting .382 with a .452 OBP over those 17 games, and while there remains much more swing and miss than we expected from his minor league time, he's been an impact player these last three weeks. The biggest question, for me, is why a minor league catcher is having more success with hitters than the hitting coach at the big league level. Maybe he can fix Josh Donaldson too? I was close to cutting Volpe in a "no-bench" league that I'm in a few weeks ago.....actually had it queued up and opted to cut KeBryan Hayes instead. Suffice it to say that is not under consideration at this point.
Michael Harris II (OF - ATL) - Harris hit two solo homers in the 4-2 win over the Guardians on Monday, giving him 9 to go along with 10 steals in just 62 games so far this year. Normally that would be a very exciting thing to hear about a 22 year OF in one of the best offenses in baseball, but somehow Harris is still disappointing. With improvements in chase rate, contact ability, exit velocity (both avg and max), and launch angle, I feel like Harris has actually made some further strides toward stardom this season. If general perception has moved the other way, I'd urge any in dynasty formats to take the plunge. As crazy as it sounds, this could still represent a "buy low" point in the landscape of his entire career. His season-long numbers are still a bit skewed from an ice-cold April/May, but the June line of 372/388/617 with 5 HR and 4 SB should be enough to excite us all.
Cristian Javier (SP - HOU) - That mild concern from a few weeks back is definitely a bit more enhanced now, as after a rough June where Javier posted a 5.79 ERA with barely over 4 K/9, he was slammed on Monday afternoon by the Rangers to the tune of 8 runs on 9 hits in just 4 1/3. The velocity remains down, the SS rate has obviously followed suit, and he still allows a decent amount of hard contact for a guy with a FB rate of over 50%. I still think that you're probably starting him this weekend against Seattle at home, as he has an ERA almost 1.20 better at home in his career than he does on the road and the M's are a bottom-10 offense over the past week and a bottom-half offense year to date. There's no denying that the bloom is off of the rose here though....whatever magic he had to maintain the BABIP and HR/FB that he did over the past few years seems to have worn off. What's left is a streaming candidate at best, with a 50/50 split between YES and NO starts as far as I can see for the rest of July (SEA, @LAA, @OAK, TB). A good lesson here (that I sometimes fail to remember myself) is that things are rarely as good as they look at their best, and rarely as bad as they look at their worst. This is close to the worst I would imagine.....Javier has been quite overrated, but he shouldn't be expected to be awful moving forward. You're just going to have to be choosy with his outings I expect.
This is just a small sample our daily analysis, join our member area for tools that will help you win your fantasy championship. Click here for details: http://www.insiderbaseball.com/baseballsample.htm Click here to register: http://www.fantistics.com/salesbaseball.php3
