Chase Burns, SP (CIN)
Nearly a year after the Reds selected him with the second pick in the MLB Draft, Burns made his major league debut, showing off his insane fastball/slider combination. He couldn't start out much better than striking out the first five batters he faced, including getting Aaron Judge to whiff at a 91-mph slider off the outside corner. He had seven strikeouts through three innings before ultimately running into trouble in the 4th, allowing a leadoff homer to Ben Rice and three more hits. Burns' final line does not indicate just how dominant he appeared: 5 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 8 K. He's really only a two-pitch pitcher right now, but those two pitches are phenomenal: a 100-mph 4-seam fastball and a wipeout slider that generated a 38% CSW-rate on Tuesday. Burns had a 89/13 K/BB rate in 66 innings at the minor league level. His long-term success may depend on his ability to develop a deeper arsenal, but there is immediate value based on extraordinary strikeout upside and a low walk rate. Go ahead and put in the claim if you can.
Riley Greene, OF (DET)
Greene is smoking hot right now. The 24-year-old outfielder was 4-for-5 on Tuesday and has 10 hits in his past four games. He raised his batting average to .299 with 17 home runs and 61 RBI's. Greene has a .395 BABIP, which will likely regress over time, but his batted ball profile does lend itself to a high BABIP due to his wide-ranging spray chart, hard contact and high ground ball and line drive rates. Greene doesn't hit the ball in the air a ton for a middle-of-the-order bat, but his 19% barrel rate ranks among the top sluggers in all of baseball. There are a bunch of breakout players on the surging Detroit Tigers, but Greene stands out among the best of them.
Frankie Montas, SP (NYM)
Montas delivered for the Mets in his long-awaited season debut. The veteran right-hander missed the first three months of the season due to a lat strain. After struggling through six minor-league rehab starts, Montas looked just fine in his first major league start for the Mets. He held the Braves scoreless for five innings while striking out five. He walked three and gave up three hits. He was sitting mostly around 96 miles per hour on his fastball, maxing out at 97.8-mph. His heater's CSW rate was an impressive 44 percent. He did give up hard contact but should benefit from the pitcher-friendly environment of Citi Field. It's been three years since Montas was a fantasy-relevant pitcher so take this first start with a grain of salt, but it is an encouraging start to his redemption hopes.
Taj Bradley, SP (TB)
In what has been an up-and-down season for Bradley, all signs pointed up on Tuesday as the young flame thrower delivered one of his best performances of the season. Bradley held the Royals scoreless for 6.2 innings, allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out four. Bradley has struggled with allowing hard contact, but Kansas City only averaged an 87.7 mile-per-hour average exit velocity. He generated eight whiffs, well-distributed across his four different pitch offerings. This strong performance comes off his worst start of the year when he allowed seven runs (six earned) in 1.1 innings on June 18. The inconsistency makes Bradley impossible to trust. The upside remains very high, but until he finds a way to limit the walks, hard contact and thereby damaging home runs, he cannot be an automatic fantasy start.
Kyle Manzardo, 1B (CLE)
Manzardo started the day on the bench against the left-handed Eric Lauer, but he came in as a pinch hitter in the 7th and then stayed in the game, eventually hitting a home run off Yariel Rodriguez in the 9th. It was his 12th home run of the season but only his second since May 14. Manzardo's power upside is evident in his .229 ISO, but his batting average has languished in the low .200's despite a decent 75.5% contact rate. xBA backs up the low average, but there are reasons, like a .247 BABIP, that signal a better mark in the future. The home runs will be there as long as he gets at-bats, but the young slugger is still figuring it all out at the major league level.
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