Eury Perez (SP - MIA) - Perez was brilliant again on Sunday against the Orioles, throwing 7 shutout innings and allowing just 3 hits while striking out 6. In his last 3 outings, Perez has gone 18 innings and allowed just 1 run. Perhaps most importantly, he's walked just 1 batter over that stretch against 21 strikeouts. With the control back, the only "wart" here is the sizable flyball rate, something that is muted quite a bit by pitching in Miami. For me, Perez has quickly come back into the "start always" category of SPs. They seem to be keeping him around a loose 90-pitch limit thus far, which may cap his ceiling just a touch, but it isn't enough to sway me at all.
Julio Rodriguez (OF - SEA) - Rodriguez doubled, homered, walked twice, and stole a base on Sunday as he continues to heat up. Sunday was his 6th game in the past 7 with an XBH, and he is close to getting back on pace for another 25/25 season. On the one hand, you've got a hitter that hasn't made any positive progress since coming into the league 3 years ago, showing glaring deficiencies in pitch recognition and contact ability. On the other hand, the tools are still very impressive (although both the power and speed are more "very good" than elite), and the Statcast data shows that he's been pretty unlucky since the beginning of last season. In the end, there aren't many guys that can disappoint and put up 20/20 seasons, which should tell you everything you need to know. He remains a player that has a ceiling rivalled by few, and as far as I can tell we've been seeing what the floor is. He's frustrating to be sure, but age is still very much on his side. He's a great higher-risk acquisition target at anything up to a slightly reduced price from last spring's, when he was arguably in the running for the #1 draft choice.
Jeffrey Springs (SP - ATH) - Springs tossed another QS on Sunday, allowing 3 runs on a pair of homers to the Jays over 6 2/3 innings, fanning 5 without walking a man. The season-long stats don't tell the whole story here, as over the past 8 starts (49 IP) he's walking fewer than 2 men per 9, and he's doing a reasonable job avoiding hard contact and an average job missing bats. He has QS in 9 of his last 12 and he's allowed more than 3 ER once in 14 since starts since May 1. He may not be quite as impressive as he was back in 2022, but despite that difficult home park he's emerged as a relatively reliable back-end starter over the past few months.
Cristopher Sanchez (SP - PHI) - Sanchez tossed another QS on Sunday in San Diego, going 7 1/3 innings and allowing 1 run on 6 hits, walking 3 and striking out 6 to finish the first half at 8-2. I firmly believe that Sanchez is on the cusp of being a #1 starter in 12-team leagues. He moved into 6th in xFIP today, and the extra velo that he has picked up has bumped the swinging strike rate into well above average territory. The GB rate is elite, and the control is still very good even after regressing a bit this year. In Sanchez and Ranger Suarez, the Phillies have two of the more underappreciated SPs in baseball right now.
Carson Kelly (C - CUB) - Kelly was 2-4 with a double on Sunday against the Yanks, and he's 19-48 (.396) with 7 doubles and 3 homers over the last 3 weeks as he heats back up after a rather cold May and early June. For the season he's hitting 276/376/523 and has been a top-5 catcher offensively, on track for career bests in just about every meaningful category. It's definitely been a bit out of nowhere, as he wasn't productive at all the past three seasons, but he's clearly showing plus contact and power. More and better contact coming from the weakest position on the #2 run-scoring offense in baseball.....Kelly needs to be started in all formats despite a little bit less playing time than many of the "true" #1 catchers.
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