Brenton Doyle (OF - COL) - Doyle homered again on Thursday, giving him 6 now in August as he continues to drag himself out of his slump that lasted all the way until late June. If you just looked at the underlying stats, you'd think that Doyle was having a better year than 2024: he's making more contact (74.3% vs. 73%), and the contact is better (EV 90.3 vs. 89.1). The fair conclusion here, in my mind, is this: Doyle was rather overvalued this spring, he's been quite unlucky this seasons (xAVG/SLG of 258/442 vs. actual of 241/385), and the disappearance of half of his SBs has crushed his value overall. Still, he's been a 318/352/537 player at home for the season (before today's 2-3, HR performance), and that's plenty useful. Like most Colorado players, the problem lies with the road games, where he's hit 159/220/222. Even during this nearly two-month hot streak, he's 11-47 (.234, with a .294 OBP) with 2 XBH (both HR) and 1 SB in 15 G on the road. That's unhelpful in any format, and this is when he's been hot. If you can afford the roster spot to use him only when he's at home, I think he is a perfectly fine OF option, but it's a unique roster set-up that can afford to keep a cipher for 50% of the time.
Bryce Turang (2B - MIL) - Turang hit his 8th homer of the month on Thursday, and he's now hitting 366/408/789 in August with 15 R and 20 RBI. The power surge has curtailed his running a bit, as he only has 2 steals for the month, and he's traded a few walks for K's as well. This definitely seems like a conscious decision, as the GB rate is down 8% and the pull rate is up 10% since the ASB, and the tradeoff of 200 points of slugging for almost 50% fewer SBA is one I am happy to take. The exit velocity is up over 3.5 mph on the year as well, which isn't all that unusual at age 25 to be honest....it's just surprising from a player like Turang that had really never shown anything more than moderately below-average power before. We can certainly discuss whether you'd rather have a 10/50 player or a 20/25 player: his sprint speed is still almost in the 90th percentile, so it's more of a lack of desire to steal than an inability. This version of Turang is differently valuable, but still a top-5 player at the position in my opinion. Even though it's unexpected, the change feels legitimate to me.
Dylan Cease (SP - SD) - The rich man's version of Mackenzie Gore, Cease managed a win on Thursday despite allowing 4 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks over 5 innings, striking out 7. His line a lot better before he allowed back-to-back HRs to start the 6th, but he is still so inefficient. More and more, I'm gravitating toward "no walks first" being my strategy with starting pitching. Obviously it's all important, but I'd rather have a pitcher that is average at bat-missing with above-average control than vice-versa. I've never been able to buy in to Dylan Cease being anything better than a top-15 SP at his best because of that, although the giant strides he made in control last year had him pushing at the top of that valuation. He's given most of that back this season, so despite a career-best swinging strike rate (2nd to Skubal!) he simply isn't reliable enough to justify his typical valuation. At 29 and with just about 1000 MLB innings under his belt, we know who he is right now: a solid SP3 or a lower-end SP2. Any control improvements are magnified with a player like this, but I'm not going to guess that they're going to show up.....remember this come spring. That K number and the supporting metrics will likely push his value up too high once again.
Dylan Beavers (OF - BAL) - Beavers homered and walked in his Camden debut on Thursday, and the 24 year old continued his trend of reaching base in all 5 of his games as an Oriole. You'd be forgiven for thinking that Beavers is a low contact/high power slugger from looking at his AAA numbers, but in reality Beavers has excellent plate discipline and solid contact ability. He relies on a very low GB rate to generate his solid HR totals the past few seasons, but in reality he is more of an average raw power guy. He does have good speed, so there's the potential for a 5-category player here for Baltimore. There are so many players that deserve playing time in Baltimore, but it does appear that Beavers is going to be playing every day down the stretch, and as such he merits a pickup in just about every format with his skill set. For 2026, I'm going to want to see what moves the O's make over the winter, but I expect that he will be a top-50 OF in the 2026 preseason if he continues to acquit himself well down the stretch this season.
Roman Anthony (OF - BOS) - Anthony walked, singled, and homered against the Yankees on Thursday, giving him his 4th multi-hit game in the past 5. He's now hitting 286/405/448 through 59 games with Boston, and there's reason to think that we haven't seen anywhere near the best of what he has to offer. The power looks extremely advanced for a 21 year old, but the launch angle is preventing him from getting to very much of it in games thus far. GB rates over 50% are almost universally bad for hitters, and certainly for those with exit velocities in the range of Anthony. He's also shown better contact ability than I was expecting, to go along with the excellent plate discipline that I absolutely knew was there. Sure, there's only average speed, but you're not picking this kid up for SBs (although he should get you close to double digits anyway). He hasn't looked overmatched at all, and he could easily be a top-20 OF as early as....well, now. Huge ceiling here.
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