Jake Peavy (SP-CHW): The White Sox have scratched Jake Peavy from today's start, his 2nd consecutive start missed due to back spasms. The club had hoped Peavy's back would respond to treatment, but it looks increasingly likely that Peavy will be placed on the 15-day DL, perhaps even as early as this afternoon. This is a tough break for Peavy owners, as he has been absolutely fantastic so far with a 3-1 record to go along with a 3.38 ERA/2.76 x FIP backed up by an elite 39:6 K:BB ratio in 32 innings. Peavy's groundball rate was also on the rise, eclipsing the 40% mark for the first time since 2010 thanks in large part to a new emphasis on the 2-seam fastball. The good news is that this isn't an arm injury, and perhaps a DL-stint is best so the righty can deliver for fantasy owners as the season progresses. Stash him in all formats. Hector Santiago, who has been extremely effective as a starter, will fill in for Peavy in the meantime.
Jon Lester (SP-BOS): Jon Lester rebounded with a quality start last night against the Rangers. The lefty allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks in 6 quality innings with 7 strikeouts in the no-decision. After allowing only 4 walks and 0 homers in his first 26 innings, Lester has dished out 11 free passes and served up 4 homers in his last 17 2/3 innings, issues which plagued him all of last season. Lester has been known to lose his release point and to fall into bad mechanical habits. However, unlike last year, Jon Lester has John Farrell in his corner to ensure those issues will be short lived, and we witnessed that yesterday as Lester battled through the problems. While the control and homer situations are worth monitoring, I'd continue to roll with him as a quality #3 starter in mixed leagues.
Yu Darvish (SP-TEX): Yu Darvish tossed 7 strong innings, allowing 3 earned runs on 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 14 in the no-decision. The only two blemishes on his line were due to homers from David Ortiz and David Ross.
Darvish now sports an incredible 72:15 K:BB ratio in 45 2/3 innings and has only allowed 13 runs on 27 hits. His ERA of 2.56 and his xFIP of 1.96 suggest this start is anything but a fluke, and impressively, Darvish's groundball rate has climbed from 46.2% to 53.4% while his line drive rate has dropped from 22.2% to 13.6%. His stuff has just been filthy, and his swinging strike rate of 16.7% leads the majors. Besides Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw, there currently may not be a better fantasy option. The only potential red flag sits with the 127 pitches he threw yesterday.
Josh Donaldson (3B-OAK): Josh Donaldson hit the go-ahead home run, his 3rd of the year, to propel the A's to victory over the Yankees. Donaldson now boasts a .302/.383/.491 triple slash line with 22 RBI, 17 runs, and a 16:19 BB:K ratio. While his .340 BABIP could lead to some AVG regression, I see many positive indicators that Donaldson is for real in 2013: compared to last season, his swinging strike % is down by 3.9%, his chase rate is down by 7.9%, and his contact rate is up by 6.7%. This upward trend began in the 2nd half last season, where he posted an .844 OPS after tweaking his approach in triple-A. As he continues to hit higher in the lineup, look for him to maintain the overall gains and counting stat production. I'm buying.
Melky Cabrera (OF-TOR): Melky Cabrera hit his 1st homer of the year in a 3 for 4, 2 RBI day at the plate. Hitting second in the lineup, the Melk Man has pushed his season line to .252/.294/.325. While a welcomed sight, this was, however, against the struggling Joe Saunders. Through 32 games, Cabrera is walking at a career low rate (5.8%) and striking out at career high rate (16.1%) while experiencing the worst power outage of his career (.063 ISO). While his home run to fly ball rate of 3.1% should improve, his BABIP of .295 and 19.8% line drive rate aren't far off from where they stood pre-PED's. Plus, he hasn't had a swinging strike rate this high (6.2%) since his rookie year. I'd say best-case scenario he is only moderately better than his 2010 numbers with the Braves suggest.
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