Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros - Keuchel was scratched from his start Saturday with wrist inflammation, but the team is optimistic that he will be able to make his next start. He had been receiving treatment all week for his wrist, but manager Bo Porter didn't want to send the lefty out there at anything less than 100%. Brett Oberholtzer was called up from AAA and allowed just one run over 6.1 innings. Oberholtzer will also start on Thursday in place of Keuchel if he is unable to make his next start out. I pegged Keuchel as a potential sleeper pick after making the Astros rotation out of spring training based on his exceptional ground ball rate, but there is no way I expected his 2014 so far out of the lefty. Keuchel owns a 2.99 FIP with a 65% GB rate, but has ran into a slight rough patch in his last few outings allowing eight runs over his last 13 innings but should still be a solid option for owners over the rest of the season.
Zach Putman, Chicago White Sox - Putnam picked up his first career save Saturday allowing one run in 1.1 innings on three hits. This comes one day after Ronald Belosario was removed from the ninth inning role by manager Robin Ventura. While the outing wasn't the cleanest of saves, he was still able to lock down the save and should be first or second on the list of closing options for Chicago. He has a 3.39 FIP over 31.1 innings with 25 strikeouts. Jace Petricka (who earned the save Friday)and his 3.58 FIP will also be in the mix for saves, with Javy Guerra being third in the pecking order for the ninth inning role. I personally like Putnam more than Petricka as Putnam has both a higher K/9 and lower BB/9 than Petricka this season.
Phil Hughes, Minnesota Twins - Hughes' overall stat line looked pretty rough Saturday, but his 1.92 FIP on the day shows that he was just a dominant as he has been all season. He allowed five runs over 7.2 innings and posted a 6:1 K:BB ratio. After a tough year last year with the Yankees, Hughes is in the middle of an incredible rebound season in 2014. He owns an 8-4 record and Saturday's effort lowered his FIP to 2.59. His FIP is nearly two runs lower than his 2010 season where he won 18 games for the Yankees, which makes you wonder how many games he could win if he were on a better team this year. He gets his former team in his next start that he beat in his only appearance against them in 2014, going 8.0 innings with just three hits and two runs allowed.
David Freese, Los Angeles Angels - Freese drove in 1/6th of the total runs he had going into Saturday, moving his total to 21 on the season. Freese overall this season has just been bad as he is triple slashing .238/.312/.301 this year with two homers to go along with his 21 RBI. Freese did miss a large chunk of time mid-way through May with a fractured finger but he wasn't exactly ripping the cover off the ball before going down either. However, Freese might be a decent pickup for this week as he has a three game set with the White Sox followed by four with the Astros, not exactly the stiffest of competition. If you're desperate he may be able to help you out, but you'd still be better off finding another solution if your third base position has stooped this low.
Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays - Bautista is eyeing a Tuesday return to the lineup after he has missed the week with a hamstring injury. He was able to do some running drills Saturday and it looks like with an off day Monday that he could very possibly be back in the lineup Tuesday. Bautista is having an excellent season triple slashing .305/.433/.526 with 15 homers and 49 runs driven in. He is over two thirds of the way towards his 2013 RBI total and is over halfway towards his 2013 home run total. His wOBA is an outstanding .418 helped largely in part with the fact he is walking more than he is striking out this season. All this combined has Bautista as one of the most valuable players in fantasy in 2014.
Josh Sperry - @jsperry1991
This is just a small sample our our daily analysis! For more, join our member area: http://www.fantistics.com/join/join.php3
