Matt Shoemaker (SP-Angels)
Matt Shoemaker has been a revelation for the Angels ball club this season. While he will miss his next start with an oblique injury it looks like he will be ready for the playoffs. Shoemaker has burst onto the scene this year with a 16-4 record averaging more than a K/inning and sporting a 10% swinging strike rate. His good pitching is supported by an excellent 3.04 ERA that is very much in line with his 3.28 xFIP. While Shoemaker is not a power pitcher he is still able to miss bats with a very strong split fingered fastball and a good slider. The good news for Angel's fans is that he has the arsenal to continue to be effective. With Garrett Richards, he forms a very nice young nucleus of pitchers for the Angels next year.
Jon Singleton (1B-Houston)
Jon Singleton is now batting eighth in the Astro's lineup and he has earned it. In 348 plate appearances this season, Singleton is batting an unseemly .172 and has struck out an astounding 126 times. He has not been helped by a very unlucky .241 BABIP but truth be told a 60 or 70 point positive regression would still leave him batting under the Mendoza line. Singleton has demonstrated a reasonable batting eye with a 14.4% walk percentage but when you have a 65% contact rate nothing is going to help. He has produced 14 HR's and driven in 44 so the prodigious power he displayed in the Minors has not completely been lost. The area that is most concerning is a 101.7 mph average bat speed which is below the league average of 103 mph and does not compare very well at all with the 105.4 mph mark of Houston's other young slugger George Springer. With this deficit in bat speed and a lack of contact skills right now his development will be much slower than most of us had hoped.
Nick Castellanos (3B-Detroit)
Nick Castellanos returned to the lineup today after fouling a ball off his foot on Monday. The 22 year old who blasted 18 HR's in Triple AAA in 2013, has not been able to translate that power at the major league level. A first round pick on the 2010 June Amateur Draft, Castellanos has 10 HR's and 61 RBI's in 538 PA's this season. His HR production is disappointing even for a 35.6% FB rate. What is encouraging is his very strong 28% LD% which has helped him smack 36 doubles and triples. Right now he seems like a version of James Loney but he is young and he has the size at 6-4 210 pounds to start to turn those doubles and triples into HR's. He possesses good bat speed and he pulls the ball with regularity so there is hope that he will develop more power as his career develops. I think that 20-25 HR and .285 BA seasons are in his future which will make him a usable asset in fantasy.
Josh Hamilton (OF-Angels)
Josh Hamilton is sitting out tonight's game one day after returning to the lineup from a shoulder injury. This has been a very down season for Hamilton. He started off fast in the first week of the season but was immediately derailed with a thumb injury. Since returning in June, he has been an abysmal performer with a .248 BA, a .386 Slugging %, a .138 ISO, and striking out at a 29% rate. In 348 PA's he has produced only 8 HR. At 33 years old he is now 2 years removed from a good season. While always a streaky hitter, his place discipline has been on a very steady decline. The man was so innately talented that he was able to hit 40+ HR's in 2012 while having only a 63% contact rate. The 63% contact rate remains but everything else has disappeared including his fabled power.
Dellin Betances (RP-Yankees)
Dellin Betances produced his usual stat line striking out 2 batters in one inning pitched today. On the season, Betances has been especially brilliant striking out more than 13.5 batters per 9 innings with a 1.33 ERA. At 26 years old and standing 6-8 and 260 pounds Betances looks every bit the part of the imposing future closer that he most certainly will be. He sports a high octane 96.7 mph fastball along with a devastating slider that he throws at 82 mph. This kind of speed differential between his two primary pitches is what accounts for a 13.3% swinging strike rate. Whether he eventually assumes the closer role in NY or moves to another team, Betances will be a pitcher to watch for many years to come.
@stevietheshu
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