Jace Peterson continued his solid season last night, reaching base twice against the Red Sox. Peterson came to the Braves as part of the Craig Kimbrel deal and so far it's paying off. His .278 average is well supported by a 22.7% LD rate. Peterson has been a lot more valuable since mid-May when he was moved to the bottom of the order to hitting leadoff. He'll have a number of opportunities to score, but he still has a ways to go before he reaches full potential. I'm intrigued by his improved K rate from last year, and the fact that he's walking 9.8% of the time. Ultimately though, I'd like to see a little more power (2 HR) or a bit more speed (7 SB). He's a low-end option for now, but at only age 25, could certainly become an asset down the road.
Coming into the year, it seemed like the Washington Nationals had one of the best rotations baseball had ever seen. A few injuries and underperformances later, and things have changed to say the very least. Coming into last night, Jordan Zimmerman had a 3.74 ERA, which was aided by an unsustainable 0.35 HR/9. As such, his xFIP of 4.15 and SIERA of 4.27 suggested he was getting a bit fortunate. We saw some of that luck come back down to earth last night as he gave up two home runs to the Rays, though he ended up with a good line of 7 IP, 3 ER and 8 K's. Zimmerman has struggled at various times in his career before, so I'm not ready to write his season off, but I'm very concerned with his low 7.5% swinging strike rate, which is down from 10.5% last year. His fastball decreased 1 MPH to 92.7 MPH, which could be causing the issue. Last year his fastball was 17.5 runs above average, but it's clocking in at breakeven right now. Maybe he picks up some velocity as the season goes along, but it seems like that is what's holding him back. Continue to monitor.
Dee Gordon got off to a blazing start this year, but you can't hit .450 forever. Gordon's average is "down" to .357 coming into last night. Gordon remains an enormous fantasy asset, particularly in non-OBP leagues because he's free swinging and always puts the ball in play. Gordon's LD rate of 25.1% this year is nearly a 4% improvement from 2014, so it's completely reasonable that he maintains a strong average going forward. I think above .330 is more than reasonable, as he's maintained his strong contact rate and cut down on strikeouts. He's been more fortunate this year on IFH (15.0% vs. 12.1% for career), but he's making harder contact, so the improvement is sustainable.
$3,800 Jung Ho Kang has been swinging a hot bat lately. He has a decent matchup against Jeff Samardzija tomorrow, but the Shark has not been the same this season. His strikeout rates are way down, and more importantly for DFS owners, he's been prone to the longball, giving up 1.13 per 9 vs. 0.82 last year in a worse park. At a weak SS position, Kang remains a pretty solid play. He had a home run last night and is hitting in the middle of a very hot Pirates lineup. SS is a tough position to fill in DFS unless you're getting Tulo in Coors, but that's an expensive proposition. Roll with Kang tomorrow if you need the extra cash elsewhere.
It took one swing of the bat for Christian Yelich to continue his hot streak, as he went 1-for-4 with a home run and a walk. Yelich has increased his average every month, from .200, .231, to .273 in June. I'm not sure how sustainable the improvement is, as his BABIP has increased each month, yet his LD% has remained sub-par and his GB rate continues to be absurd (70.8% for the year!). All things considered, there's really no reason that Yelich has started hitting better except for improved luck. With that in mind, it's probably a good time to deal him if you can. He still has a boatload of potential, but it doesn't seem like 2015 will be the year that he puts it all together.
