Evan Gattis, DH, HOU
Gattis homered for the 2nd time in 3 games since returning from the DL, but perhaps more importantly for fantasy owners, he logged his first game as catcher in 2016. As a DH only player, Gattis has little value. He's a strikeout machine, who will hit for some pop, but not really for average. There are other guys around who have the same pop but at least have a chance to also hit for average. As a catcher though, Gattis' power alone is enough to make him worth rostering in nearly all standard leagues. For the majority of leagues that require more than 1 game for a position, keep an eye out on Gattis, as he's likely to see more action behind the plate.
Nathan Karns, SP, SEA
Karns struck out 5 in 5 IP on Thursday, while allowing 1 ER and not walking a batter. He has now struck out at least 5 batters in each of his 8 starts this season, and holds a 3.33 ERA for the year. Even with his impressive strikeout totals (career 9.00 K/9), he'll have a hard time contributing in the ratio categories while his BB/9 remains in the mid-3.00's. On the other hand, with the strikeouts and the pitcher-friendly home park, the ratios shouldn't hurt much either.
Tim Lincecum, SP, LAA
Lincecum has officially signed with the Angels and would seemingly be headed to the rotation considering all of the Angels' injuries. The two-time Cy Young winner has struggled mightily the past few years with declining velocity which has led to reduced strikeouts, and his walks have also been too frequent. Lincecum's return is a nice story but it has nothing to do with my fantasy team.
Carlos Santana, 1B, CLE
Santana smashed two homeruns and drove in 4 against the Reds on Thursday giving him 7 HR's and 21 RBI on the season. In his previous 15 games, he hit .208 with only 3 XBH's. By season's end Santana always manages decent counting stats; he has had between 18 and 27 HR's and 68 to 85 runs and RBI in each of the past 5 years. His BA though tends to hover below .250 which makes him prone to sizeable slumps. This year, Santana has cut back his K% to 13% thus far, (17.8% career K%) so there's hope that there will be some BA improvements, although that hasn't happened to this point as he is still only hitting .237.
Kyle Seager, 3B, SEA
Seager has crushed RH-pitching this year to the tune of a .308/.400/.582 slash line so far in 2016. He should have plenty of chances to produce and drive in runs on Friday against RHP Dan Straily who has a career XFIP of 5.19 against lefties. The game will be played in hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park, where the Reds just allowed 43 runs to the Indians in a 4-game series. Seager meanwhile has a .965 OPS on the road with 6 of his 8 HR's coming away from Seattle.
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