Gerardo Parra
Parra went 1-for-4 Monday, bringing his slash line down to .279/.287/.424 for 2016. Parra started the season hot, but has slowed down in recent weeks. Parra is just two for his last 25, with seven strikeouts and no walks in his last seven games, which has, not coincidentally, come at the same time the Rockies have gone on a road trip. This season Parra is slashing .338/.355/.554 at home (aka Coors Field) compared to .235/.235/.337 on the road. This makes Parra a solid platoon option, as you can count on stud results when the Rockies are home and just leave him on the bench when they are on the road. The long-term prognostication for Parra isn't great, given that he has 27 strikeouts to just two walks in 2016 and the batted ball profile doesn't do him any favors. Parra's line drive rate (14.7 percent) ground ball rate (61.8 percent) and hard hit ball rate (26.2 percent) are all very poor, and it's really only the Coors Effect is making Parra worth the roster spot. If you need an OF platoon he's a good guy because his splits are so easy to read, though.
Marcel Ozuna
Ozuna is a guy we liked a lot before the season here at Fantistics, and although it took him a little while to get going, man has he ever got going. Ozuna is now slashing .321/.364/.576 with nine bombs and 51 RuBIns in 2016. And that's after starting the year .218/.282/.372 in his first 21 games. Even though I started by saying this was a guy we were high on, it actually might not be a bad idea to cash this chip in right now if you either hung around with him all season, or were quick enough to pick him up during this hot streak. Ozuna has shown a little worse of a batting eye in 2016, as his swinging strike rate (13.4 percent) and rate of swinging at balls outside the zone (36.3 percent) are both higher than last year. One thing we've seen about Ozuna is his young career is he is exceptionally streaky. This could all come grinding to a halt sooner than later, and then you'll get nothing for him. Think about cashing this chip in if you have him. It's always hard to pull the trigger on a guy riding high, but sometimes it's the best decision.
Jung Ho Kang
Kang returned to the field after a couple days off, going 0-for-1 in a pinch-hit appearance in the Pirates win over the Rockies. Kang had some discomfort in his right hand which caused him to miss Sunday's game and come off the bench Monday. Kang is still working his way back into full gear, so the days off were expected anyway. The 0-for-1 was also a loud out, with a deep fly showing Kang with no signs of rust. Kang is one of the elite power outlets at the shortstop position, and he has been hitting the ball well in his follow-up act to a strong rookie season. In a limited sample, his hard hit ball rate is 51.6 percent and he is hitting fly balls over 60 percent of the time. That's a recipe for dingers, so it's no surprise that he already has five long balls in just 45 plate appearances. That rate will be tough to keep up, but his average looks like it could creep up as his batted ball profile evens out a bit. His BABIP is .185 right now, so something like the .287 BA he posted last year is well within reason.
Odubel Herrera
Herrera went 3-for-4 with an RBI on Monday, but the headline will be that he was pulled from the game because he failed to hustle out a ground ball. I'm not here to comment on that abhorrent silliness of pulling a .335 hitter for not running out a routine grounder, but oh wait I just did. Don't expect this to have any fantasy impact on Herrera other than to maybe tick him off a bit, and light a bit of a fire. Not that a guy slashing .335/.445/.456 really needs much of a fire lit, but hey who knows? As for the sustainability of that impressive slash line, much has been made of the extreme jump in Herrera's walk rate, but the area that concerns most fantasy players is the .335 batting average. Right now Herrera is sporting a .395 BABIP that's obviously going to be tough to maintain. Herrera does have a nice - but not elite - 22.1 percent line drive rate and plus speed, but that's pretty clearly going to drop. However, I could see Herrera sliding into the .290 BA range, and his power is legitimate 15-20 home run range. A player like that is nothing worth sneezing at, and definitely shouldn't be cut when his eventual BA cool-down comes.
Daily Fantasy Leagues
Jeff Samardzija
Sharknado is back is full swing this season, and Samardzija ($11,700) is worth the big bucks on Tuesday. The 6' 5" righty is sporting a 2.66 ERA this season, with a 2.78 FIP and 3.33 xFIP. Those numbers looks a lot more like the Samardzija of 2014 than 2015, and so does his ground ball rate. After dropping from 50.2 percent to 39.0 percent from 2014 to 2015, Samardzija's ground ball rate is back up to 48.6 percent in 2016. Throughout his career, the ground ball rate has been a pretty good barometer of Samardzija's success. Tuesday's opponent, the Padres, hit into ground balls at a slightly higher than league-average rate, but more importantly, they just aren't that good on offense. In fact, they are terrible. They own the 29th ranked offense, per wRC+, and have the lowest BA in all of baseball. AT&T has been allowing more runs in 2016 than in usual seasons, but is still suppressing the long ball as well as any park in the league in 2016, so enjoy the match up Tuesday.
DraftKings:$11,700
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