Carlos Carrasco, Cleveland Indians - Carrasco dominated the Tigers Saturday with a complete game shutout for his third win of the season. He allowed just five baserunners on four hits and a walk and struck out seven which is the second most he's had in a game the season. If you look at Carrasco's Fangraphs page and are worried about his FIP being almost two runs higher than his ERA, don't be. He's currently being plagued by a HR/FB% that's nearly double his career rate and that's what is causing his FIP to skyrocket. His ERA should be on the move up a bit though shortly as he's currently stranding baserunners at a 91.3% clip which isn't sustainable at all. But if some more runners score normally and the homers come down, we end up where we are right about now and that's a very solid #2 option in fantasy rotations.
Francisco Lindor, Cleveland Indians - Want to guess how many shortstops this season have double digit homers and steals at this point in the season? One. And it's not the shortstop most people picked in the middle of the first round in Carlos Correa, but rather it's Francisco Lindor. Lindor has outperformed everyone's offensive projections since debuting last season as he now owns a career 125wRC+ along with his platinum glove worthy defense. Lindor's batted ball stats are exactly the same as they were last year and his counting stats when it comes to homers and steals are slightly ahead of what they were last year.
Brett Lawrie, Chicago White Sox - Lawrie had a rare game Saturday with back-to-back at bats where he had an inside the park homer followed by a regular homerun. The "pair" of "bombs" gives him 10 on the season gives him four straight seasons with double digit homers but it looks like he's done stealing bases like he did in the minors and his first two seasons with the Blue Jays. He's currently on pace for eight steals on the year and he stole 20 bases in what amounted to just over 162 games with Toronto. He's striking out at a 10% higher rate than which is helping contribute to his .237 average this season which holds him back from being a solid second base option.
Kevin Gausman, Baltimore Orioles - Gausman, like most right handed pitchers, dominated the Rays Saturday with seven shutout innings. He struck out seven with no walks while allowing just four hits to win his first game of the season. He's posting solid numbers across the board in terms of K/9, BB/9, strand rate, and GB% rate it's just hasn't looked good for his ERA with it sitting now at 3.93 after this start. His FIP is just slightly higher at 4.20, so the good news is that he's pitching about how his stats reflect he should be. All his swinging stats are identical as what they have been for his career as this is really showing that Gausman is who he is at this point in his career, a solid but unspectacular option on the mound.
AJ Griffin, Texas Rangers - Griffin pitched decently again the Red Sox but couldn't make it through five and left the game allowing four hits and two runs while punching out six players. This was Griffin's first start since May 7th as he was coming off the DL with a shoulder stiffness issue. In his first six starts he had a 2.94 ERA with a 3.49 FIP with a respectable K/9 at 7.49. His BB/9 could use some help though as he was walking over three and a half batters per nine but a one walk performance against the Red Sox will help bring that numbers back down. Griffin could make for a nice start next time out as he's had a quality start in all but one of his starts (throwing out the 2.2 IP game where he got hurt) besides one and that was only because he pitched just 5.0 innings.
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