Alex Bregman (3B) HOU - Alex Bregman got the call on Monday and was immediately inserted into the lineup at 3B, batting sixth against Michael Pineda and the Yankees. He had a rough opener, striking out twice in an 0-4 performance (although narrowly missing a grand slam to the opposite field in the 6th), but good times should be ahead for the 22 year old. Bregman's ISO has increased at every minor league level (culminating at .308 in 18 G at AAA), and he's shown excellent contact ability as well. The Astros have been working him out in 3B and LF recently, and I'd expect him to play a little of both with Luis Valbuena getting a bunch of 1B duty. The interesting part will come of Yulieski Gurriel gets called up, because then you start to have too many cooks for the kitchen, but that's an issue for another day. Bregman should be snapped up immediately in all formats, as he has the ability to offer production in all 5 categories at (now) multiple positions. Just for the curious, he hit over .300 with 20 HR and 7 SB in 80 games between AA and AAA with more walks than strikeouts thus far in 2016.
Michael Pineda (SP) NYY - 7 IP and 1 ER against the Astros on Monday makes Pineda 4/6 and 6/9 recently in quality starts, but I'm sure the unsightly 5.00 ERA (post-outing) is still scaring some folks away. I remain stubbornly optimistic, as the SIERA of 3.30 and xFIP ERA of 3.24 (pre-outing on both counts) both point to not only improvement, but massive positive regression going forward. Pineda leads the league (and is 5th in MLB) in swinging strike%, and he certainly didn't go backwards Monday with 19 more in 103 pitches. He is just plain filthy most of the time, but the bad ones are really, really, bad to paraphrase the old Longfellow poem. He should do much better down the stretch, and I'd happily acquire him and take the risk in any format.
Aaron Sanchez (SP) TOR - Sanchez had his 6th QS in 7 outings Monday, shutting out the Padres over 7 innings to move to 11-1 on the year. The biggest improvement here has been the control, as he's only walked 16 men (2.2 per 9) over 66 2/3 innings since June 1st, a marked decrease for a guy that walked 4.5 per 9 last year and 3.1 in April and May of 2016. The GB rate remains elite, the K rate continues to improve, and while he's had enough good luck to post an ERA 0.50-0.75 runs below his FIP ERA and SIERA, there's still a very good pitcher developing here. The concern for the remainder of 2016 is that he's an inning or so away from a career high right now, so there's a chance that the Jays will start limiting his innings in August and September. For that reason and that reason alone, he's worth shopping in redraft leagues before the deadline just to see what you might be able to get. I do expect Sanchez to be a solid SP3-SP4 going forward.
Hector Santiago (SP) LAA - Santiago won for the 5th straight start, although this one was uglier than most of the others (5 1/3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 K). There's still a lot to fear here, as although the K rate is very solid, the xFIP ERA is still over 5.00 during this hot streak, and his hard contact rate has been above 37% in each of the past three months. I can't imagine he can keep this level of performance up, although I would consider streaming him against lefty-heavy lineups (235/328/350 vs LHB).
Melky Cabrera (OF) CWS - Cabrera walked twice and doubled Monday, giving him a 10-game hitting streak and a 303/350/464 line on the year. Cabrera has hit .327 since June 1st, and even though he turns 32 in two weeks, the skill set (aside from the speed) doesn't appear to have atrophied at all. He strikes me as a very underrated bat at present, as he has performed to an OF3 level to this point yet is still unowned in a fair number of formats.
