AJ Pollock, Arizona Diamondbacks - AJ Pollock launched his second homer of the season Tuesday and has gotten off to a great start to his season in late August triple slashing .286/.359/.457 with a 116 wRC+. If owners (like myself) managed to hang on to Pollock all year stashed on the bench they are reaping benefits of the stash with his hot start. Going into next year he's likely a top three round pick if he continues to show that he's fully healthy as he's a five category star in fantasy baseball. He's been hitting the three spot in the lineup which is going to give him great chances for counting stats over the last month of the season.
Anthony Rendon, Washington Nationals - Anthony Rendon launched his 17th homer of the season, a grand slam, in the Nationals win over the Braves Tuesday. Since his rough month of April Rendon is triple slashing .283/.365/.492 with 17 homers and 68 RBI (he has 69 RBI on the season). He has turned around his season immensely and has developed into the rebound season that we all thought was possible. His hard hit rate has jumped back into the range it was when he 20 homers in 2014 after it dropped to 32% in 2015 when he battled injury. If he continues the pace he's on, he's going to post numbers right in the ballpark of 2014 when he was a 6.5 win player according to Fangraphs.
Tony Watson, Pittsburgh Pirates - Tony Watson was absolutely shelled Tuesday allowing three homers and four runs in 2/3 IP while taking the loss. Since moving into the closers role his K/9 has dropped by almost a K/9 but his ERA has been lower in that span as well (not counting Tuesday's stats). He's had his ups and down at the closer spot but for the most part he's been a solid option for teams sense the deadline and should continue to do so as long as the Pirates can get him opportunities.
Jung Ho Kang, Pittsburgh Pirates - In Jung Ho Kang's second game off the DL he launched a pair of homers giving him 16 for the season. He's going to have limited playing time at third base with David Freese and figuring out which will play when may be a bit of a crapshoot with both batters being right handed. Kang does have some nice reverse splits against righties and Freese crushes lefties, so maybe that's how the playing time will end up shaking down. If that is the case, Kang will at least end up on the better end of the L/R playing time split.
Jason Hammel, Chicago Cubs - Jason Hammel got crushed by the Brewers for eight runs on 13 hits in 5.2 innings as he took his 8th loss of the season. This makes two really bad starts in his last three, which is not good for a guy who's been really consistent fantasy wise this season. Before this recent stretch he was in the middle of a streak where he had five quality starts in seven starts. This looks like just a blip on the map, but make sure you watch the matchups since we're now in playoff season and one of these could throw off an entire season.
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