Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers - Miguel Cabrera was placed on the 10 day DL today with a groin strain as his disappointing 2017 continues to get more disappointing. The Tigers recalled 1B John Hicks from AAA and he got the start at 1B Saturday going 2-for-5 at the dish. It's uncertain how bad the groin strain is for Miggy, but we may see the 10 day DL do some favors as the shortened DL time may have made the decision easier rather than having him try to play through it after a few days off. Some options to replace Miggy (ESPN Ownership in parentheses) for the mean time are Mitch Moreland ( .323 AVG, 11 2B, 39.%), Logan Morrison (4 homers, .278 AVG 14.0% ownership) and in extremely deep leagues take a look at Yonder Alonso ( 3HR, .295 AVG, 3.4%)
Jharel Cotton, Oakland A's - Jharel Cotton notched his second win of 2017 with six innings of two run ball against the Mariners. He allowed six hits and two walks, while striking out just two in the game. Cotton has never been a big strikeout guy but the walks are a bit concerning this season as his K-BB% is only 5.6% after it being in the 18% territory last season. Part of the increase in walks can be seen in his plate discipline numbers as batter are chasing far fewer pitches out of the zone, and when they do chase they are making higher contact on those pitches. His changeup has also dropped off dramatically with the usage dropping by over 10% and his pitch value on Fangraphs has also dropped from 3.8 runs above average to 0.3.
Jose Altuve, Houston Astros - Jose Altuve hit his first homer of the season Saturday and also swiped his 7th bag of the year. The power finally showing up for Altuve has to make owners happy as the main reason he was looked at in the #2 overall spot in drafts was they were hoping to pencil him in for a 20/30 season with a .315+ batting average. Altuve is striking out a ton (for his standards) this season which is really odd considering the most he's struck out in his professional career was a 40 game stretch in rookie ball where he struck out 17% of the time. The good news is that Altuve isn't reaching for more pitches, but rather he's swinging at 10% less at pitches that are IN the zone and he's making contact on fewer of those swings.
Andrelton Simmons, Los Angeles Angels - Andrelton Simmons launched his third homer of the year, a grand slam, in the Angels win Saturday. Simmons is having a career year at the plate posting a 136 wRC+ and for the first time in his career he's actually walking a fair amount. His hard contact rate has jumped to 34% after a 23.4% rate last season. Simmons has always had terrific bat to ball skills having never struck out over 10.4% in a full season there's always been a chance of a mild breakout season.
Jordan Montgomery, New York Yankees - $6,600 vs Pirates Jordan Montgomery is coming off the first quality start of his career after fanning seven in his major league debut. He's got the Pirates on deck Sunday and with the Starling Marte news that dropped earlier this week the Pirates team doesn't look nearly as threatening, and that's before you look at the fact they have a 71 wRC+ against southpaws. Their 23% K% against lefties is also good or the fourth worst in all of baseball, so at $6,600 Montgomery makes for a nice potential low cost high upside Fanduel play.
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