Yolmer Sanchez, Chicago White Sox - Yolmer Sanchez continued his excellent two week stretch he's been on with a 2-for-5 performance Saturday, walking once and scoring twice. Entering Tuesday he was hitting .395/.500/.579 over the last 14 days, which is interesting as his minor league numbers really don't show him having elite batting skills at really any point in his career. His batted ball numbers look really similar to his season last year where he slashed .208/..236/.357, but that was also in part to a very low BABIP number at .257. I don't think Sanchez is here to stay, but he makes for a nice guy in deep league who could be dealing with one of the billion injuries this year and you can ride out the hot streak while it lasts.
Xander Boagerts, Boston Red Sox - Xander Boagerts went 0-for-4 Saturday with a pair of strikeouts and while he's hitting .320 this season he still has yet to homer for the first time this year. While he likely at this point isn't going to develop the power it was thought that he might get while in the minors, after extrapolating his numbers out through the rest of the season he's on pace for zero homers. Looking into his batted ball profile though makes it's really obvious to while he hasn't seen the power number we would assume from him: It's really hard to hit homers if the ball isn't in the air. Xander has a career his 55% GB rate and a 2.5 GB/FB ratio for the season when the numbers for each typically sit at 46% and 1.45 respectively. He's not pulling the ball as much as he did last season, so anyone expecting another 21 homer season is out of luck barring one of the greatest power runs in a while.
Anthony Alford, Toronto Blue Jays - In what was an extremely surprising move for me as frankly I didn't anticipate him being anywhere on the Blue Jays radar in terms of a call up was Anthony Alford. Alford is a super toolsy outfielder that has 141 plate appearances above A-Ball but his .325/..411/.455 triple slash and solid BB:K numbers must have had them thinking he was ready. He's off to a slow start though going 0-for-2 in his first start before being lifted for a pinch hitter later in the game and he went hitless in his 1 AB Saturday. If Alford can put it all together he has a power speed combo that can rival some of the better players in fantasy (think 15 HR/30 steal), but even five years into his professional career he's still described as raw by scouts and there's still some work all around to do.
David Price, Boston Red Sox - David Price reportedly will make one more rehab start in the minors before being activated from the DL with his elbow injury he suffered in the spring. Price threw the other day in a minor league game but was tagged for three runs in the second and left after throwing 65 pitches. His next start he's supposed to crank it up to around 90 pitches so assuming everything goes well he's going to be activated after that start. IF for some reason he's out there on your waiver wire be sure to scoop him up now because even in his "down year" last season he still won 17 games but the 3.99 ERA was very unexpected from him. Batters had the highest pull rate against him in a while and when "half" your starts come at a place where pop ups to RF leave the yard, it makes sense that you're going to struggle in that situation.
Dallas Keuchel, Houston Astros - Dallas Keuchel was placed on the 10 day DL Saturday with a pinched nerve in his neck but the team is already saying it's nothing serious and he's only supposed to miss one start. Keuchel is looking like Cy-chel (feel free to boo) again this year as he's currently 7-0 with a sub 2.00 ERA after falling hard back to earth last season following his Cy Young Award win in 2015. Keuchel is generating even more ground balls and even more soft contact than he ever did in his 2015 season, and since we have seen him do it for a full year I'm inclined to say he can keep this up. Obviously the 7-0 mark won't stay perfect forever but he's on a great team so the wins will be there.
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Bill Guappone
May 20, 17 at 11:56 PM
Have been a member for years and love your service but had some doubts about some of the projections for the rest of the way. Harper 17 HR vs Josh Harrison's 15 ! Semien with 32 SB ! Also interested that the VAM puts McCutchen as the 48th overall hitter and Encarnacion as the 96th even though the projected stats for the rest of the year are almost identical. Any thoughts to clarify?